MEDORA (AP) - Ranchers opposed to a two-year state project to clear juniper trees for bighorn sheep lambing grounds found themselves fighting a fire that reignited in the area a week after a controlled burn.

"This time of year, March and early April, sleep is precious to a rancher since we're out calving heifers at all hours," Ted Tescher said. "We don't have time to fight fires in the middle of the night - only if we have to - and we came up here to put someone else's mess out.

"There were a lot of unhappy people out there that night," Tescher said.

The fire reignited on March 13, about a week after the controlled burn on state land. It burned about 2 acres before volunteers put it out.

Rancher John Hild, the assistant chief for the Billings County Rural Fire Department, saw the blaze work its way up a mile-long butte west of Medora. Hild said the source of the fire was most likely a stump left smoldering from the earlier tree burning.

About 12 people, including representatives of the rural fire department and the sheriff's department, fought the fire. Hild remembered returning home around 2:30 a.m., after it was mopped up.

"If the wind would have picked it up, it could have burned for days. The canyon nearby is full of cedars," said Tescher's brother, Doug.

Scott Peterson, a North Dakota Game and Fish Department official who was in charge of the site during the controlled burn, said it was a documented lambing ground for a bighorn sheep herd.

"It is where they go annually and was chosen by the sheep," Peterson said. "They like an area with good visibility and escape cover. Early in their life stage, they are vulnerable to predators and knowing what we do about lambing habitat, we cut down the juniper trees to provide them better visibility."

Peterson said he got permission from the North Dakota State Land Department, which owns the land, for the burn, and notified authorities and neighboring landowners.

Mike Brand, the director of surface management for the state Land Department, said he got a call after the fire reignited.

"As I understand it, the Game and Fish Department took every precaution and reported it to us right away, but things happen," Brand said. "They were glad to provide any information immediately and took responsibility for it."

Tescher said he talked to Game and Fish Department Deputy Director Roger Rostvet, who told ranchers to send the department a bill for their time and resources.

"We agreed that the department would pay him and others for their time. It was an inconvenience for them," Rostvet said. "When we do control burns, we do them in the spring of the year and it is amazing that in early March it would lay that long and smolder."

Peterson said his crew was denied vehicle access through Tescher's land to get to the burn site, which complicated the situation.