Before Wrapping up Prescribed Fire, Crews Treat 500 Acres and Respond to Small Wildfire

Fire crews today completed an additional 500 acres of treatment on Alamosa Unit 1, wrapping up ignitions on the project for the time being. Weather and conditions, particularly ventilation of on-site smoke, continue to fluctuate, often in a manner not conducive to prescribed fire. 

Fire managers will continue to look for opportunities to finish treating the unit in the future. 3,250 acres of the 4,500-acre unit were treated over the last week. 

“I’m really proud of our team for their progress,” said District Ranger Angie Krall. “Their work reduces the risk of wildfire to Vallecitos and brings many other benefits to the landscape and forest community members.” 

Alamosa Unit 1 is directly adjacent to the southwest end of the Rio Arriba County community of Vallecitos. It’s bounded by Forest Roads 44, 44K and 725. 

The prescribed fire will likely continue to smolder, creep and back within the unit in upcoming days and may produce some smoke. Carson National Forest crew members will continue to patrol and monitor the fire until it is called out. Other resources who traveled to assist on the project will demobilize and return to their home units. 

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. 

Crews Respond to Small Nearby Wildfire 

During ignitions, crew members noticed light smoke coming from the northwest of Alamosa Unit 1. An engine crew assigned to the prescribed fire responded and found an estimated one-acre human-caused wildfire in mostly mixed conifer near Posos Spring, about 3 to 4 miles away from Alamosa Unit 1. They fully contained it at 4:49 p.m. The fire’s cause is under investigation. 

(Photo: Prescribed fire burns pine needles and other surface fuels in Alamosa Unit 1)