Wildfire mitigation projects scheduled to resume across New Mexico

TAOS — With freezing temperatures returning to parts of New Mexico, residents living near the state’s five national forests might see more than the usual cold-weather haze emitted by kivas and wood-burning stoves as the U.S. Forest Service resumes wildfire mitigation projects this fall.

Work began this past week in the Carson National Forest north of Taos in San Cristobal, where fire crews initiated the Kiowa-San Cristobal Prescribed Fires.

The project includes a total of 1,778 acres of pile and jackpot burning — two methods forest managers use to reduce high concentrations of dead and downed debris that can fuel catastrophic wildfires.

On Oct. 14, fire personnel burned wood piles left over from 182 acres of forest thinning and local firewood collection by Taos County residents, who have one of the highest per capita rates in the U.S. for burning wood as their primary heat source, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Carson National Forest crews returned the following day to begin the jackpot burn along N.M. 522 near the communities of Arroyo Hondo, San Cristobal, Turley Mill and Gallina Canyon, where plumes of white smoke were still visible Friday afternoon.

Carson National Forest Public Affairs Officer Zachary Behrens confirmed the burns in the Carson this week.

While he said communications from the Forest Service “could be limited” due to “the lapse in appropriations,” he did not respond to a question about whether other treatment projects could be disrupted by the ongoing federal government shutdown.

A total of 29,178 acres are scheduled for fire mitigation projects through the spring in the Carson National Forest alone, with crews in the state’s four other national forests — Santa Fe, Cibola, Gila and Lincoln — also scheduled for treatments starting this fall.

Roughly 853 acres in the Jemez Ranger District of Santa Fe National Forest north of Jemez Springs could also be treated with prescribed fire starting Tuesday as part of the Southwest Jemez Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project, which is “designed to increase the landscape’s resilience to severe wildfire and other large-scale disturbances.”

A total of 399 acres in the Española Ranger District of Santa Fe National Forest are also scheduled for treatments on Borrego Mesa, 4 miles south of Truchas.

In Lincoln National Forest, 2 acres of piles are set to be ignited in the Smokey Bear Ranger District on Oct. 21.

Other projects are tentatively scheduled through the spring in the following areas:

Cibola National Forest

• Monighan Prescribed Fire: 3,907 acres in the Mount Taylor Ranger District
• Black Mesa Prescribed Fire: 11,506 acres in the Black Mesa Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project
• Ranch Supply Prescribed Fire: 2,890 acres near Point of Rock Canyon
• Durfee Bolander Prescribed Fire: 998 acres of broadcast burning in the vicinity of Morine Canyon
• Hop Patterson Prescribed Fire: 704 acres of broadcast and pile burning 3 miles south of Magdalena
• Espinosa Prescribed Fire: 2,012 acres of broadcast burning in Espinosa-Barranco Wildlife Improvement Project in the Manzano Mountains 8 miles northwest of Mountainair
• Thunderbird-Barranco Prescribed Fire: 972 acres of broadcast burning located north of the Espinosa Prescribed Fire and south of FSR 275 in the Manzano Mountains, approximately 8 miles northwest of the town of Mountainair
• Red Canyon Campground Prescribed Pile Burn: 48 acres of piles in the Hazard Tree Mitigation Project located adjacent to Upper Red Canyon Campground in the Manzano Mountains, approximately 12 miles northwest of the town of Mountainair
• David Canyon Prescribed Fire: 285 acres of broadcast burning in the David Canyon area, in the Manzanita Mountains; David Canyon is west of N.M. 337 and west of the Mars Court trailhead
• Kiowa & Rita Blanca National Grasslands: 3,000 acres of multiple units of prescribed fire broadcast burning across the district

Gila National Forest

Silver City Ranger District:

• An unspecified number of acres in the district, including Little Walnut slash piles near Feeley Subdivision, Gomez Peak Trail System and Wagon Wheel Subdivision, roughly 7 miles north of Silver City

All fire mitigation work requires personnel meet a new set of criteria enacted by the Forest Service in 2022 after a Forest Service prescribed burn and pile burn in Santa Fe National Forest merged to form the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire. The blaze went on to destroy 341,471 acres in San Miguel, Mora and Taos counties in northern New Mexico, the largest wildfire in state history.

The Forest Service halted all prescribed burns following the massive blaze before issuing the new, more rigorous requirements, which include a multi-step evaluation process of burning conditions. The process includes a review of wind and relative humidity levels every 24 hours, as well as improved communication with local stakeholders and a minimum number of firefighting personnel within 30 minutes of the burn area.

“In 2022, the Forest Service completed a comprehensive national prescribed fire program review that identifies immediate and longer-term actions for using prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk to communities and restore ecosystems,” according to the Forest Service. “Based on the review, the Forest Service has changed how it plans and implements prescribed fire.”

Wildfire experts say controlled burns remain critical to rectify decades of forest management policy that allowed fire fuels to become more dense while the risk of wildfire increases across the Western U.S. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 40,000 wildfires have burned just shy of 4 million acres this year in the U.S.

Updates on scheduling can be found at fs.usda.gov/fs-tags/new-mexico. More information on active fires and air quality in New Mexico can be found at inciweb.wildfire.gov/ and fire.airnow.gov/#7.46/36.383/-105.583.