{"id":16986,"date":"2025-08-08T23:23:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stage-2-fire-restrictions-begin-as-monsoon-season-lags-and-stoner-mesa-fire-grows\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:31","slug":"stage-2-fire-restrictions-begin-as-monsoon-season-lags-and-stoner-mesa-fire-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stage-2-fire-restrictions-begin-as-monsoon-season-lags-and-stoner-mesa-fire-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage 2 fire restrictions begin as monsoon season lags and Stoner Mesa Fire grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores Ranger District Recreation Program Manager Tom Rice describes roads and trails impacted by a closure because of the Stoner Mesa fire in a video posted to Facebook on Aug. 8. (Courtesy of U.S. Forest Service)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

As monsoon season skips over Southwest Colorado and numerous wildfires are reported in the beginning of August, Stage 2 fire restrictions and a red flag warning are issued for the region.<\/p>\n

Mesa Verde National Park and Yucca House National Monument, along with the BLM Tres Rios Field Office and the Southern Ute Reservation, each announced Stage 2 restrictions for Friday.<\/p>\n

The Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation has had such restrictions in place since Thursday. Dolores County got them Aug. 1<\/p>\n

The San Juan National Forest, where the Stoner Mesa fire burns at over 1,100 acres through spruce and conifer brush, is also implementing Stage 2 restrictions starting Friday.<\/p>\n

The heavy rains of monsoon season, however aren\u2019t here. High pressure conditions have thwarted the rainfall usually expected for this time of year, said local weather expert Jim Andrus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been 0.2 inches total for the month of August, which is supposed to be the heart of the monsoon season for us,\u201d Andrus said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Stoner Mesa Fire on Aug. 5 was burning in the San Juan National Forest about 20 miles northeast of Dolores. Looking northeast at the heel of the Stoner Mesa Fire. Heavy dead and down mixed conifer can be seen in the foreground. (Courtesy U.S. Forest Service)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u201cThe Stoner Mesa Fire is going to be with us for a while\u201d<\/div>\n

Hot, windy conditions are keeping the Stoner Mesa Fire, first reported on July 28, alive and well, enabling the flames to roar about 20 miles northeast of Dolores as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Personnel are addressing the fire using an indirect approach, digging fire lines further out from the flames and forgoing the use of aerial flame retardant, said Lorena Williams, a public information officer for San Juan Team 8. The group is listed as a local Type 3 Incident Management Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen extreme fire behavior is at play we can\u2019t get firefighters on the ground,\u201d said Williams.<\/p>\n

Firefighter safety is a priority for teams addressing the flames, like the San Juan Interagency Hotshot Crew.<\/p>\n

Because of such dry conditions, retardant wouldn\u2019t be effective either, Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public might be looking, going \u2018Why don\u2019t I see air tankers?\u2019 But that\u2019s\u00a0not the correct fire suppression strategy at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said some flames could climb trees and grow to an estimated 200 feet.<\/p>\n

The fire is anticipated to grow in an east and northeast direction and make its presence known over a wide area, according to a U.S. Forest Service news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmoke will be visible throughout Southwest Colorado, and will impact local communities at night as it settles into river corridors and valley bottoms including Highway 145, County Road 38, Dolores, Rico, Telluride and Silverton,\u201d the release said.<\/p>\n

The fire has resulted in evacuations of the Mavreeso Campground and Taylor Mesa and Stoner Mesa roads.<\/p>\n

Multiple roads and trails in the regions are closed due to the fire, Forest Service postings show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More resources are incoming, said Williams, including engines, hand crews, helitech crews and drones used for infrared detection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some of all of that and we\u2019re getting more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With fire resources in demand nationwide, a wish list of aid might take some time to arrive, Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Stoner Mesa Fire is going to be with us for a while,\u201d Dolores District Ranger Nicholas Mustoe said on Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fires on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation<\/div>\n

Fires on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, contrasted to the Stoner Mesa Fire with differing factors such as terrain and fuel levels, have not grown at the same pace.<\/p>\n

The Waters Canyon Fire, first identified Aug. 2 on the border of Mesa Verde National Park, has grown slowly to just over 200 acres, but has been significantly thwarted by a Type 3 Bureau of Indian Affairs team.<\/p>\n

The fire was reported as 15% contained on Thursday, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

Helicopter water bucket drops have helped suppress the flames, said Gerald Whited, a public safety director for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.<\/p>\n

A small fire which broke out on Ute Mountain Thursday was suppressed before it managed to expand past half an acre. Whited said that the fire was now entirely in a mop up stage.<\/p>\n

Bailey Duran, a reporter for The Journal, contributed to this article. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

restrictions put in place across Southwest Colorado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20501,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16986\/revisions\/20501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16986"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}