Prescribed burn continues

A firefighter walks the controlled burn line Tuesday as the Forestry Service clears away the brush on Highway 53 near El Calderon. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

EL MALPAIS NATIONAL MONUMENT — With the early cloud cover Tuesday it was hard to see it, but a prescribed burn was happening in the national monument here.

Park Superintendent Kayci Cook Collins said the burn began Tuesday and will last approximately three to four weeks depending on weather conditions.

Cook said National Park Service employees will burn some 200 acres of piled slash along the park's north and west borders. Slash piles are the result of thinning operations done to reduce the amount of fuel and to protect private property as well as public property in case of a wildfire.

Acting Fire Management Officer Mike Kessler said the burn is a continuation of what the park service started last year. "We have a total of about 300 acres to burn," Kessler said. "Last year we got about 100 acres of it."

Recent rains and snows could have a mixed effect on the burn. The wet conditions will keep the slash piles from burning out of control; however, the wet conditions will limit access. "Part of the burn is near County Road 42, which doesn't give us very good access right now," Kessler said.

During most of any wet winter County Road 42, which connects New Mexico 53 near the Ice Caves and New Mexico 117, is awash with mud and is all but impassable.

After the present controlled burn is done, the National Park Service has more planned burns. Three of them will be along New Mexico 117 later in the year. Kessler said he has not started the work needed on those burns as yet.

The burns will be:

• In the Lava Falls area and will be 432 acres.
  
  
• In the Lava's Edge area and will be 755 acres in size.
  
  
• In the Malpais Mill area and will be 536 acres in size.

"Those are all in the eastern edge of the monument off of (New Mexico) 117," Kessler said.

Also planned is a spring burn which will be a joint effort between the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Kessler said the burn will be called the Rendija Burn and will be in the Big Tubes area off of County Road 42 in Cibola County. Some 383 acres will be on National Park Service land and 1,100 acres will be on BLM lands. "We're still working on the plans for that burn now," Kessler said.

Fire is a natural process at El Malpais National Monument. Studies show that wildfires took place in the area every four or five years before the 1880s. However, with logging activity and livestock grazing in the area, along with people moving into the wilderness areas, full fire suppression stopped the natural cycle. Kessler said when the cycle was interrupted, it allowed fuel loading to increase to the point it became hazardous.

By conducting thinning operations and then burning the slash piles, the park service is able to remove hazardous accumulations of fuel without burning large portions of mature trees.