{"id":46349,"date":"2021-06-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/before-a-prescribed-burn-comes-a-ton-of-planning\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:31:09","slug":"before-a-prescribed-burn-comes-a-ton-of-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/before-a-prescribed-burn-comes-a-ton-of-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Before a prescribed burn comes a ton of planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Fred
Fred Ellis, assistant fire management officer with the Pagosa Ranger District in the San Juan National Forest, checks out new growth last week in the Brockover Prescribed Fire burn area in the Turkey Springs area, west of Pagosa Springs. The burn was conducted on May 1. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

PAGOSA SPRINGS \u2013 \u201cI had no idea they did all this planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a comment Fred Ellis, assistant fire management officer with the Pagosa Ranger District in the San Juan National Forest, hears consistently after community presentations for people living near a prescribed burn.<\/p>\n

Before the first crews are in the field to light a prescribed burn, up to three years of planning may have gone into the effort to maximize the safety of the operation, the effectiveness in improving forest health and the effectiveness of lowering the risk of a catastrophic wildfire.<\/p>\n

\"The
The area on the right side of Turkey Springs Road shows the effects of the Brockover Prescribed Fire conducted May 1 west of Pagosa Springs. The land to the left of the road was not burned. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In fact, before any prescribed burn even reaches initial planning stages, the general practice of using prescription burning to cut down on forest understory must be approved of in broader earlier studies required for each individual national forest.<\/p>\n

The first is a land\/resource management plan. This overarching document must permit the use of prescribed burns as appropriate for the ecology in each individual national forest.<\/p>\n

Secondly, prescribed burns follow a broader fire management plan in place for each national forest, and burns must comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. Any individual burn may require an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment.<\/p>\n

Those requirements mean a lot of work is done in the San Juan National Forest a year or more before the typical prescribed burning season \u2013 April and early May and again in September.<\/p>\n

In the typical year, about 10,000 acres in the San Juan National Forest are treated by prescribed fire, which can include everything from burning slash piles to a 1,000-acre prescribed burn.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Brockover Prescribed Fire in the Turkey Springs area, west of Pagosa Springs, was conducted on May 1. It killed some trees but most will drop their brown needles and regrow new ones. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Brad Pietruszka, fuels program manager for the San Juan National Forest, said multiple options are open for the number of prescribed burns that might go off in any burning season.<\/p>\n

If this year\u2019s monsoons are \u201cperfect,\u201d as many as 15,000 acres might undergo treatment from a prescribed burn in the fall burning season. If monsoons fail, like last year, no fall burns may be conducted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just too dry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another factor in the number of prescribed burns that can go off is the available personnel, Pietruszka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a lot of other places in the West to not have incredibly active fire seasons because the same resources we use to do prescribed fires are the same ones that go to fight a fire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It might take up to three years before actual conditions on the ground are at a point where it is safe to implement a planned burn, Pietruszka said.<\/p>\n

Ellis said: \u201cI hesitate to say this, but the actual implementation is kind of the easy part. So if you\u2019ve done all your planning correctly, if you\u2019re monitoring the environmental conditions on the ground, and you have the right resources, you can go out there and pull off the burn without a hitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New
New growth sprouts about one month after the Brockover Prescribed Fire in the Turkey Springs area. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Pagosa Ranger District follows a programmatic environmental assessment that covers 256,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest.<\/p>\n

Another preliminary study before an individual burn plan is written is a complexity analysis, which examines any elements that might be tricky, whether it would be logistics, terrain features, proximity of structures or other unique features that might impact safety and the way the burn should be handled.<\/p>\n

A complexity analysis determines if the planned burn will be low, moderate or high in complexity.<\/p>\n

Only after all this preliminary work is done does actual work begin on an individual burn plan.<\/p>\n

\"Fred
Fred Ellis, assistant fire management officer with the Pagosa Ranger District in the San Juan National Forest, checks out new growth last week in the Brockover Prescribed Fire burn area in the Turkey Springs area west of Pagosa Springs. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Each burn plan must be analyzed for its impact on cultural resources, wildlife and the hydrology \u2013 stream flows or ponds, lakes and washes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA burn plan has 21 elements in it,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

Among a burn plan\u2019s elements are detailed studies of the personnel and equipment required, a communication plan, an ignition plan, a holding plan, a contingency plan, a smoke-management and air-quality plan, a monitoring plan and a plan for post-burn activities.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most important element of a burn plan is a public and personnel safety and medical plan.<\/p>\n

It is this portion of the burn plan that specifies efforts required to mitigate safety hazards. It must contain plans for emergency medical procedures, emergency evacuation methods and identification of local, county and state agencies, and contacts and liaisons that will be required for a safe burn.<\/p>\n

