Incident Media Photographs

Residents and visitors to the Boggy Draw area near Dolores will continue to see smoke this week from a prescribed burn on May 9. Fire personnel are patrolling the area and smoke will be visible as fuels dry out and temperatures warm up.

Light smoke drifts across the Dolores-Norwood Road (FSR 526) the morning after a prescribed burn in the area. Smoke often settles into low-lying areas at night after a burn and motorists should drive with their lights on and use slower speeds when traveling through smoke.

An example of a "hazard tree" along the Bean Canyon Trail. Fire has burned some of the base of the tree which will make it more susceptible to toppling during high winds or after a heavy rain.

One of the objectives of prescribed fire in Ponderosa Pine forests is to raise the base height of the canopy. What that means is the fire either scorches and kills needles closer to the ground or burns off lower limbs completely. This will make it harder, in a wildfire, for the fire to climb up into the tree canopy.

Across the over 1100-acres treated with fire on May 9, effects were light to moderate in many areas, with only pine needles, cones, leaves and some dead wood and stumps burning. Even this amount of fuel reduction would lower the intensity of a wildfire if one were to burn into this area in the next few years. Less fuel means a less intense fire - something to consider as you do your spring yard clean up.

After a fire, prescribed or wildfire, many hazards remain even after the fire is out. One such hazard is a stump hole where the wood has burned away. These may be deeper than they appear and are not always as obvious as this one. Underground roots may also burn, leaving the ground around stumps and stump holes unstable. 

Two firefighters work to cut up a hazard tree along Forest System Road 526 (the Dolores-Norwood Road). 

The bottom of Bean Canyon had not seen any fire for many years until May 9. Canyons can intensify wildfires by funneling and intensifying any wind. Removing some of the fuel from the canyon will lower that intensity if an wildfire happens in the canyon.

Smoke from the spring 2024 Boggy Draw prescribed burn is seen on the evening of May 7 from a spot overlooking McPhee Reservoir, near Dolores.

Three "burn units" totaling about 1133 acres were successfully treated with fire on May 9th, 2024 in the Boggy Draw are of the Dolores Ranger District.

Firefighters carefully bring fire down a steep slope in Little Bean Canyon on the Dolores Ranger District of the San Juan National Forest on May 9, 2024.

The May 9th prescribed burn was, in part, what is referred to as a "maintenance burn." The idea is to mimic what nature did before we started putting out lightning fires. That means regular re-introduction of fire to clear out dead wood, needles and leaves, and thin out brush and some trees.