RED LODGE — In an effort to restore the natural beauty of Mount Maurice after a devastating 2021 wildfire, a coordinated seeding project was underway last week, utilizing a specialized aircraft to disperse sagebrush seeds across the landscape.
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At the Red Lodge Airport on Friday, a plane was buzzing through the skies on a mission that has become an important part of the fire recovery process. This is not your typical plane, but an aircraft helping restore the land to its original beauty by distributing sagebrush seeds over burn areas from the Robertson Draw fire. The fire, which ignited in June 2021, scorched nearly 30,000 acres of land, including sagebrush that once covered Mount Maurice.
“We were very fortunate that it didn't cross over and come into Red Lodge or burn more homes than it did," said Bo Ewald, an airport board member. "Largest fire in Carbon County history that I could detect."
Now nearly four years later, life is being returned to the area. Efforts to repopulate the area began last year at the Special K Ranch in Columbus. Residents at the ranch planted seedlings in a partnership with the Bureau of Land Management.
Last week, an aerial seeding crew from Sterling, Colo., was contracted by the BLM to restore one-third, or about 8,000 acres, of the land burned by the fire, which is managed by the BLM.
“We're hauling about 600 pounds going out of sagebrush seed, and we're putting out 2.5 pounds to the acre," explained Cody Nichols, the project's pilot. “The BLM gives us shape files, so we have just maps that we follow, and so all of it's just computerized."
The reseeding process took nearly a week to complete, with weather delays, and ended on Friday with their final sagebrush seed dispersal. Each trip took almost an hour with 30 total loads of seed that were taken out.
“They fill (the plane) up with seed and make like eight or 10 runs a day on days when it's not snowing," said Ewald.
Normally, Nichols and his crew spray croplands and fight fires in the summer, but this off-season work can still be dangerous with the snow and terrain changes.
"The snow is not easy flying-wise. It's really blinding," said Nichols. “It's rugged terrain out there, so we're really going up and down those hills, and we're doing about a 500-foot difference from the top to the bottom of the run that we're on, and there's a lot of terrain in between.”
The crew remains committed to the work and knows the outcome will be welcomed by the community.
“The community here in Red Lodge has been awesome. I mean, open arms to everything that we're doing," said Nichols. "They just see me flying back and forth and making a bunch of noise, but I get a lot of thumbs up and a lot of waves."
Ewald is also proud to have the airport assist with the restoration efforts, particularly as they once played a crucial role in fighting the fire.
“This is a community airport, and so we're glad to have it be able to be the base for helping improve go back to the original landscape here before the fire," said Ewald. “We had a base of about 10 firefighting helicopters here, as well as communications and fuel and all the rest of that, and so this is now kind of full circle."
As spring approaches and snow begins to melt, the seeds that have been dropped will begin to take root and germinate, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the mountain and Red Lodge.
“We live in a beautiful place and we would like it to look natural and native, and so this is a big step toward returning it to its original state," said Ewald.
