SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) fire managers are tentatively planning to begin ignitions as early as this week on pile burn projects located near Hyde Park Road in the Espanola Ranger District. The Hyde Park unit is 642 acres of debris left after fuel reduction projects that involve thinning or cutting of trees in the forest. The decision to proceed with each pile burn depends on multiple factors including persistent snowpack, air quality, ventilation, and resource availability. “Fire managers will take advantage of favorable weather windows this week as series of slow-moving disturbances bring rounds of mainly light snow to the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains through the remainder of the week. This late week system looks to bring the best potential for several inches of fresh snowfall producing substantial snow cover, transport wind directions from the west or northwest, and near to above average mixing heights (height above the surface throughout which smoke can be dispersed),” stated Kerry Jones USFS Air Quality Specialist/Meteorologist.
Smoke may be visible in the Santa Fe vicinity this week both from the SFNF Hyde Park project and a Forest Stewards Guild and Nature Conservancy prescribed pile burn located north of the Randall Davey Audubon Center.
With favorable conditions SFNF fire managers continue to implement prescribed fire pile burns throughout the forest. Fire crews completed 25 acres of the Mesa Verde pile burn project in the Jemez Ranger District last week and will regularly monitor the unit.
Fire managers conduct pile burns because it is the most efficient option to reduce forest debris at the scale and speed needed to reduce wildfire risk. These prescribed fire projects support the wildfire crisis strategy, a 10-year strategy to reduce wildfire risk to communities and create a forest more resilient to natural fire in the future.
For more information on winter prescribed fire activities visit the SFNF website, NM Fire Info, and the SENF Facebook page.
