RESTORING FOREST RETARDANT COULD POSE WILDLIFE THREAT.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - The acrid scent of smoke still heavy in the air, a reconnaissance team scoured Bouquet Canyon on Thursday planning the painstaking rehabilitation of a small piece of paradise.

Charred plant life reached out like blackened skeletons from the steep mountainsides as scientists took inventory of the job ahead - preventing landslides and flooding and cleaning hot pink fire retardant from the fragile Bouquet Creek and the winding narrow road that follows it.

The job is a daunting one.

With heavy black smoke churning into the skies as flames devoured nearly 5,000 acres of parched chaparral last weekend, helicopters mistakenly dropped at least one load - and possibly three - of pink fire retardant into the creek, said Cid Morgan, district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service's Santa Clara Mojave River District.

``We had an objective to keep retardant out of the creek,'' Morgan said. ``That creek is a model habitat for several threatened and endangered species. Now we have a hazardous materials team deciding how to clean that out.''

Of equal concern is the retardant spilled on Bouquet Canyon Road, a winding path that provides a popular alternate commuter route between the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys.

``They've got to clean it off the road,'' Morgan said. ``When it gets wet, its very slippery.''

It's the small meandering creek that gives Bouquet its beauty. A natural creek, fed in this drought year by an upstream man-made reservoir, the gurgling waterway and the rustle of the cottonwoods that wallow in it offer sounds of the great outdoors just minutes from Santa Clarita's subdivisions.

Forest Service campgrounds sit aside the creek, home to at least two rare birds, the least Bell's vireo and the southwest willow flycatcher, Morgan said. The habitat is prime for the endangered California red-legged frog, and another endangered species, the three-spined unarmored stickleback fish, has been spotted downstream.

Whether any of these creatures will suffer from the effects of the fire - or the firefighting - is anyone's guess, said Pat Boss, a Forest Service spokesman.

``There's always a concern when there's retardant in the area,'' Boss said. ``Any time you have something around that affects endangered species you have to move quickly. Whether it did harm any wildlife, we don't know.''

The Forest Service, with backup from several firefighting agencies, spent $2.5 million dousing the blaze, which ignited Saturday and, whipped by high winds, continued burning until Monday night.

Now begins the cleanup.

Los Angeles County Public Works crews have been patrolling the road, cleaning the rocks and debris cascading from the now barren mountain walls. Utility crews are repairing the scorched power and telephone lines.

And soon bulldozers will blaze shelves into the inclines to slow the flow of rock and water, reducing the chances of dangerous rock slides and flooding, Boss said.

``They build a little shelf to slow water from rain so it doesn't destroy the road,'' he said. Two campgrounds remain closed in Bouquet Canyon - Streamside and Zuni. Picnic tables and other basic facilities were unscathed in the fire, but it burned to their borders leaving ash and the heavy smell of smoke.

``I don't think it would be a very good atmosphere for camping right now, except for they'd definitely be safe from fire,'' Boss joked.

The aftermath of the fire didn't keep a film crew away, Morgan said. Cameras rolled Wednesday night under a previously issued permit for an Arnold Schwarzenegger film tentatively titled ``York Square,'' Morgan said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in SAC edition only) Southern California Edison crews work on damaged power lines in the aftermath of the Bouquet Canyon fire. The blaze, which broke out Saturday, devoured nearly 5,000 acres.

(2 -- color in SAC edition only) Charred brush and grass line the banks of Bouquet Canyon Creek in the Angeles National Forest. Now the cleanup begins.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer