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EL PASO COUNTY, COLO. -- The Burn Area Emergency Response Team has released preliminary findings from its assessment of the Waldo Canyon Burn Area.

The B.A.E.R. Team is made up of about 25 scientists from across the state and country.

The group has spent the past three weeks assessing the burnt soil and vegetation in an effort to determine what the post fire concerns are and how to best manage them.

Monday afternoon the team presented its findings to city officials and other fire experts.

"We have utilized helicopters, and just getting on the ground and taking pictures and digging holes in the black and burned area," Dana Butler, Co-Leader with the B.A.E.R. Team, said.

What they found is not surprising, as Butler said much of the burn area has moderate to high damage, with 20 to 40 percent of the land in need of some type of treatment.

"Some of the treatments that we may recommend are across the entire landscape," Butler said. "They may be from a helicopter, some mulching, or we may recommend some road and trail treatments."

"Our intention is to assist with private landowners conservation needs," Jonas Feinstein said.

Feinstein is with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

He said post fire treatments are vitally important for a number of reasons - number one being to prevent further damage.

"We are trying to return these forests and landscapes to a pre-fire, pre-supression condition that made them more resilient," Feinstein said. "Part of that is now we have communities that are interlaced in that."

The experts said it will be several years before the burn area is returned to what it once was.

In the meantime they are asking people to remain vigilant, and be patient.

"We are not going to be able to stop the big rain events that we are all used to living around here, the monsoon events and things like that," Butler said.

Butler said the U.S. Forest Service is also going to keep several areas and trails closed until they feel it is safe for the public to return.

He said the next step for the B.A.E.R. Team is wait for their funding to be approved.