DOLORES — Smoke may be visible across much of Southwest Colorado Wedneday night through Thursday as fire crews conduct a prescribed burn north of Dry Canyon near Dolores on roughly 1,660 acres to improve forest health within the San Juan National Forest.
The burn continues mitigation work from the Dolores Ranger District to remove wildfire fuels and lessen the chance of a major, unplanned fire in the future. The burn plan called for 68 personnel assigned to the field with aerial and drip-torch hand ignitions.
Abraham Proffitt, a spokesperson for the Forest Service, said a test fire early Wednesday assessed soil conditions and wind activity, and the landscape was deemed successfully safe to continue. The area received a quarter-inch of rain Monday, making it ideal for burning.
“At 1 p.m., it was 20% of the interior had been burned, I’d say it’s probably around 30 to 40% burned at this point,” Proffitt said, adding the goal is to wrap up by the end of day.
He said crews thinned vegetation and brush ahead of time to prep for burning. Officials closely monitored soil moisture levels the night prior and week before burning.
“There was low-wind activity, and the landscape itself is a good mix of Ponderosa pine and grasses so that landscape is primed for prescribed fire, because it will burn at a lower intensity,” Proffitt said.
Fire officials follow strict burn guidelines where they can only continue under certain weather, fuel and smoke parameters.
The burn is focused on the Salter-Carlyle area, 12 miles north of Dolores, near Forest Service Road 510.
In part, the strategy is to restore Ponderosa pine ecosystems while improving wildlife habitat.
According to San Juan National Forest, smoke is expected to travel northeast through Wednesday and Thursday and settle around McPhee Reservoir and around the towns of Dolores, Rico, Cortez, Dove Creek, and Pleasant View before disappearing Friday.
“Typically in the evenings, it settles in the canyon, traveling into Dolores and settling into the McPhee and surrounding communities, just depending on how the wind travels,” Proffitt said.
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