Dorado/Cañada del Agua Prescribed Fire Called Out 

Carson National Forest fire management personnel have called the Dorado/Cañada del Agua Prescribed Fire out. Fire crews have been monitoring and patrolling the 3,000-acre prescribed fire since ignitions three months ago and there have been no signs of heat or smoke in since mid-July. Significant rain over the area this week was the remaining action point personnel were waiting for before today’s decision. 

“We are taking the National Prescribed Fire Program Review seriously,” said Jamie Long, the forest’s fire management officer for the Tres Piedras, El Rito and Canjilon ranger districts. “This means we are patrolling and monitoring more thoroughly and over a longer duration.” 

The Dorado/Cañada del Agua Prescribed Fire, which was to the south of Tres Piedras, N.M., was ignited over three days in mid-June. It is one small piece of a much larger landscape restoration effort to increase the resilience of fire-dependent ecosystems and improve wildlife habitat and water quality. The effort is called the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Restoration Project and it covers 3.8 million acres between New Mexico and Colorado in the Rio Chama and Rio Grande watersheds. 

The project also furthers the goals of the Forest Service’s national Wildfire Crisis Strategy to restore forests so they are less vulnerable to extreme wildfires that can risk lives and property, impact watersheds and wildlife habitat.

(Photos: A location within the prescribed fire unit during and after ignitions)