page_title: Beaver Creek Fire
section_title: Plants
hierarchical_section_title: Beaver Creek Fire / Negative impacts of fire on the environment / Plants
caption_attribution_description: English: It shows the appearance of the Mountain pine beetle
context_page_description: The Beaver Creek Fire was a forest fire that began on August 7, 2013 after a lightning strike in an area twelve miles northeast of Fairfield, Idaho and northwest of Hailey, Idaho in Sawtooth National Forest. The fire burned through pine trees, sagebrush, timber in the understory, grass, and various riparian areas. The fire coated the resort areas of Hailey, Ketchum, and Sun Valley, in a layer of thick soot and ash. By the time the fire was fully contained on August 31, 114,900 acres of the Ketchum Ranger District of Sawtooth National Forest has been burned. Of the 114,900 acres burned, 57,000 acres were moderately damaged and 9,500 acres were severely damaged.
context_section_description: Fire can have negative effects such as presenting the opportunity for noxious and invasive plants to take over. Invasive plants can compete with native plants for water and soil causing the death of the native plants. The death of native plants leads to a loss of habitat and less food for native animals causing their populations to shrink. Invasive plants can affect the growth and spread rate of wildfires based on the invasive plant's moisture content, location, and type of fuel. An example of an invasive species in the area of the Beaver Creek Fire is cheat grass, Bromus tectorum. Cheat grass sprouts before Idaho's native plants, thus taking growth area away from native plants and habitat away from native animals. Cheat grass affects fires in the area because it grows in a continuous bed of grass, unlike the local grasses that grow in patches, which can be burned through more rapidly than native grass causing faster moving fires.
caption: Mountain Pine Beetle
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