A firefighter watches as the Grizzly Bear Complex moves past him in September.

The Grizzly Bear fire continues to crackle over 82,569 acres in the Wenaha-Toucannon Wilderness area, but hydrologists, soil scientists and wildlife biologists are already on the ground assessing the damage.

A group of scientists from varying backgrounds is assembled to create a Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team, said Joani Bosworth, public affairs officer for the Umatilla National Forest.

No timber salvage of any kind is done in wilderness areas, but the BAER team does analyze the impacts to the land and looks for areas vulnerable to washout that may silt streams and rivers and endanger fish.

So far, the silting danger is slight, said Jim Archuleta, forest soil scientist for the Umatilla Forest and BAER coordinator.

“We did an erosion analysis and came up with some low numbers based on the topography of the area – the areas that are really steep already don’t have soil on them,” he said.

Joy Archulta, forest hydrologist and team leader for the BAER program on the Grizzly Bear Fire said the trail system within the Wilderness area would be protected.

“We’re doing a lot of storm proofing to prevent damage to the trail system and took out a bridge that got burned over and are looking for money to rebuild that,” she said. “We’re also putting up notices warning people to be careful in burned areas.”

There is little concern about the survival of wildlife at this point, according to USFS wildlife biologist Lizzy Berkley.

“In general, because the fire burned in a mosaic pattern across the landscape, that’s usually really good for most wildlife species,” she said. “Sometimes these fires are pretty good (for wildlife) if they do an under burn or even high-intensity burn; they can be good for forage the following year.”

Even in areas where timber was reduced to snags, some wildlife will benefit.

“Snags are actually very, very good for species like woodpeckers,” Berkley said.

The spread of noxious or invasive weeds is always a concern after a fire, but for now the Forest Service has decided herbicide treatments to control those weeds is all they will do. There will be no reseeding this fall and no over sowing with wheat grass is done on wilderness land.

“Any seeding that we would do in the wilderness would be native seeding,” said Bosworth.

There may be opportunities for timber salvage in burned areas outside the wilderness area, Bosworth said.

“We are currently looking at our opportunities for salvage on areas outside the Wilderness and taking public comment on dangerous-tree removal along roads,” she said. “We have several people timber cruising to see what other areas we might harvest.”