Residents in Southwest Colorado woke Monday to hazy skies and the scent of smoke. The cause? Prescribed burns on National Forest land north of Cortez.
U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lorenna Williams said firefighters began broadcast burns on 1,242 acres in Boggy Draw, with another 344 acres planned for Monday. The burns were ignited by hand and from a helicopter and monitored closely for safety, Williams said.
A steady southwest wind carried smoke aloft, creating hazy skies, Williams said.
“We work with the state for smoke permits and make sure that the smoke impacts – while they are real and they do impact communities – stay below the legal threshold that the state has set for smoke dispersal,” Williams said.
Fire conditions, including wind, aligned perfectly Sunday to safely conduct the burns, Williams said.
Firefighters ignited the burns without concern they would grow out of control.
“Oxygen is a critical component to wildfires and prescribed fires, because fire needs oxygen,” Williams said. “What we want is a low, steady wind that’s going to carry that smoke up and away and disperse it very broadly.”
Once the burns in Boggy Draw are wrapped up, firefighters may return to Sauls Creek outside of Bayfield to conduct additional prescribed burns, Williams said. That work is weather-dependent, she said, but with another wet spring storm forecast for the weekend, conditions look favorable.
“We love to time prescribed fires in those nice, clear days with a steady breeze, right before a little bit of rain comes in,” Williams said.
Burning in Sauls Creek could also create smoke impacts, though those will be more concentrated to Bayfield, Ignacio and the U.S. Highway 160 corridor east of Durango, Williams said.
To stay up to date on prescribed burns, visit inciweb.com or the Columbine Ranger District’s Facebook page.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
