federal teams headed to rim fire to assess damage

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WESTERN_WILDFIRES_YOSEMITE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-07-04-35-54

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Even as firefighters battle a gigantic wildfire in and around Yosemite National Park, environmental scientists are moving in this weekend to begin critical work protecting habitat and waterways before the fall rainy season beings.

Members of the federal Burned Area Emergency Response team will begin hiking the rugged Sierra Nevada terrain before embers cool as they race to identify areas at the highest risk for erosion into streams, the Tuolumne River and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, San Francisco's famously pure water supply.

Now the third largest fire in California history, the inferno that started Aug. 17 when a hunter's illegal fire swept out of control has burned 385 square miles of timber, meadows and sensitive wildlife habitat. It has cost $81 million to fight, and officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars to repair the environmental damage alone.

About 5 square miles of the burned area is in the watershed of the municipal reservoir serving 2.8 million people - the only one in a national park.