DOI Burned Area Emergency Response Team begins to evaluate post-fire impacts at Grand Canyon National Park

News Release Date: August 22, 2025

Contact: Grand Canyon Office of Communications

A multi-agency Department of the Interior (DOI) Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team is starting work this week to evaluate the impacts of the Dragon Bravo Fire on National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. This course of entails figuring out the values in danger, figuring out any post-fire impacts to these values, and prescribing remedies to mitigate impacts.   

The DOI BAER Team started work on August 21, and can determine imminent threats to life and property, adopted by vital pure and cultural assets. Comprised of specialists from a number of disciplines, the workforce contains hydrologists, botanists, wildlife biologists, recreation specialists, foresters, and cultural useful resource specialists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and US Forest Service.   

“The BAER assessment is the first step towards recovery on the North Rim of Grand Canyon,” mentioned Ed Keable, Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park. “By evaluating risks and identifying treatments now, we are laying the foundation for long-term landscape resilience. This careful, science-based work is essential to ensuring that areas can reopen safely.” 

The workforce is dedicated to a collaborative strategy that honors a legacy of stewardship and useful resource safety. During the Thursday afternoon in-brief, an area Tribal member mirrored, “Throughout history, fire played a big part on these lands [it] is the beginning of something new.” By working intently with Tribes, land administration businesses, and different stakeholders, post-fire restoration actions mirror cultural values, defend assets, and help ecosystem resilience.  

An Inciweb page has been established to offer updates on the DOI BAER workforce’s efforts at Grand Canyon National Park and on BLM Arizona Strip Field Office lands. This web page will embody updates on the workforce’s area work, situations discovered throughout their evaluation, and proposed remedies.  

A concurrent US Forest Service BAER effort can be underway for elements of the Kaibab National Forest affected by the Dragon Bravo Fire. More info on USFS BAER efforts will be discovered on Inciweb.