VallesCaldera.com – The independent news source about the Valles Caldera

The Las Conchas Fire, which began a month and a day ago, is now 95% contained at 156,593 acres. The fire is mostly on patrol and mop-up status.

Camp May Road, the access road from Los Alamos to the ski hill at Pajarito Mountain (located on the eastern rim of the Valles Caldera), has also opened for the first time since the fire began. As reported by Bandelier National Monument via Facebook:

Such a surprise today, to find that the road to the Los Alamos ski area (Pajarito Mountain) was no longer posted “closed”! Driving up, there were patches of trees, both conifers and aspens, that had been severely burned, and other places untouched. In the lowest area of ski runs the dividing trees were burned badly, but up by the lodge – well, look at the photo. Camp May was much better than rumor had suggested; some burned trees, lots of green.

The Las Conchas Burn Area Emergency Response team has also initiated the long process of helping the forest heal from the largest fire in New Mexico history. It will award contracts on August 1 for aerial seeding and mulching of locations in the burn zone.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the purpose of aerial seeding is:

Aerial seeding, usually grasses but occasionally also legumes, is carried out to increase vegetative cover on a burn site during the first few years after a fire. It is typically done where erosion hazard is high and native plant seed bank is believed to have been destroyed or severely reduced by the fire. Seed is applied by fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter.

Here are the specific initial implementation plans for the BAER team:

Continue reading ‘Las Conchas Fire nearly contained; Road to Pajarito Mountain reopens’

The 141-year-old Jemez Springs Bath House tweeted a valuable piece of intelligence today that many New Mexicans might not know: The area behind the Jemez Springs Plaza is the only place where most folks are legally allowed to swim, fish, walk, and submerge themselves within the Jemez River (except for private property).

Here is the Bath House’s tweet:

Did you know that you can fish & swim in the Jemez River directly behind the Bath House until the forest reopens??? Come on up & enjoy!!!

I played around in the river at the Plaza last weekend, and the hypnotic sound of the river rushing down the red rock canyon, the cold water flowing over my feet as I walked through the muddy bottom of the river, and the passing trout that played in the creek beside us refreshed our spirit tremendously, but particularly so in the midst of the largest fire in New Mexico history. It conjured up the lines of Norman MacLean:

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters.

Good places in the Jemez like the Jemez Stage Stop, Los Ojos Saloon, the Laughing Lizard, the Ridgeback Cafe, and Amanda’s Jemez Mountain Country Store are also open for folks who come into the Jemez during this forest closure.

Meanwhile, ash from the Las Conchas Fire, which is now 90% contained, has now has inundated the Rio Grande, causing the city of Albuquerque to stop pumping drinking water from the Rio Grande:

From the Journal:

The Water Utility confirms it is ash in the Rio Grande. Plus, I went out and looked myself. It’s ugly! John Stomp, the utility’s chief operating officer, told me he is confident the water treatment plant could clean ash out, but that he decided to shut down the plant anyway just to be cautious.

Here is a video from the Weather Channel about the ashy Rio:

Meanwhile, the total number of fire personnel fighting the inferno has now decreased to 200. This is a dramatic decrease from the most intense days of the crisis, when over 2,000 professionals were battling the blaze.

The BAER team assigned to the fire has issued a document warning people about the dangers of walking through burnt forests, stating that they should be avoided for 1-2 years after the fire (however, the land will still remain dangerous for years afterward).

Here are the BAER team’s recommendations for responding to the burnt landscape.

156,593 acres of Northern New Mexico have now been torched by the Las Conchas blaze, although the inferno is now 85% contained. Its burn zone experienced moisture yesterday and today, prompting flash flood warnings. These monsoonal storms produced minor floods, and observers reported debris flow on the south end of the fire.

The wildfire has burned the following jurisdictions:

Valles Caldera National Preserve – 29,968 acres,
Forest Service – 78,928 acres
Pueblo of Jemez – 4751 acres
Bandelier National Monument – 20,854 acres
Pueblo of Santa Clara – 16,608 acres
Private land – 5,125 acres
Los Alamos National Laboratory – 93 âcres
BIA – 4 acres
Pueblo of Santo Domingo – 262 acres

The Burn Area Response Team assigned to the Las Conchas Fire has released its assessment of the resources and threats it has identified as a result of the blaze. The following is the executive summary of the document.

