Potential Prescribed Fire Projects Slated for Spring

Carson National Forest fuels planners are preparing to possibly implement a few prescribed fire projects this spring to increase forest health and reduce the threat of fire to communities and watersheds. The exact timing of each project, or the decision to postpone to a later season, depends on weather, site conditions and available personnel.

“This work is an important part of protecting our water sources and ensuring that we do our best to mitigate wildfire risk to communities,” said Carson National Forest Supervisor James Duran. “I am proud of our team, which is working to continually find opportunities to return fire to landscapes across the forest.”

Potential Spring Projects

Three projects are currently planned for possible implementation, but more may be added. Other restoration efforts, such as thinning and timber activities, will continue in various locations around the forest.

All of the efforts are within the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project to restore ecosystem processes throughout a 3.8 million-acre area of forested lands and multiple ownerships in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.

Fire crews implement jackpot burns by targeting concentrations of fuels, like clusters of downed branches, throughout an area. In understory burns, crews apply fire broadly throughout an area under the forest canopy. Grasses, leaf litter, downed branches, brush and occasional single trees are burned.

Fire managers, in conjunction with meteorologists, will track dozens of parameters before, during and after each project to ensure they are conducted safely and monitored until the fires are called out.

“Successful timeframes for these types of projects are a balancing act, which is why it’s entirely possible some or none of these projects move forward this spring,” said Brent Davidson, Carson National Forest Fire Management Officer. “The fuels can’t be too wet or too dry, the wind can’t be too strong or too light, the humidity can’t be too high or too low.”

Get Notified

Fire personnel try to give notice as early as possible, but a positive turn in the forecast and ground conditions may prompt a quick turnaround before ignitions.

Get prescribed fire notices through a variety of means:

• Forest neighbors and residents are encouraged to join the forest news release email list. Email mailroom_r3_carson@usda.gov with a request.
• Forest visitors are encouraged to check the Alerts & Closures page on the Carson National Forest website or InciWeb before heading out.
• Prescribed fire notices are also posted to forest social media (Facebook, X) and New Mexico Fire Information.

Operational updates during prescribed fires are posted to InciWeb. Depending on the location and/or public interest, such updates may extend to other forms of communication.

(Photo: A Carson National Forest fire crew member during the Alamosa Unit 1 Prescribed Fire in Fall 2023)