Blaze contained near Parachute

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 24, 2008 at 12:20 p.m.
Updated July 24, 2008 at 12:20 p.m.

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Fire crews have contained a blaze that burned 150 acres of pinon, juniper and cheatgrass near Parachute in western Colorado.

"We got it contained about 6 last night," David Boyd, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, said this morning.

Mop-up operations on the blaze, called the Housetop Fire, are now being handled by Mesa County.

No structures burned.

The fire burned several native species of plants as well as the cheatgrass, Boyd noted. Because the cheatgrass is opportunistic it could come to dominate the acreage next year.

So, BLM and other agencies are considering reseeding the area, giving other species a chance to compete with the cheatgrass, which isn't good forage for livestock or wildlife.

"The cheatgrass also just perpetuates the fire cycle. It dries out at the end of May, then lightning strikes and, 'boom,' there goes another fire," Boyd said.

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