{"id":40536,"date":"2022-05-19T00:31:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T06:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/counties-forest-and-blm-to-enact-fire-restrictions-as-area-dries-out\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:56:15","slug":"counties-forest-and-blm-to-enact-fire-restrictions-as-area-dries-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/counties-forest-and-blm-to-enact-fire-restrictions-as-area-dries-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Counties, forest and BLM to enact fire restrictions as area dries out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Plumtaw Fire north of Pagosa Springs after one day of growth. The fire added approximately 13 acres overnight into Wednesday as roughly 150 firefighters and nearly a dozen aircraft battled the blaze. (Courtesy of U.S. Forest Service \u2014 San Juan National Forest)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma and La Plata counties, the town of Dolores, and the San Juan National Forest plan fire restrictions this month amid dry conditions and rising temperatures.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the San Juan National Forest will enact Stage 1 fire restrictions, which ban fires, including the use of charcoals or briquettes, except in designated fire rings within developed campgrounds and picnic areas.<\/p>\n

The ban was scheduled for May 25 but was moved up as a precaution. The Tres Rios Office of the Bureau of Land Management currently does not have a fire ban.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners plans to enact a fire ban May 25, said Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

The county fire ban was unanimously recommended by all fire departments, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is drying up fast. We have higher heat and winds,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cWith the Memorial Day weekend crowds coming up, we want to protect the area from fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightning also is in the forecast, he said.<\/p>\n

The ban prohibits open burns and fireworks. Trash can be burned in a burn barrel with a quarter-inch screen in a 20-foot diameter clearing. Use of barbecue grills is allowed. Welding is allowed within a bare clearing that is 20 feet in diameter as long as a fire extinguisher and shovel are present.<\/p>\n

The fine for violating a fire ban is up to $1,000, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

The Dolores Board of Trustees will vote Monday on whether to enact a fire ban, said Town Manager Ken Charles.<\/p>\n

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is discussing enacting Stage 1 fire restrictions, said Fire Chief Tom Stephenson. A decision by the Tribal Council is expected by next week. Stephenson said he will recommend that the tribe go to Stage 1 restrictions.<\/p>\n

As of May 18, Dolores County had not enacted a fire ban, according to its website.<\/p>\n

Most of Montezuma County is in \u201csevere\u201d drought, level D2 on a scale ranging from \u201cabnormally dry\u201d at D0 to \u201cexceptional\u201d at D4 on the U.S. Drought Monitor. The southwest corner of the county is in \u201cextreme\u201d drought, level D3.<\/p>\n

The western half of Dolores County is in severe drought, and the eastern half is in \u201cmoderate\u201d drought, or level D2. La Plata County is mostly in \u201csevere\u201d drought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forest bumps fire ban up a week; Dolores to vote on fire ban Monday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[350,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40536","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=40536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84680,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40536\/revisions\/84680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40536"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}