Fire, water and hope: Tucked into the Lincoln National Forest, Bonito Lake battles wildfires for existence

Belinda “Bindy” Bass was driving to Bonito Lake this past Tuesday when she pulled to the side of the road to speak on her cell phone with the Journal.

Bass is parks and recreation director for the City of Alamogordo. She was headed to Bonito to assess the threat posed to the lake by the Blue Front Fire, which started Monday, Oct. 28.

Bonito Lake is high in the Sierra Blanca, about a 15-mile drive northwest of Ruidoso and surrounded by the Lincoln National Forest.

Fire, water and hope: Tucked into the Lincoln National Forest, Bonito Lake battles wildfires for existence

But it is owned by Alamogordo, a 63-mile drive south and west, and managed by the city’s parks and recreation department.

Fires have haunted the lake. In 2012, the Little Bear Fire in the Lincoln National Forest burned 44,330 acres and caused erosion and flooding in the watershed above Bonito.

Sediment, ash and debris cascaded into the lake, strangling the life out of it. Bonito was dead for 12 years.

Drained, dredged, refilled and restocked with rainbow trout, the lake was scheduled to reopen for fishing in mid-May of this year when the Blue 2 Fire started in the White Mountain Wilderness area northwest of Ruidoso.

“New Mexico Game and Fish stocked it on a Wednesday,” Bass said. “We sent out a press release on Thursday saying we were going to open on Saturday. On Friday, we sent out a release saying we are not opening on Saturday. Big fire. Stay away.”

She said the Blue 2 Fire was a punch in the gut.

“It was extreme anxiety,” she said. “We knew (from Little Bear) what was going to happen. We went up to do a whole lot of measures to keep the sediment and debris from getting in our lake as happened in 2012. We were putting in a bunch of sediment basements, we dug a bunch of holes upstream of the lake.”

Bass said the City of Alamogordo, FEMA, NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), a private contractor and others threw everything they had into sparing the restored lake another disaster before it even had a chance to reopen.

They succeeded.

At the end of August, Bonito Lake reopened for fishing only. And then, six days ago, the Blue Front Fire made a menace of itself.

Immersed in nature

On Thursday, the Blue Front Fire had grown to 323 acres and residents of the Bonito Lake area were on ready status, meaning they should be prepared to evacuate if notified to do so.

But Bass was cautiously optimistic that the fire would not force the closure of the lake.

“It’s a grass fire within the Blue 2 burn scar,” she said. “A grass fire is not a forest fire. We don’t anticipate closing Bonito.”

Bonito Lake is a man-made reservoir created to provide Southern Pacific Railroad engines with water. A dam was completed in 1931 and the lake filled by 1933. It forced the dismantling and removal of Bonito City, founded in 1882 as a mining town.

In the 1950s, when diesel locomotives replaced steam engines, the railroad sold the lake to Alamogordo for use as a water source.

Bass, who is trained as a natural resources biologist, became director of Alamogordo Parks and Recreation in spring 2023. She has a long-term plan for making Bonito a more diverse recreation area without sacrificing its natural beauty.

Right now, the lake is open only to fishing from the shoreline and visitors are required to have a state fishing license.

The lake is stocked only with rainbow trout and is patrolled by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

Weather and other conditions permitting, Bonito Lake is open to the public every day of the year from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.

“I tell people if Walmart is open, Bonito Lake is probably open,” Bass said. “As long as the roads are passable and the water is water and not ice, you’re good to go.”

A few years down the line, Bass hopes that the lake area will be open to some kinds of camping. And when launch facilities are in place, nonmotorized boats — canoes, kayaks, row boats, anything you can paddle — will be allowed on the lake. Now, not even fishing boats are permitted on Bonito’s surface.

“If the stars align and we get the funding, in five to 10 years the whole place should be ready to rock ’n’ roll with caretakers, RV camping, small RV camping, van or car camping, tent camping. We want to encourage backpacking.”

She said Bonito Lake is her happy place.

“When we reopen it to campgrounds, I want to make sure we are doing it right,” she said. “I want to make sure we design it to blend as well as possible with nature. Visitors will have the feeling of being immersed in nature.”