Continue reading ’85% of Las Conchas Fire now contained; smoldering blaze dampened by moisture, causing flash flood threat’

As containment of the 156,590-acre Las Conchas Fire grew to 75% today, officials released a map depicting the intensity of burn throughout the 244-square-mile fire zone. The map can be seen below.

The blaze is still “creeping within the interior,” of the burn zone on its 25th day, according to fire managers, who said that the “potential exists for active fire behavior in some unburned, isolated islands well within the interior of the fire,” but “the majority of the fire continues to burn at low intensity within the fire perimeter.”

Here’s what the AP had to say about the map of the conflagration’s intensity of burn:

The map shows a mosaic of color, with blotches of red on the western side and in pockets on the northern end indicating where the fire burned the hottest.

On the southeastern and northern flanks, yellow and light blue patches indicate low to moderate severity.

There are some areas of green within the fire perimeter that indicate unburned sections of forest.

Burn Area Emergency Response teams have been busy for the past week assessing the damage. They have scheduled a series of public meetings this week to share their findings and suggestions for recovery with residents in surrounding communities.

The immediate recovery effort includes preparing for flooding as summer rains hit the burn scar and wash down ash, sediment and other debris.
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Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in Albuquerque issued another round of flash flood warnings and flood advisories for the fire area Wednesday afternoon. Scattered showers were predicted to hit before midnight, and more thunderstorms were expected through Sunday.

The community meetings mentioned above that will be conducted by representatives of the BAER Team will take place at:

Wednesday, July 20th 6 p.m. in Los Alamos at Mountain Elementary School, 2280 North Road, Los Alamos, NM

Thursday, July 21st-6 p.m. in Cochiti Lake at the Cochiti Lake Community Center, 255 Cochiti Street, Pueblo de Cochiti

Friday, July 22nd-6 p.m. in Jemez Springs, at the Madonna Center, off Hwy 4 between mile marker 15 and 16, Jemez Springs, NM

Representatives from USDA Forest Service, Valles Caldera National Preserve, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), NM Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sandoval County, Los Alamos County, Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will be present and available to answer questions attendees may have.

This morning, VallesCaldera.com conducted an exclusive podcast interview with Dr. Bob Parmenter, the chief scientist of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. You can listen to the podcast here.

Parmenter provided a wide range of information regarding the Las Conchas Fire, including that highly burned forest areas will take up to a century and a half to recover. He also spoke of how the fire, which ignited “one acre of forest every 1.17 seconds for 14 hours,” is still burning underground as it torches through trees’ root structures. “A tree that may look like it escaped the flames just fine — 3 weeks from now can just fall over because all the roots are killed,” he said. He also stated that “a tree that looks like it might have only gotten singed by the heat and only the first ten feet or so might have brown needles, those trees could be dead in two, three, four years.”

The chief scientist also said that elk, deer, mountain lions, and most bears probably emerged unscathed from the fire, but that many songbirds, tree-nesting birds, and tree squirrels probably did not survive the inferno.

Parmenter also painted a distressing picture of the short-term future of the Jemez Mountains as he related a graduate study being conducted that has concluded that “there are many times in the past that the entire Valles Caldera burned over a two year period. So half the Preserve burned one year, and half burned the next year. And so, this type of pattern is not unprecedented either — it shows up in the fire record. So are we into the 2011 and 2012 fire season of two years and we’re going to burn the rest of the Preserve next year? It is not unprecedented.”

The interview also touched on the impacts of the cultural resources on the Caldera, firefighting operations on the Preserve, the chances of monsoons coming, as well as volunteer opportunities to restore the Caldera, and also what he hopes the fire’s impact will be on people’s opinions and behavior:

“I would hope that the trend continues for a wider acceptance of natural fire and prescribed fire as a natural ecosystem process, and that the tolerance for a couple weeks of smoke each summer, or fall if we do fall burns, or early spring if we do spring burns — that having a little smoke in the air is better than having a lot of smoke in the air, because these forests are going to continue to burn, and we either let them burn on our terms, or we let them burn on nature’s terms, and if it’s on nature’s terms, it’s very difficult to stop,” he said. ” So I would hope that, as we look back on this, that Cerro Grande, Las Conchas, and the CFLRP [Consolidated Forest Landscape Restoration Program], will all come together and have the citizens of, basically, all forested ecosystems in the west, really understand that there are natural ways to manage these forests by reintroducing fire and keeping the fuel loads down.”

