Although fire crews managed to successfully contain the majority of the Beaver Creek Fire, the devastating effects of the blaze will take much longer to restore.
Fire officials have made tremendous progress controlling the lightning-ignited blaze that has burned 111,408 acres of land near Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley. According to KMVT, the Beaver Creek Fire, which started Aug. 7, stands at 92 percent contained.
However, popular hiking and biking trails have become unfortunate casualties. Additionally, the fire spread into recreation sites in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service's Ketchum Ranger District.
"The fire was intense and it was concentrated in heavily frequented trail corridors," said Jim Keating, executive director of the Blaine County Recreation District, according to MagicValley.com.
According to the Ketchum Ranger District, the fire caused the most damage in Greenhorn Gulch and Deer Creek Drainage. As a result, land managers were forced to close the areas' trails for the foreseeable future. Additionally, recreationists should be prepared for trail closures near Baker Lake, Osberg Ridgeline, Castle, Place, Alden and South Fork Warm Springs.
When a fire moves through a recreation area, it does more than just burn trees. Bridges connecting trails are weakened or completely lost, scorched vegetation weakens the soil and leads to erosion, and burned trees threaten to fall over trails at anytime.
"The trails are vital to the people who live here and to our visitors," he said. "It will take time before they are all open together."
Since the Beaver Creek Fire burned mainly on the west side of Idaho Highway 75, many of the eastern trails are still intact and safe to explore. Starting from Lake Creek south, those include Trail Creek, Corral Creek, Proctor/Bear, Summit Creek, all of the East Fork trails and the Little Wood-area trails.
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