HAGERMAN, Idaho -- Firefighters continue to battle the Long Butte Fire near Hagerman.
It has burned over 306,000 acres and was about 70 percent contained by Friday afternoon.
Part of the charred land is the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument.
Over 75 percent of the national monument was destroyed by the fire. That land is mainly sagebrush and grasses.
But in that 4,300 acre area, there are about 600 archaeological dig sites.
It's those dig sites that paleontologists like Phil Gensler are worried about.
"Once the fire and everything burns off, and you start getting precipitation, there's no vegetation to hold back the rains and as soon as the rains come they're going to wash down the slope and cause a lot of erosion problems. So we're going to lose a lot of ground probably this winter," said Gensler.
Gensler says this fire pushed back their progress on the dig several years.
The good news is that the Horse Quarry, a major attraction for the 30,000 visitors each year, escaped the fire.
As for the condition of the 6,000 dig sites, Gensler says they have yet to go and see them because of the fire.
They're going to spend several weeks getting to those sites to survey the damage, but they can't do that until the fire is out.
Because of the fire, the park has been closed since Sunday, and will remain closed until the fire is 100 percent contained.
