Office of the Governor
For Immediate Release: Saturday, September 14, 2002
For More Information: Bob Mercer, 773-5706, Or Ray Sowers, 773-4206

Rehab Crews Complete Contour Felling On Grizzly Gulch Fire

(Pierre) – There were three crews back on the Grizzly Gulch Fire last week. But they weren’t fire crews. This time, they were there to help head off the potential disaster of a major mudslide.

The 60 workers in less than a week completed a project to help stabilize the slopes in the major draws that burned earlier this summer. Gov. Bill Janklow on Saturday praised the efforts to quickly get the protection in place.

"It took far less time to get the actual work done than it did to get the federal clearance to do the work. While we were waiting on the feds, Deadwood was hit twice with landslides. One of them shut down the community. There’s no excuse for that. We were lucky that no lives were lost. This process has to be changed so the public is protected. It makes no sense to put out a fire and then leave people in danger from a landslide," Janklow said.

The South Dakota Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry hired the crews to conduct contour tree falling above Spruce Gulch, Hospital Gulch, Whistler Gulch, Pecks Gulch, Deadwood Gulch, and Grizzly Gulch. Contour tree falling is a practice aimed at slowing down the flow of water over the severely burned slopes of the gulches. This should help reduce the potential of mudslides and debris movement during heavy, short-duration rains like the ones that triggered two slides this summer.

The three crews were able to complete contour tree falling on about 350 acres of private lands in less than a week. About 60 people spread out across the gulches to get it done. The work cost about $150,000. "With Mother Nature there can never be guarantees, but this provides a lot more assurance," Janklow said.

The Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry will be seeding grass on some of the severely burned slopes later in the month. Once established, the grass will also help slow water movement. The contour tree falling and grass seeding are two of the practices recommended by the Natural Resources Conservation Service under the Emergency Watershed Program.

"The city and county are still working on projects to minimize flooding damage that may occur if an extremely hard rain falls on the fire site. However, the work we have done on the slopes above the town will make a tremendous difference," State Forester Ray Sowers said. "There is still a lot of work to do this year and next year. But the most critical watershed protection work, the contour felling, is done and I believe it is working as planned to slow erosion and sedimentation from the most critical areas."

-- 30 --