The BLM implements long-term rehabilitation measures to repair land damaged by wildfire that is unlikely to recover naturally according to BLM Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation standards in the DOI Interagency Burned Area Response Guidebook (DOI 2006b) and BLM Burned Area Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Handbook (BLM 2007b). The BLM will implement rehabilitation measures for reasons such as preventing impacts to crucial fisheries habitat from erosion and sediment, preventing mass wasting onto private property, preventing the invasion of noxious weeds, and restoring a municipal watershed. Each FMU in the Northern Zone FMP has stated general objectives for stabilization and rehabilitation (BLM 2004a).

Emergency stabilization and burned-area rehabilitation are part of a holistic approach to addressing post wildland fire issues, which also includes repairing damage from suppression activities and long-term (more than 3 years) restoration. The incident management team begins the process by repairing damage from suppression activities. Emergency stabilization refers to Burned Area Emergency Response Team planned actions implemented within 1 year of wildfire containment to stabilize and prevent unacceptable degradation to natural and cultural resources; to minimize threats to life or property resulting from the effects of a fire; or to repair/replace/construct physical improvements necessary to prevent degradation of land or resources. Burned-area rehabilitation refers to efforts undertaken within 3 years of wildfire containment to repair or improve fire-damaged lands unlikely to recover naturally to management-approved conditions, or to repair or replace minor facilities damaged by fire. The process concludes with long-term restoration.

From 1993 through 2009, wildfires burned 164,717 acres in the Planning Area. Of the burned acres, treatments, as stabilization or rehabilitation, include 9,726 acres of seeding, 331 acres of sagebrush seedling plantings, 182 acres of mechanical manipulation, and 19,131 acres of chemical application to decrease noxious and invasive weed distribution and density (BLM 2009b; Neighbors 2010). At present, despite chemical and seeding treatment, 57,000 acres of wildfire-burned areas have invasive, exotic cheatgrass present, some to the extent that native vegetation is extirpated (BLM 2009b).