{"id":22387,"date":"2025-05-04T20:43:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T02:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/it-feels-natural-inside-the-prescribed-fire-north-of-dolores\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:13:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:13:37","slug":"it-feels-natural-inside-the-prescribed-fire-north-of-dolores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/it-feels-natural-inside-the-prescribed-fire-north-of-dolores\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It feels natural\u2019: Inside the prescribed fire north of Dolores"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"On
On Tuesday, April 29, local wildland firefighters ignited roughly 1,300 acres north of Dolores, at an area called Upper Boggy Draw, as part of a prescribed burn. Can you spot the firefighter in yellow? (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Before wildland firefighters ignited almost 1,300 acres of forest land north of Dolores on Tuesday, April 29, they started a small test fire in the northeast corner of the burn unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to make sure it\u2019s burning the way we want it to,\u201d a Forest Service ranger explained as local wildland crews hiked up a steep hill toward the cliff band, where they first sparked the fire.<\/p>\n

The untrained eye would look at what they were walking on and call it a trail; in actuality, it was something called a hand line, which acts as a boundary during a prescribed burn.<\/p>\n

A few days before, crews carved out the lines, removing any flammable, organic matter on them to ensure the fire couldn\u2019t spread past it.<\/p>\n

And to be sure the fire stayed within those burn boundaries that Tuesday morning, there were firefighters \u201cin holding,\u201d standing on the hand line, watching the fire.<\/p>\n

Down on Cottonwood Road, which acted as another boundary line during the burn, rangers huddled around, radios in hand, waiting to hear how things were burning before giving the green light to go ahead with the Upper Boggy Draw prescribed fire.<\/p>\n

This prescribed fire, like all of them, was many years in the making. It takes years of planning, permitting and adhering to the National Environmental Policy Act to actually undergo a burn.<\/p>\n

As a ranger said that day, they\u2019re constantly planning five years \u2013 or more \u2013 out.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores District\u2019s Prescribed Fire Map for 2025. The prescribed burn on April 29 was in the Upper Boggy Draw burn area. (InciWeb)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And, on top of it all, conditions have to be just right the day of the burn.<\/p>\n

Some years, the Forest Service doesn\u2019t burn at all because it\u2019s too windy, hot, dry or wet.<\/p>\n

That morning, temperatures were cool. The expected high for the day was in the mid-50s, the wind was moderate and the radar promised weather in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting some moisture, but no wetting rain,\u201d said Bruno Rodriguez, a NOAA meteorologist on site from Boulder, of the afternoon weather.<\/p>\n

Here, wetting rain, he said, would be anything a tenth of an inch or more.<\/p>\n

Plus, cooler temperatures are favorable because on hotter days, more water evaporates from the vegetation and thus makes it more flammable, said Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

Conditions were decidedly right on Tuesday, so the fire was allowed to spread. On the hour, though, crews checked the weather to make sure nothing changed.<\/p>\n

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