Fire and Flood Mitigation
This podcast concludes a 3-part series on Moab’s creek corridors. The series includes restoration processes on the creeks, stream water gauge science, and this episode, fire fuels mitigation along Mill and Pack creeks flowing from the west side of the La Sal Mountains. Fire risk is high in creek corridors and other overgrown areas. The dense corridors could spread fire quickly through Moab and Spanish Valley. We talked with Duncan Fuchise, the forest stewardship program manager with the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, as he hopped between work sites along the Mill Creek Corridor one morning in March 2025.
Duncan Fuchise
Duncan Fuchise is the Program Manager for Forest Stewardship for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands. He spent 5 years as the Wildland Urban Interface Coordinator for the Division implementing wildfire fuels reduction projects in and around communities in Southeast Utah. In his free time he enjoys everything there is to do in Moab such as whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, and canyoneering.
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Interview Excerpt - Clearing Out the Fuels
Science Moab caught up with Duncan Fuchise, the Forest Stewardship Program Manager with the Utah Division of Forestry fire and state in March as he hopped between work sites along the Mill Creek corridor. This week was even more intense than most because a team from the National Disaster response organization, Team Rubicon, was in Moab to help in removing and treating hazardous fire fuels in Moabs Creek corridors and to train new sawers for deployment to disasters. More specifically, volunteers cut and chip the overgrown stands of invasive trees, mostly Russian olive and Elm, before local partners conduct herbicide spot treatment to prevent regrowth.
Fuchise: The sites along Mill Creek and adjacent to Matheson wetlands are strategic locations for fuels removals, as they either connect existing fire breaks or lie near important infrastructure. This fuels work along Mill Creek will not only diminish wildfire risk, but also help flood flows.
Science Moab: So what is the standard procedure when you come into a site like this?
Fuchise: We prioritize sites that we work on first, so we’ll do a lot of visits with landowners. I mean, almost everywhere that we work is with private landowners. So, you know, there’s kind of a period of negotiation/convincing the landowner that this work should get done. But after that, it’s figuring out logistics, like what they’re doing right now, being able to get people into sites and get chippers near sites. That’s the biggest part of why we don’t get to some places, and then it’s actually putting people on the ground.
Science Moab: So what we’re looking out now, all the stumps, were all live trees.
Fuchise: Yeah, live trees, and they’re all invasive. So that’s why we want to get rid of them. We will leave some of the invasive trees just for shade cover. It does look very different. The dense thicket that we’ve always seen is not really what it’s supposed to be down here.
Science Moab: How do you prioritize spaces all along these creeks?
Fuchise: We’re getting to places that are easy to get to first. Then we put in fuel breaks along sections of the creek. This was an important section, because we had a big wall of Russian all over there. You can tell it’s about a couple feet higher than where we are. This was during the 2022 floods. The water came up and all the debris got stuck against the wall of Russian Olive. Then it started diverting into those houses. So those houses got water damage because this chunk of Russian olive was here.
Science Moab: What specifically are you doing today at this location?
Fuchise: More of the same. they cleared out all the underbrush and all the smaller trees, and now we’re looking at some of the bigger trees. It’s nice to be able to clear out all the stuff underneath, so you can see what you have and then, and then select the good trees to keep, and the other trees to take down. So today’s going to be doing that here…taking down the bigger trees.
Science Moab: Have you worked with Team Rubicon before?
Fuchise: Yeah, they’ve been in Moab seven different times, and this is my sixth time working with them…all on fire mitigation.
Science Moab: What agencies are involved in this massive effort?
Fuchise: We’ve got Moab Valley Fire Department, Moab City, we’ve got Team Rubicon, Division of Forestry…that’s us…Grand County Weed Department, and then Rim to Rim Restoration.
Science Moab: Before Team Rubicon showed up, what kind of work were you doing along here?
Fuchise: Similar work, at least for the Division of Forestry, fire and state lands, we’ve done a little bit off and on in the creeks. But since Team Rubicon has been coming, we’ve been doing a lot more of this, and we also have gotten more grant money for this in the previous five years. It goes hand in hand…more grant money, more volunteers to get this done. So it’s nice. Right now, we’ve got a six person fuels crew that’s run by John Wiegand, who took over my old job. Then we’ve got a bunch of Utah Conservation Corps crews that’ll be working in the creeks with us as a division, and also with Rim to Rim Restoration. Rim to Rim received that big $5 million CWDG grant, so they’ll be working with the fire department and the city and the county and all these entities to keep doing more of this work.
Science Moab: The funds Duncan refers to were secured in 2024 by a coalition of Moab organizations helmed by Rim to Rim Restoration and the Moab Valley Fire Department. The project was awarded over $5 million which focuses on the Mill Creek corridors and the Matheson wetlands. a national program, the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) helps communities plan for and reduce wildfire risk. The funding derives from a federal award of the US Forest Service Department of Agriculture, and is sub awarded by the Utah Division of Forestry fire and state lands. The funds run from 2024 to 2029 but the project aims to jump start a long term community campaign around reducing fire risk.