The burn plan also requires a test burn be ignited in a representative area and the results must be documented to verify the prescribed fire behavior characteristics and smoke dispersion meets objectives.<\/p>\n

After a \u201cburn boss\u201d completes a burn plan, it is then reviewed by another burn boss, usually someone in a different national forest.<\/p>\n

\"New
New growth sprouts Thursday in the Brockover Prescribed Fire burn area in the Turkey Springs area, west of Pagosa Springs. The burn was conducted on May 1. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe don\u2019t want somebody here in our own office reviewing a plan I wrote,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe want fresh eyes, and if they\u2019ve identified issues, we can make changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the burn plan has been critiqued, it then is also reviewed by either the district ranger or the forest supervisor.<\/p>\n

Only after these reviews will a burn plan be ready for the field.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Brockover Prescribed Fire in the Turkey Springs area west of Pagosa Springs was conducted on May 1, but more than a year of planning went into the effort before crews with hand torches were in the field. (Courtesy of San Juan National Forest)<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan National Forest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 400-acre Brockover Prescribed Fire, completed on May 1, is the latest of a dozen or so prescribed burns conducted since 2000 in the Turkey Springs area, west of Pagosa Lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe targeted this particular area, specifically because it is west of the highest concentration of homes in Archuleta County,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWith our predominant southwest winds, if we were to have a major fire and there were no treatments, it could potentially impact the homes up in Pagosa Lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietruszka said the role of fire in the ponderosa pine forest ecosystem, which stretches from northern Mexico to Montana, has been heavily studied.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore white settlement of the area, the San Juan burned anywhere from six to 25 years, and contrary to things you might read, outside of Flagstaff, or northern Arizona, the fires that moved through here were a mix of intensity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fires ranged from low intensity burns with short flame lengths that \u201cdidn\u2019t kill much\u201d to more intense fires that reduced the canopy structure, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ended up with a big mix of successional classes of trees, trees at different stages,\u201d Pietruszka said. \u201cYou\u2019d have individual stands of old trees real spread out, and then you\u2019d also have a lot of little seedlings coming up where the fire was more intense and fire maybe killed the overstory.\u201d<\/p>\n

That natural landscape limited how big fires could grow, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOdds were pretty good that a new fire, at some point, say in a drought year, was going to run into an old fire from the year before or two years before,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you\u2019d get this big patchwork in the landscape of the pine belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

When fire suppression began in the 1930s, an unintended consequence was the buildup of hazardous fuels and the growth of trees that lacked a diversity of sizes in the ponderosa forests.<\/p>\n

The goal of prescribed fires is to mimic that natural pattern of mostly smaller fires, keeping fuel levels down and reducing the chance of a large catastrophic burn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s with prescribed fire we try get fire back in these areas that have missed anywhere between six and 20 fire cycles, depending on the site,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of eggs in one basket to try to undo \u2013 missing maybe 20 disturbance events \u2013 to make up for that in one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietruszka said the effort to re-create the natural cycle of fires is why the Forest Service likes to return to a previously burned area every six to 15 years.<\/p>\n

\"About
About 400 acres in the Turkey Springs area in the Pagosa Ranger District of the San Juan National Forest were treated in the Brockover Prescribed Fire. The main reason for the burn was to protect homes in the Pagosa Lakes subdivision, located to the area\u2019s east. (Courtesy of San Juan National Forest)<\/span>Courtesy of San Juan National Forest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ellis noted the Brockover Prescribed Fire was the second conducted in the area in the past 10 years, which is ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not one and done. We want to do burns on a rotational basis. It helps to throw back the fuels,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

The first thing Ellis does in planning a prescribed burn is to \u201cspend a fair amount of time walking around the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in prospective units, looking for control features,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t have to construct features, put in lines, so much the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brockover Prescribed Fire used Turkey Springs Road as a fire break on the west, a bicycle trail on the east and a fenceline on the north.<\/p>\n

In the end, only the southern perimeter required crews to cut a handline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a prescribed burn, we don\u2019t want to burn everything. What we want is a mosaic,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

Walking through the Brockover burn area a month after the prescribed fire, Ellis pointed out large scorched ponderosas.<\/p>\n

Ponderosas, he said, are adapted to fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cA ponderosa with 75%, 80% of its needles burned will survive,\u201d he said. \u201cThis Gambel oak looks like it\u2019s dead. It\u2019s not; you can\u2019t kill Gambel oak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Areas treated by prescribed burns are far better prepared than untreated areas should a lightning strike or a carelessly discarded cigarette start a wildfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to deal with a fire with 3-foot high Gambel oak than 12-foot high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

analysis and years of study precede ignition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[350,28,199,549,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-national-forest","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\/46349","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=46349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86843,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46349\/revisions\/86843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46349"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}