Current Prescribed Fire Report (dated)

 

CONTACT: Dan Huisjen, 970-240-5339; Steve Ellis, 970-240-5353; Mel Lloyd, 970-244-3097;
or Lee Ann Loupe, 970-874-6717

Prescribed burns slated for area

MONTROSE, Colo. – Crews from the Bureau of Land Management Uncompahgre Field Office and the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests will be conducting several prescribed burns in west-central Colorado throughout the coming weeks. Burning will continue throughout the spring and early summer as long as weather permits.See Links at the bottom of the page for more detailed information on each of these burns. The areas slated for treatment include:

Norwood/Nucla Area
Clay Creek: 200 acres, project area is located 5 miles northeast of Norwood along the Sanborn Park Road.
Patterson Mountain: 425 acres, project area is located 6 miles north of Norwood just south of Highway 90 and the community of Ute.
Basin: 110 acres, project area is located along the Houser Road approximately 12 miles northeast of Nucla.

Uncompahgre-North Fork Valleys
Dave Wood: 400 acres, project area located 12 miles southwest of Montrose adjacent to the Dave Wood Road.
Paxton: 300 acres, project area located 9 miles west-southwest of Montrose just north of Highway 90.
Bear Paw: 100 acres, project area is located 6 miles southeast of Paonia along the South Fork of Minnesota Creek. This burn will also continue into the fall.

Fuels being treated in these areas include mechanically treated and standing pinyon-juniper at the lower elevations, ponderosa pine with a mountain shrub understory at higher elevations, and oakbrush stands. The main objective of these prescribed fires is to reduce dense vegetation to lessen the chance for catastrophic wildfires. Other benefits include improving wildlife habitat, regenerating new growth, and discouraging pine beetle reinfestation in affected areas.

Weather conditions will be closely monitored, and burns will only be initiated if conditions are within established parameters for safe and effective fires. Each prescribed burn conducted by the agencies has gone through an environmental analysis and has a detailed burn plan developed in advance, along with appropriate smoke permits obtained from state agencies. For more information on any of these burns, contact Fire Ecologist Dan Huisjen, with the Montrose Interagency Fire Management Unit, at (970) 240-5339.

Why Use Prescribed Fire?

Fire managers use prescribed fires - that is, fires that are intentionally ignited under predetermined conditions by trained fire personnel - to help restore and maintain ecosystem health. Fire managers have greater control over the impact of fire to the ecosystem on prescribed fires than on wildfires because they can time and plan the conditions for burning. As a results, prescribed fires are often used to achieve specific resource objectives, such as habitat improvement, fuels reduction, and overall range and forest restoration.

Fire's Role On The Landscape Fire has been a vital force shaping vegetation across the landscape in southwestern Colorado, particularly in the ponderosa pine, pinyon juniper woodland, and mountain shrubland communities. Much of this ecosystem evolved with fire, so it has become fire dependent - that is, fire is essential to sustaining the function and health of the biotic systems. Fire creates a dynamic vegetative "mosaic" or mix of successional stages, communities, and stand ages in the various plant communities. This shifting mosaic is essential to the stability of the system as a whole.

Fire is also a critical element in the creation of wildlife habitats. Because fire affects habitat quality and diversity, it regulates the types and number of species in the ecosystem.

Fire Has Been Excluded

Over the last century, fire has been excluded in many areas where it once played a critical role in maintaining ecosystem health. Traditional land management practices, such as grazing, logging and fire suppression, have changed the structure and composition of many plant communities and greatly affected many species occurring in Western Colorado. The resulting changes include an overall increase in the density of trees, particularly in the ponderosa pine, with relatively more saplings and pole-sized trees and fewer large trees. There has been an increase of ground fuels in the form of litter and fine woody debris. Trees such as pinyon pine and juniper have also invaded formerly shrub or grass dominated areas. Many of the remaining shrub-grassland areas are dominated by older age plants, and these areas have fewer native bunchgrasses and forbs. Non-native species such as cheatgreass and knapweed have out-competed native grasses in many areas.

Prescribed fire - in combination with chemical and mechanical treatments, such as roller-chopping or chaining - gives fire managers the greatest control in helping restore fire to the landscape.

WHAT ABOUT THE SMOKE??? The smoke from any wildland fire can be a significant source of air pollution because fire is a natural combustion process that releases air pollutant emissions. The amount and size of emissions depends on the size and intensity of the wildfire. Prescribed fires give managers the greatest control over the size and intensity of the fire because they can time and plan the burning conditions under which they ignite, and they can use ignition techniques that reduce emissions. Therefore, prescribed fires provide the greatest management flexibility in controlling smoke production and impacts in smoke-sensitive and high visibility areas.

Fire managers must consider the potential impact to air in developing prescribed burn plans. They have to acquire a smoke permit from the State, and their burns can only be conducted if the established federal and state standards for air quality can be met or mitigated in an acceptable manner. Prescribed fires are conducted under favorable burning conditions; when smoke dispersal is good and the amount of emissions and direction of the smoke dispersal are monitored throughout the burn.

It is important to note that while prescribed fires do impact air quality in the short-term, they help reduce the risk of more long-term impacts from larger, more intense wildfires that can burn for longer periods. These uncontrolled wildfires typically cause greater air pollutant emission levels and occur under unfavorable smoke dispersion conditions, which ultimately result in more extreme and widespread air quality impacts.

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON SPECIFIC PRESCRIBED BURNS PLANNED FOR 2008

• NORWOOD ZONE Roughly 1.5 million acres. Combined, the BLM and USFS accomplish an average of 6-8 prescribed burns per year for a total of 2,000-3,000 acres.
• OURAY ZONE Roughly 2.5 million acres. Combined, the BLM and USFS accomplish an average of 6-8 prescribed burns per year for a total of 2,000-4,000 acres.
• GUNNISON ZONE Roughly 2.25 million acres. Combined, the BLM and USFS accomplish an average of 6-8 prescribed burns per year for a total of 5,000-8,000 acres.