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With ideal weather conditions continuing, Carson National Forest fire managers are tentatively continuing with prescribed fire activity this week. Crews are continuing to prepare for the American Creek Prescribed Fire, where ignitions will begin as early as Oct. 1 and are expected to last two to three days.

Afterwards, crews will turn to the La Jara/Apache and Sotano prescribed fires as early as Oct. 5, although the exact day of ignitions will depend on wind, weather and fuel moisture conditions. Ignitions on both could occur simultaneously.

“A lot of work over the summer went into preparing all our prescribed fire units for this fall,” said Fire and Fuels Staff Officer Brent Davidson. “Crews built and strengthened firelines, which are similar to containment lines on wildfires and act as unit boundaries.”

Both prescribed fires will be understory burns, in which crews apply fire broadly throughout an area under the canopy to mimic fire’s natural role in vegetation communities where it is frequent and low-intensity. Grasses, leaf litter, fallen and dried pine needles, downed branches, brush and occasional single or clusters of trees are burned.

La Jara and Apache Prescribed Fire

Near Angel Fire, Taos Pines and Valle Escondido (Colfax and Taos counties)

Crews will work on two units (map): The 1,350-acre La Jara Unit on both sides of Forest Road 5 and adjacent to Taos Pines and the 510-acre Apache Unit adjacent to Angel Fire (and the Elliot Barker Trail). Crews applied prescribed fire to a portion of the Apache Unit in 2021. Ignitions are expected to last three to six days.

This project is part of the La Jara Fuels Reduction and Restoration Project, which has been ongoing since 2005. The recently proposed Taos Canyon Forest and Watershed Restoration Project would continue the same kind of work of thinning and prescribed fire to restore fire-dependent ecosystems and reduce the threat of wildfire to communities.

The project is part of the larger Enchanted Circle Landscape, an initiative of the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy to reduce the threat of wildfire to communities, infrastructure and natural resources.

Sotano Prescribed Fire

Near El Rito and Vallecitos (Rio Arriba County)

This unit is 2,365 acres to the north of El Rito and west of Vallecitos (map). Ignitions are expected to last two to four days. It is off Forest Road 44 and partially between the 2019 Francisquito and 2022 Midnight Fire burn areas on the west and the 2023 Alamosa Unit 1 Prescribed Fire to the east.

Work is part of the El Rito Canyon Restoration Project to restore forest, watershed and wildlife habitat health, reduce threats of wildfire to communities and infrastructure and increase the availability of personal-use wood products.

The project is part of the wider Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project, which aims to protect forest communities and increase the health of the area watershed, which serves millions of people downstream.

Stay Updated

The public can keep updated with the prescribed fire activity on InciWeb (La Jara/Apache, Sotano). General notifications are also available by email, social media and the web.

A new Carson National Forest website section includes more information about prescribed fires, including smoke readiness, fire ecology and new approaches for safer prescribed fires.

A limited number of portable air filters, donated by the Forest Stewards Guild, are available for loan for residents near the Sotano Prescribed Fire. Call the El Rito Ranger Station at (575) 581-4554 for availability.