Prescribed Fire Update for Alamosa Unit 1 and Valle Vidal 

Fire crews continued work on two prescribed fire units this weekend, accomplishing 500 acres of treatment on one and postponing the other. 

Alamosa Unit 1 (Rio Arriba County) 
InciWeb 

Crews treated 500 acres, completing blackline around the 4,500-acre unit today. Blackining is pre-burning fuels along the control line, in this case roads, before interior areas are treated. The blackline is usually up to 100 feet deep. 

With blackline completed, ignitions can continue on the remainder of the unit’s interior on future days when weather and ventilation allow. Ignition notices will continue to be posted on InciWeb. 

2,600 acres have been accomplished to date. 

McCrystal Rock Unit (Valle Vidal) 
InciWeb 

Fire crews returned to the unit this morning to continue strengthening control lines and to monitor fire behavior from yesterday’s test fire. Weather conditions supported additional growth of approximately 15 acres, but crew members found that fuel moisture throughout the unit, especially along its boundaries, were variable with some areas still holding moisture. 

Based on that information, fire managers decided to postpone ignitions on the rest of the unit until conditions conducive for ignitions arrive. Crews will remain on scene to secure the test fire area before the majority of personnel are demobilized and released. Some fire crew members will continue to patrol and monitor the unit, as they have been since 4,000 acres were treated in mid-October. 

The Big Picture 

The USDA Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy combines a historic investment of congressional funding with years of scientific research and planning into a national effort that will dramatically increase the scale and pace of forest health treatments over the next decade. 

Both of this weekend’s projects fit into the strategy through large landscape-scale efforts.  

Alamosa Unit 1 is within the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project, which covers 3.8 million acres in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. It aims to improve the health of the Rio Chama and Rio Grande watersheds, among many other goals. 

The McCrystal Rock Unit is within the Enchanted Circle Landscape, which covers 1.5 million acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where some of the highest risk firesheds in the nation are located. Projects in the landscape are designed to reduce wildfire risk to people, communities and natural resources while sustaining and restoring healthy, resilient fire-adapted forests. 

(Photo: Test fire on the McCrystal Rock Unit creeps into the forest understory)