The following is a transcription of key topics of the podcast:

Continue reading ‘Exclusive podcast interview with chief scientist of Caldera: Intense burn areas won’t recover for 100-150 years; Many birds and tree squirrels did not survive; Wet winter not expected; Fires in Jemez often occurred historically in consecutive years’

Residents of Jemez Mountain communities near the active southwest front of the Las Conchas Fire experienced severe smoke this morning through the early afternoon as a result of last night’s burnout operation designed to secure that portion of the blaze.

Redondo Peak, which is 3.5 miles north of the home of VallesCaldera.com, was completely obscured by smoke from dawn until about 2 pm today from our vantage point. This is the second day in a row that we have experienced Redondo-enshrouding smoke here, reflecting that this burnout operation was performed overnight during the past two nights, as well as the southeasterly winds that we experienced this morning (currently, two miles west of Las Conchas, the sky is clear, with a temperature of 76 degrees).

From InciWeb:

Yesterday, communities surrounding the south portion of Las Conchas Fire could clearly see a large column of smoke during the afternoon hours. The smoke column was the result of a successful burnout operation between Peralta Ridge and Forest Road (FR) 266 conducted the previous night. The purpose of the burnout was to eliminate unburned fuels that could ignite when weather conditions are less favorable and push the fire across containment lines.

Last night, the burnout was continued a little further to the south but still between Peralta Ridge and FR 266. Last night’s burnout went well, and the fire continues to be held entirely to the east of FR 266.

Today, winds are expected to be from the southeast. This means communities to the north and northwest of the burnout will likely see heavy smoke today. This includes Ponderosa, Jemez Springs, Vallecitos de los Indios, Sierra de los Pinos, and La Cueva. The presence of smoke is a normal result of burnout operations and does not mean that the fire has escaped or that communities are in danger. Anyone with potential health issues related to smoke may call the New Mexico Nurse Advice Line at 1-877-725-2552.

On Thursday evening, firefighters ignited two miles of roadside along the east side of FR 266, west of Ruiz Peak. This burnout climbed upslope to merge with the edge of the wildfire backing downhill from Peralta Ridge. The smoke produced by the two fire fronts generated the large plume. All of the fire was within the containment lines. In most areas, the fire was an underburn, consuming ground vegetation but sparing trees and larger vegetation.

Friday evening, firefighters burned out the next section of roadside to the south. Today firefighters will be closely monitoring the fire perimeter along FR 266, prepared to extinguish any spot fires if wind pushes embers past fire lines. As weather and fuel conditions allow, more of the unburned edge along the FR 266 will be carefully ignited over the next few evenings. The burnout operations help firefighters secure this section of the fire perimeter, making it less likely that fire will spread past the containment lines.

The burnouts conducted last night and the night before are a phased operation designed to allow firefighters to contain the southern portion of the Las Conchas Fire. The burnout is primarily eliminating grass, brush, down logs and other fuels in the understory. “Less than 10 percent of the trees in the overstory have burned in the burnout operation,” said Operations Chief Irv Leach. Weather permitting, the burnout will continue at least one more night in order to complete the operation. The burnout is done at night when higher relative humidity allows the burn to be done at a lower intensity, thus preserving the tree canopy and other valuable resources.

The Land of Enchantment’s biggest blaze in recorded history has reached 150,041 acres in size, with 61% containment. Smoke still abounds in the Jemez Mountains; at the home of VallesCaldera.com near Sierra los Piños, Redondo Peak, which is three miles to the north, is completely invisible, having been enshrouded in smoke. This is due to the most active remaining front in the fire, which is burning roughly nine miles west of Jemez Springs and four miles southeast of here.

The following photo, by Pete Gomez , shows the Las Conchas Fire as visible from Albuquerque yesterday:

Fire managers issued the following summary of the blaze this morning:

A few areas on the north end of the Las Conchas Fire received precipitation yesterday. While most of this came as light showers, some locally heavy rainfall caused flooding on a few streams in the Santa Clara Canyon. There was no significant impact on the firefighting effort.

Except for these showers, the weather has been warmer and drier the last few days. This drying trend is expected to continue. Fire activity will continue to increase, resulting in more smoke. People living or traveling in the vicinity of the fire will notice this increased smoke, including at night.

Most of the Las Conchas Fire is contained and is in patrol status. The steep, inaccessible slopes on the north and southwest edges of the fire continue to be a barrier to containing the fire. Due to safety concerns, firefighters can’t work on these slopes.

