CANYON CREEK — The federal government and a state agency will aerially reseed areas burned by last summer’s New Castle Fire starting next week.

A single air tanker will drop 13,000 pounds of native grass seeds on 445 acres of Bureau of Land Management lands and 249 acres of private lands.

If the weather holds, the flights should be completed in one day, according to the BLM. The New Castle Fire burned about 1,240 acres east of New Castle last June.

“The melting snow should provide a good moisture base for seed germination,” said Carla DeYoung, ecologist for the Glenwood Springs BLM field office, in a prepared statement. “We want to give the native species a chance to get established before invasive, non-natives like cheatgrass can take hold.”

The BLM, the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Habitat Partnership Program are working together on the program.

Ecologists will monitor the burned areas this summer to measure the success of the reseeding effort and to watch for noxious weeds, according to the BLM.

Air operations will be based at the Garfield County Airport in Rifle and area residents might see an increase in small plane traffic between Rifle and Canyon Creek as the reseeding occurs, the BLM said.