Bring on the burn: Sangre de Cristo mountain community welcomes protection provided by Forest Service prescribed fire

TAOS PINES RANCH — Smoke from the previous day’s blaze coiled among sparkling yellow aspens as men and women in wildland firefighting gear sipped coffee from insulated cups on Forest Road 5 in the Carson National Forest.

It was a cold weekday earlier this month, the second morning of the La Jara prescribed burn right up against Taos Pines Ranch, a private community of more than 40 mountain residences plus undeveloped lots that border the Carson between Taos and Angel Fire.

Prescribed burns don’t have a good rep in New Mexico. In 2000, a prescribed burn got away and turned into the Cerro Grande Fire, which destroyed the homes of more than 400 families in Los Alamos.

In 2022, the Hermits Peak Fire and the Calf Canyon Fire merged to become the most destructive wildfire in New Mexico history, burning 341,471 acres in San Miguel, Mora and Taos counties and destroying several hundred homes. The Hermits Peak Fire was a Forest Service prescribed burn that escaped, and the Calf Canyon Fire came out of a Forest Service pile burn that rekindled.

But the residents of Taos Pines Ranch welcome the burns. The community is on the National Scenic Byway known as the Enchanted Circle, a 90-mile drive through Taos, Questa, Red River, Eagle Nest, Angel Fire and a Sangre de Cristo Mountains landscape studded with mixed conifer. Enchanted Circle is one of 21 landscapes across the West listed in the national Wildfire Crisis Strategy as being at exceptionally high risk for fire.

That being the case, Taos Pines Ranch residents have been ardent in employing defensive measures and appreciative of preventive methods such as prescribed burns.

“We feel (prescribed burns) are beneficial for forest health and the prevention of catastrophic wildfire,” said Regina “Gina” Bonner, chair of the Taos Pines Ranch Firewise Committee and president of the Cimarron Watershed Alliance, a nonprofit group devoted to the health of the watershed along the Cimarron River. “We are happy the Forest Service has made changes since the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. They had more personnel (at the La Jara burn) than they were required to. Some people were doing the burn and others were on standby.”

Bob Elsinger, who is on the board of the Taos Pines Ranch Homeowners Association, said since he moved into the community in 2012, the Forest Service has done three burns — in 2019, 2021 and the La Jara burn this month. He said he has always been impressed with the Forest Service’s professionalism and attention to detail.

“They are very safe,” he said. “They put firetrucks at houses close to the burns and have a crew there. If the weather turned on them, they stopped the burn. And after burns, they patrol for hot spots.”

About outcomes

Prescribed burns are intended to reduce the amount of combustible material that could burn in a wildfire, restore the health of ecosystems that depend on fire, manage vegetation, restore natural woodlands and create diverse habitats for plants and animals.

They are supposed to be set only when conditions enable fire ma nagers to control the blaze. Since the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, Forest Service standards and precautions have been enhanced.

New requirements include additional considerations for pre-burn checklists; close communication with landowners, elected officials and partners; better use of science modeling and drought monitoring; approval every 24 hours of new ignitions or continued ignitions; additional personnel and equipment within a 30-minute response time; and infrared sensing technology to monitor hot spots not visible to the human eye.

Zachary Behrens, public affairs officer for the Carson National Forest, said the 1,350-acre La Jara burn is the classic Wildfire Crisis Strategy fire and has been successful in consuming fuels on the forest floor.

“It’s not about acres, it’s about outcomes,” he said. “This project is strategically placed and is reducing the threat to communities, like Taos and Taos Pines Ranch; infrastructure like (U.S.) Highway 64 and electrical transmission lines; and natural resources, like the headwaters of the Rio Fernando de Taos.”

Behrens said ignitions for the La Jara burn started Oct. 8 and continued through Oct. 11. He said about 50 firefighters from the Carson and Santa Fe national forests, Taos Pueblo, Taos Ski Vally, the Nature Conservancy and the Latir Volunteer Fire Department from northern Taos County participated.

“Once the fire starts, we are into a long-term monitoring phase until the fire is out,” he said. “That could last months.”

Since Oct. 1, Behrens said the Carson National Forest has treated 4,665 acres with prescribed burns. That includes the La Jara burn, the American Creek burn near Tres Piedras and the Sotano prescribed fire between El Rito and Vallecitos in Rio Arriba County.

The Carson was scheduled to ignite the 510-acre Apache prescribed fire south of U.S. 64 near Angel Fire, which, according to the Forest Service website Wildfire Risk to Communities, has a risk higher than 99% of the communities in the country. But Behrens said that burn was scrapped when weather conditions changed.

“We were unable to get to the Apache unit because it got a lot hotter and then got a lot colder,” he said. “That put it out of prescription. Temperatures can be a factor, but also relative humidity. Wind can be a factor. Cloud cover. The list of what make the conditions go or no go goes on.”

Snow and rain this past weekend put a lot of moisture on the La Jara burn area. Behrens said if conditions dry out, prescribed burns will continue in the Carson this fall.

“But as snow begins to arrive, we’ll pivot to pile burns,” he said.

Doing the work

Behrens said that the Enchanted Circle Landscape encompasses 1.5 million acres, but only a third of that is Forest Service land.

“The rest is mostly private, but also tribal, state, local and (Bureau of Land Management),” he said. “But wildfires know no boundaries, so it’s important that communities like Taos Pines Ranch also do the work. And they’ve done a phenomenal job. And so has the wider community of Colfax County.”

Bonner said Taos Pines Ranch has been a Firewise USA community since 2005. Firewise USA is a national program that provides communities with proven steps in reducing the risk of wildfire devastation. Bonner, who built her home in Taos Pines Ranch in 2003, said 85% of the community’s forest growth has been thinned.

Also, Bonner said the Cimarron Watershed Alliance has received three Forest Service Community Wildlife Defense Grants to fund fire-prevention activities in Colfax County.

She said the $1.8 million Flying Horse Ranch grant pays for a fuel break along the Taos/Colfax county line.

The $8 million Colfax Collaborative Wildland Urban Interface grant, Bonner said, provides for thinning and defensible space in the unincorporated communities of the Moreno Valley and Ute Park. It also pays for the creation of a 600-foot fuel break on Taos Pueblo, which is on the northern border of Taos Pines Ranch.

And Bonner said a $10 million Angel Fire project will focus on fire breaks and evacuation routes in the south and southwest portions of the Moreno Valley.

People who live in mountain communities such as Taos Pines Ranch have learned first hand or as the result of close calls that preparation and vigilance are necessary to protect their homes and way of life from wildfires.

“When we finished our house in 2003, there was a lightning strike on July 4 in the Blue Lake area of Taos Pueblo,” Bonner said. “And people got pretty nervous during the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. We were pretty happy to see (the La Jara) prescribed burn.”