On the southwest edge, the fire has been backing down the steep slope from Peralta Ridge toward Forest Road (FR) 266. Last night, firefighters conducted a low intensity burnout to reinforce the control line along this road. Burnout operations went well and mop-up and patrol will continue today. Fire managers plan for a continued low intensity burnout again this evening as long as weather conditions permit. The burnout will secure this portion of the line while minimizing impacts on the area.

While firefighters continue to battle the inferno, activists are focusing on the future protection of the burn area, with a coalition of organizations issuing a public call for the entire perimeter of the fire to be closed to motorized vehicles and cross-country travel indefinitely (with the exception of paved roads):

Members of WildEarth Guardians, the Sierra Club, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and other groups sent a letter to Santa Fe forest supervisor Maria Garcia this week, urging that she consider issuing an indefinite emergency closure order to motorized recreational vehicles and cross-country travel within the fire’s perimeter.

The groups also want the forest to issue a final decision on its travel management plan as soon as possible given the resources that will be directed toward recovery of the burned area in the coming months.

“We are concerned that the fire area must be treated with the utmost care in the period immediately following,” the groups said. “In particular watersheds are highly vulnerable post-fire as are wildlife populations. Unmaintained roads and trails can exacerbate the problems, especially if they are used under the current conditions.”

This marks just the latest plea for curbing the use of off-road vehicles in the Jemez Mountains. In 2009, environmentalists and some landowners petitioned the U.S. Forest Service to close nearly 70 miles of motorized routes in the area.

Fire managers also reported progress in preparing fire-ravaged Santa Clara Pueblo for possible flooding:

At Santa Clara Pueblo the following work has been completed: 3,000 feet of concrete barrier was placed, 30,000 sand bags filled and placed, three miles of channel cleaning and debris removal, two bridge box culverts and 15 other culverts cleaned, half a mile of fence removed from Santa Clara Creek, and over 10 miles of hazard trees were marked and felled on the road up Santa Clara Canyon. The Army Corp of Engineers reviewed work that has been done and suggested additional point protection be done around the Day School. The fish in ponds 2 and 3 will be shocked and removed and the ponds drained and cleaned.

Reviewing a completed fuel break, Bruce Bauer, Director of Forestry, Santa Clara Pueblo and BAER Team Liaison was able to see the results of an effective fuels treatment. “You could see where the fire made a good run and then just lay down when it hit the break. I’m really glad we did that project or we wouldn’t have seen that island of green.” In an area where the Santa Clara Pueblo has had 80% of its land base burned since the Cerro Grande fire, every sliver of green timber makes a difference to stabilizing soil.

Today wildlife specialists visited Forest Service land to check on Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout habitat. The creek the fish reside in is narrow and shallow with ash sloughing off into the stream. Unfortunately, the area around the creek has been severely burned and specialists believe the fish will not be able to survive. Written assessments for the Santa Fe National Forest will be completed today.

InciWeb also, for the first time, released a detailed analysis today of the amount of acreage that has burned in the fire for each jurisdiction in the area:

Indian Trust Land (18,829 acres)
Jemez Pueblo 2,238 acres
Santa Clara Pueblo 16,587 acres
Santa Domingo Pueblo 4 acres
Santa Fe National Forest 76,634 acres
Bandelier National Monument 20,810 acres
Los Alamos National Laboratory 133 acres
State of New Mexico 1,704 acres
Valles Caldera National Preserve 27,781 acres
Private Land 3,352 acres

Meanwhile, KOB-TV reported that non-violent prisoners were among those who helped battle the fire:

They’re serving time in prison, but that hasn’t stopped them from fighting the biggest wildfires our state has ever seen. And this special group of inmates in Los Lunas is getting a chance at a new career opportunity.

It’s called the inmate work camp program. It’s run by New Mexico State Forestry, and puts non-violent inmates in a setting that goes far beyond concrete walls and barbed wire fences.

When the Las Conchas fire hit its peak and posed the biggest threat to Los Alamos, hundreds of firefighters stormed the lines. One of them is serving a roughly two-year sentence at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas.

“Pretty intense, there was a lot of fires up there, we were on structure protection at the Pajarito Ski Area, making sure that it didn’t burn,” said inmate firefighter Timothy Duncan.

Here is the most recent progression map of the Las Conchas Fire (click on the map for a detailed view):

In addition, you can view a Google Earth image of the fire here, and the overnight infrared image of the blaze here.