"Bring back the green" could become the slogan for Mesa Verde National Park as crews work to rejuvenate the charred landscape and strive to draw tourists and their dollars back to the area.

Officials announced that the fire was fully contained as of 6 p.m. Saturday after firefighters completed the last leg of a 34-mile fire line around the dwindling blaze.

Fire crews continued to work throughout the weekend and into Monday extinguishing hot spots and preparing the park for its re-opening.

Don Cosby, a fire information officer, said that a Type III Incident Command Team composed of between 167 and 255 personnel has been stationed at Morefield Campground in order to wrap up the fire.

Will Morris, spokesperson for Mesa Verde National Park, said Monday that plans are for the park to be open to the public as of 6 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 4. Morris added that admission into the park for the first two weeks following the re-opening will be free to all visitors.

Tours of major sites within the park, which cost $1.25 per person, will also resume. Morris said that the Morefield Campground and the Far View Lodge will be closed for the time being but will be re-opening as soon as possible.

On Monday, Cosby said that there is still a good amount of work to be done before the park can open back up.

"Guardrails need to be replaced for safety, some road damage needs to be repaired and some of the vegetation that was cut during the fire needs to be moved," Cosby said.

The information officer said that the estimated control date for the fire is Aug. 6.

The fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike on July 20, devoured 19,709 acres of national-park land, 2,920 acres of Ute Mountain Ute land, 487 acres of BLM land and 491 privately owned acres.

More than 23,600 acres was scorched in all. The cost of the fire was estimated at $5,331,285 as of Monday.

On Sunday morning, a Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation Team from the Department of Interior began assessing the effects of the fire.

The BAER team will be working along with the Bureau of Land Management and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to minimize the effects of the fire on the land — especially those repercussions caused by heavy rainfall.

"The team is mainly looking at assessing areas that have a high erosion potential in a rainfall," Cosby said. "They will look to see what the best type of vegetation would be to get re-planted at some point."

Cosby said that the park would most likely look to plant annual seeds that have the potential to come back fairly quickly. "I think in a national-park situation you have to stick close to the native species," Cosby added.

Cosby said that because the fire occurred on such steep slopes and took most of the vegetation off of those slopes, there is a good chance for erosive action.

"I was talking with one of the BAER team members and he said that 40 percent of the burned area can be considered to have extreme erosion potential," said Cosby.

Cosby said some techniques for reducing erosion include laying down rows of straw to help catch debris as it comes down the slope as well as cutting vegetation, such as oak and Douglas fir, and laying it across the top of the mesa.

"But the rules may be different in a national park. I’m not sure what level of activity they can participate in," said Cosby.

Cortez City Manager Hal Shepherd said that on Friday the city of Cortez, Montezuma County, the Umbrella Tourism Council and Mesa Verde National Park requested $245,000 from Gov. Bill Owens to be used for advertising for the park.

"When the park opens in the next week or two we want to advertise regionally and nationally that we are open for business," said Shepherd.

Shepherd said the only way to do that is through media exposure.

"I am going to recommend some type of TV ad in the Phoenix, Salt Lake, Denver, Albuquerque medium and maybe a USA Today, New York Times and Washington Post type ad," he said.

The city manager said, "This is an unusual situation and difficult times call for difficult decisions.

"The fire got national exposure saying ‘major fire, park closed.’ Now we need to show that the main attractions — Cliff Palace and Balcony House — were not affected by the fire at all and the park back is open and we welcome (visitors) to the Four Corners area," he said.