{"id":39717,"date":"2022-07-01T01:23:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T07:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/public-land-agencies-remove-fire-restrictions-ahead-of-july-4\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:51:28","slug":"public-land-agencies-remove-fire-restrictions-ahead-of-july-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/public-land-agencies-remove-fire-restrictions-ahead-of-july-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Public land agencies remove fire restrictions ahead of July 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Members
Members of the youth corps gather around a campfire during their classroom and field work on the Dolores River. More than 20 youth corps crew members floated five rafts full of gear and supplies to a remote location where they practiced native and invasive plant species identification, chainsaw techniques and herbicide application.<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Southwest Colorado District announced Thursday the agencies will rescind fire restrictions ahead of the July 4 holiday.<\/p>\n

San Juan National Forest, including wilderness areas, and the BLM\u2019s Gunnison, Tres Rios and Uncompahgre field offices, which oversee public lands in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, San Juan and San Miguel counties will withdraw fire restrictions Friday.<\/p>\n

With the rule change, campfires are now allowed outside established campgrounds and developed recreation sites on San Juan National Forest and BLM lands.<\/p>\n

However, annual restrictions remain in place for the BLM\u2019s Durango Special Recreation Management Area, which includes Grandview, Animas City Mountain and Skyline.<\/p>\n

San Juan County and the town of Silverton also announced Thursday they will relax Stage 1 fire restrictions on Friday.<\/p>\n

Sustained rains that have soaked Southwest Colorado in June and outpaced monthly normals<\/a> allowed the public land agencies and local governments to make the call to loosen restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent rains have lowered fire danger indices within the Southwest District and the area is forecasted to receive more in coming weeks,\u201d Brandon Lewis, the BLM\u2019s Southwest District fire management officer, said in a news release. \u201cWe ask the public to continue exercising safe practices and recreate responsibly on public lands to prevent wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the BLM and San Juan National Forest ease constraints, Stage 1 fire restrictions will remain in effect for La Plata County and the city of Durango.<\/p>\n

Restrictions are also in place for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

La Plata County\u2019s Stage 1 restrictions prohibit open burning, burn barrels, campfires, coal or wood burning stoves, and open fires in unincorporated areas of the county and on county-owned land.<\/p>\n

Fireworks and other explosive materials are also banned and smoking is limited to an enclosed vehicle or building, or within a 3-foot area clear of flammable vegetation.<\/p>\n

Charcoal or gas barbecue grills at private homes, fires in a designated campground and fires inside established metal rings with a grate cover on private property are allowed if they are attended and fully extinguished after use.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s restrictions do not apply to private lands in the city of Durango, the towns of Bayfield and Ignacio, or to federal or tribal lands.<\/p>\n

Variable fire danger was causing La Plata County to be cautious about removing restrictions, said La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the indices, there is some deviation (in fire danger) between the upper zone and the lower zone, so we may not align with the Forest Service on this one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Higher elevations have received more moisture than lower elevations in recent storms, he said.<\/p>\n

In a news release, San Juan National Forest also said danger differed across Southwest Colorado, with southern portions of La Plata and Montezuma counties still at high risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the public\u2019s cooperation during Stage 1 and Stage 2 restrictions and would like to remind everyone that the rain has not reached all parts of Southwest Colorado equally,\u201d Dave Neely, San Juan National Forest\u2019s acting forest supervisor, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

San Juan National Forest encouraged visitors to take these precautions:<\/p>\n

Clear all flammable material within 3 feet of campfire rings.Make a fire only if there is a shovel and sufficient water to put it out.Never leave a fire unattended.Keep fires small and manageable.Extinguish fires completely before leaving. If it\u2019s too hot to touch, it\u2019s too hot to leave.<\/div>\n

Durango Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Karola Hanks warned that the recent rains do not preclude fires from starting.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions are such that we all recognize it\u2019s only going to take one small spark for us to have another fire,\u201d she said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Though fire restrictions will be in place through July 4, La Plata County could relax them as soon as next week if rains materialize over the weekend, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the all the indices are saying that\u2019s the way we should go, that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the holiday, Smith cautioned that, even with the withdrawal of fire restrictions by some entities, fireworks are forbidden.<\/p>\n

\u201cFireworks are never legal in Colorado. It doesn\u2019t matter what restrictions are in place. It\u2019s against the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Juan National Forest, BLM to rescind Stage 1 measures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,1480,350,918,1712,28,475,1745,1901,1194,976,199,2636,629,810,195,549,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-durango-fire-protection-district","tag-fire","tag-forests","tag-forests-and-wilderness","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-la-plata-county-officials","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-san-juan-national-forest","tag-sean-smith","tag-southern-ute-indian-tribe","tag-tourism-recreation","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management","tag-united-states-forest-service","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39717","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=39717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84420,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39717\/revisions\/84420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39717"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}