by Ricardo Small
On the 1st of March 2021, a team of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Altar Valley Conservation Alliance personnel and volunteers planted native seedlings in an area that experienced a human caused wildfire three years ago in 2018 on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR). Morgan Walter and Geoff Bland, leaders of the Burned Area Recovery Project with the USFWS and Altar Valley Conservation Alliance, organized the group with the help of Reta Rutledge, vice president of the Friends of BANWR. This was the fourth planting in the same burned area. The previous three were in October, November and December of 2020.
Geoff Bland points to the ideal spot for water hose placement by one of the planted seedlings. 
Morgan Walter drove a pickup with a water tank to irrigate the planted seedlings.
The Nighthawk Natives Nursery in Tucson grew the plants from seeds collected on the Refuge. Geoff Bland drove a pickup loaded with the seedlings to the site. Holes already augured there were ready for planting. The numbers of each species, all valuable for wildlife, were:
- 145 wolf berry, also called Arizona desert thorn
- 31 hackberry
- 57 whitethorn acacia
- 41 four-wing saltbush
- 51 lotebush, aka: graythorn
Reta Rutledge, vice president of the Friends of BANWR, and Geoff Bland with the seedlings. 
Volunteers distributed the seedlings according to a species mix that Geoff Bland instructed.
After placing the seedlings in the holes, the workers put a grow medium (Hydro Crunch Coco Coir Block) around the roots. This medium is 100% natural with high water holding and high air fill porosity. Morgan Walter mixed up the medium with water and Geoff showed everyone the amount to put in each hole.
Morgan Walter mixed the growing medium with water in a wheelbarrow. 
Geoff Bland demonstrated placing the growing medium around the seedlings.
Geoff watered the native plants with a hose attached to the tank that Morgan drove to the site. Previously planted seedlings had a drip irrigation system set up to supplement rain and snow, which is infrequent during our ongoing drought.
A hose delivered water from Morgan’s pickup tank to each planting. 
Geoff Bland watered the seedlings after plantings with a growing medium. 
Drip irrigation system in a previously planted area adjacent to the new one.
This project will accelerate regrowth of a burned area to benefit wildlife on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge for all to enjoy.
Greetings: We are doing research across the US about the naming of wildfires through history. Among our database fires is the Gus Fire at the BANWR in the spring of 2000, which burned 5,700 acres. Can you suggest how that fire got its odd name? Maybe there is a road or a ranch with that name. Maybe it is short for something. We find all sorts of abbreviations in the name game. Thanks.
Michael D. Sublett
Professor Emeritus of Geography
Illinois State University
Campus Box 4400
Normal IL 61790-4400
FAX: 309-438-5310
about.illinoisstate.edu/mdsuble