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The Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team measures two different elements, soil burn severity and vegetation mortality, to help guide their assessment of emergency risks and imminent threats to critical values, including life and safety, Forest Service property and critical natural resources following a wildfire.

Forest Service BAER assessment teams are established by Forest Supervisors before wildfires are fully contained. The teams coordinate and work with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), National Weather Service (NWS), local counties, State Department of Transportation, and other federal, state, and local agencies to strategically assess potential post-fire impacts to the watersheds burned from wildland fires.

Westfir, Ore., Oct. 5, 2022—A Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team has arrived in Westfir, Ore., to begin their assessment of the Cedar Creek Fire. BAER is an emergency program aimed at managing imminent unacceptable risks to human life and safety, property, and or critical natural and cultural resources from post-wildfire conditions. The fire has covered 120,926 acres to date on the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests.

The Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program is designed to identify and manage potential risks to resources on National Forest System lands and reduce these threats through appropriate emergency measures to protect human life and safety, property, and critical natural or cultural resources. BAER is an emergency program for stabilization work that involves time-critical activities to be completed before the first damaging event to meet program objectives:BAER Objectives: