Firefighters were hampered Thursday by warmer weather and rugged terrain in their efforts to contain the state’s largest wildfire, as the region’s top forest official granted an initial request for funding that clears the way for recovery work on part of the massive blaze.
Teams were using aerial reconnaissance flights and satellite images to create a map showing the severity of the burn throughout the southern half of the Las Conchas Fire. Meanwhile, hydrologists and soil scientists were trying to estimate how much sediment might be moved if rain hits the burn scar.
“We have some areas, of course, that it burned a lot worse than others. That one area where we had 40,000 acres go within a day is obviously a critical area, especially since there were homes that were lost in that area, too,” said Bruce Hill, a spokesman for the Santa Fe National Forest.
The Las Conchas Fire has charred more than 233 square miles, or nearly 150,000 acres, since being sparked June 26 by a tree falling on a power line. More than five dozen homes were destroyed early on as the fire raced through the Cochiti Mesa and Peralta Canyon areas.
The blaze was 57 percent contained Thursday, but fire officials said crews were having a difficult time since many of the areas actively burning within the perimeter were on steep, broken ground.
Firefighters were forced to conduct burnouts and mop up as the flames reached gentler slopes.
The increased fire activity was expected to last through the weekend since warmer temperatures, less humidity and gusty winds were predicted.
The burned area covers massive portions of the Jemez Mountains. In some places, whole mountainsides have been replaced by blackened sticks that were once towering ponderosa trees.
Teams have been working on flood mitigation and recovery plans, but environmentalists and some property owners have voiced concerned about the vulnerability of the charred soil.
Members of WildEarth Guardians, the Sierra Club, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and other groups sent a letter to Santa Fe Forest supervisor Maria Garcia this week, urging that she consider issuing an indefinite emergency closure order to motorized recreational vehicles and cross-country travel within the fire’s perimeter.
The groups also want the forest to issue a final decision on its travel management plan as soon as possible, given the resources that will be directed toward recovery of the burned area in the coming months.
“We are concerned that the fire area must be treated with the utmost care in the period immediately following,” the groups said. “In particular watersheds are highly vulnerable post-fire as are wildlife populations. Unmaintained roads and trails can exacerbate the problems, especially if they are used under the current conditions.”
This marks just the latest plea for curbing the use of off-road vehicles in the Jemez Mountains.
In 2009, environmentalists and some landowners petitioned the U.S. Forest Service to close nearly 70 miles of motorized routes in the area.
Much of the Santa Fe National Forest has been closed this summer due to fire danger and will remain so until conditions improve. That means everything from hiking and biking to off-road vehicles are already prohibited in the forest, including in the burned area, Hill said.
Violators could face a citation of up to 6 months in jail or a $5,000 fine, he said.
The recovery teams working on the southern end of the fire expect to have their initial assessments and recommendations for stabilizing the area completed before Monday. Initial reports for the northern end are expected Sunday.
At Santa Clara Pueblo on the northeastern flank of the fire, 3,000 feet of concrete barriers have been installed in preparation for flooding from the summer monsoon rains. Some 30,000 sandbags have been filled and placed, and the pueblo was asking for volunteers to help fill more sandbags through Saturday.
Fire officials said more than 10 miles of hazard trees were marked and felled on the road up through Santa Clara Canyon.
Similar work was being done at Bandelier National Monument, which remains closed to the public indefinitely. Park officials say more than 60 percent of the monument, which is home to hundreds of archaeological sites, was burned by the Las Conchas Fire.
