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A Community Unites to Heal the Balsamroot Landscape After July 4 Wildfire
On July 4, 2024, fireworks sparked a wildfire in the Wenatchee Foothills near the Balsamroot Trail and the Broadview neighborhood. Firefighters from the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department worked tirelessly through the night, successfully extinguishing the flames within 24 hours. The fire left a 305-acre burn scar, impacting 175 acres of City of Wenatchee land and 130 acres of private property.
As the fire raged, firefighters bulldozed 3.6 miles of secondary suppression lines—about 12 feet wide—on nearby land owned by the Chelan County PUD, the City of Wenatchee, and the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust (CDLT). The bulldozer lines were necessary to contain the fire, thus leaving significant impacts on the land.
In the aftermath, CDLT collaborated with multiple partners to create a comprehensive fire rehabilitation plan. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) played a key role in restoring the bulldozed lines to their original grade and by funding the application of native grass seed to these areas through BFI Native Seed.
Additional efforts focused on restoring the fire-scarred land. The Cascadia Conservation District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife funded seeding efforts across the burned area on City-owned land. This work aims to reestablish native plants vital to the shrub-steppe natural areas.
To help reduce future wildfire risks, the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department, in partnership with Cascadia Conservation District and BFI Native Seed, is managing vegetation between the Balsamroot Trail and the Broadview neighborhood as well as along Horse Lake Road. The goal is to create native short grass buffers around both, to reduce fire intensity and make it easier for fire management next to infrastructure while restoring native plant communities further out. This effort will create a more fire-resilient landscape where nature and the community coexist more safely.