Smoke from the South Aztec prescribe burn travelling to the southeast of the watershed, away from the city of Santa Fe (visible on the right).
Last Wednesday, October 27, the Santa Fe National Forest conducted a prescribed burn in the Santa Fe Watershed with many partners including Tesuque Pueblo, the Forest Stewards Guild, Forest Stewards Youth Corps, Santa Fe County, and the City of Santa Fe Fire Department. The burn unit, the South Aztec, had been previously thinned to reduce fuel loads and was adjacent to several other units that have been treated in the past few years. This successful prescribed fire achieved its objectives to “reduce the risk of a high-severity crown fire, to protect the municipal water supply and restore sustainable watershed conditions… [and to] increase herbaceous ground cover to improve long-term soil stability and vegetative diversity.”
Some of the larger fuels igniting during the South Aztec burn.
Prescribed burns, especially those that occur close to communities and high-value resources, require a tremendous amount of planning and coordination, much of which is not obvious to the public eye. When a burn plan is written a prescription is developed that sets ranges for environmental and weather conditions that must be met for the burn to take place. In preparation for a burn personnel must retrieve weather forecasts, set up smoke monitors, put up signs, notify the public via news releases, identify any archeological or historical sites, identify threatened or endangered species, involve dispatch support, prepare the control line, coordinate with partners, and more.
Because of the watershed’s proximity to Santa Fe, the Forest Service works closely with the NM Environmental Department’s Air Quality Bureau and the New Mexico Department of Health. Coordination calls with these agencies are held before, during, and after prescribed burns and they must comply with state regulations on air quality. During the fire, hourly weather readings are taken on-site to make sure that conditions are still within the prescribed ranges. If the weather moves outside of prescribed ranges, i.e., winds grow stronger than allowed in the plan, the burning is halted or contingency plans are enacted.
The smoke from this prescribed burn was visible from many locations across the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed. Although there are always risks associated with smoke, the effects of smoke from prescribed fire are far less than those from wildfires. The Forest Service worked closely with meteorologists from the National Weather Service to identify an optimal window where wind direction and speed would help push the bulk of the smoke up and away from town. The Fire Manager for the Aztec Springs prescribed burn said, “some communities were affected to the East and South, but the smoke levels were nothing compared to a wildland fire the same amount of acres would produce during typical June hot weather conditions.”
Forest Stewards Guild Fire and Fuels Manager Sam Berry inspects the holding line to make sure no embers travel outside of the burn unit area.
Some members of the public expressed concern about the wind conditions on the day of the prescribed burn. Wind is one of the most important variables that fire managers take into consideration when planning a burn. The Fire Manager said, “the wind direction played a key part of the success of the burn… the wind blew the smoke into already previous treated areas and, due to the great work from the holding resources, they were able to keep the hot embers that caused spot fires small and manageable...the sustained wind kept the smoke from moving into most of our sensitive areas like schools, hospitals, highways, airport, etc.” The unit also received light precipitation before the burn which reduced the burning intensity of ground fuels, bettering the conditions for controlled burning.
Historic wildfire suppression and a lack of previous treatments in a fire-adapted ecosystem like the Santa Fe National Forest has left the landscape within the watershed vulnerable to catastrophic wildfire. If wildfires were to occur in the watershed during the typical summer season, nearly 81% of the forest would be “subject to high-severity torching and crown fire”. Intense wildfire within the watershed would cause debris flows which could compromise the drinking water and lead to a dam breach, putting the city of Santa Fe at risk for severe flooding. Thinning and burning projects within the watershed are critical to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire and protect our municipal water source.
View of Nichols Reservoir from the South Aztec burn unit during the prescribed burn on October 27, 2021.
The Santa Fe Watershed is a precious resource to our community and the land management treatments that are conducted within the watershed are carefully planned and conducted over decades. The diligent planning, highly trained and experienced personnel, and optimal weather conditions all aligned to make this burn successful as part of an ongoing partnership to protect our watershed.