A look at some of the land charred by the Ross Moore Lake fire, south of Kamloops. (Photo via BC Wildfire Service)

A note of caution coming from the TNRD director for an area south of Kamloops as the rejuvenation from last year’s Ross Moore Lake fire gets underway.

Area L Director Doug Haughton, a cattle producer in the area, says since the fire was officially declared under control last fall, mitigation work has been taking place to try to revive the land.

He says this includes helicopter seeding about 300 hectares of the burned-out grassland area.

However, Haughton says local ranchers need to be aware of the delicate situation when it comes to pasturing their cattle.

“Even though we’ve got it seeded, they’re going to have to just handle the grasslands differently,” suggested Haughton.  “Maybe one or two years from now, all the work that we did should come to fruition.”

Haughton does say local land owners have been able to harvest and clear the burned timber in the fire zone.

“It didn’t sit and rot, or fall over,” noted Haughton.  “All the neighbors, pretty well, have done a great job on their private lands to get it harvested and get the lands seeded with grass so we don’t have any invasive weeds.”

He does say the recent rains have given the grassland a good start at reviving itself.

“The ground floor was awful dry going into the winter. We never [really] had much moisture in the winter. With a cold spring… this is probably the best moisture we’ve had in 6 or 8 months,” said Haughton.

The Ross Moore Lake fire torched around 114 square kilometers of land south of Kamloops, including wide swaths of grasslands used by ranchers for their herds.

It came within 10 kilometers of Kamloops city limits last summer before being held.