Forest restrictions hinge on weather, people

If conditions get worse, it’s possible officials could shut down public access

The progression began last month, when the Santa Fe National Forest announced it was enacting Stage I fire restrictions — limiting campfires to developed sites, setting rules for smoking and placing other fire prevention measures in place.

It was the earliest round of fire restrictions in at least the last eight years, according to data from a forest spokeswoman. Typically, such limits start in May, even June.

“Things started very early this year compared to other years,” said Brendan Wyman, a fire prevention technician in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District. “We’re trying to stay on top of the situation with how dry things are, trying to be proactive with issuing restrictions and other things like that.”

As spring got progressively hotter and drier, the Santa Fe National Forest went to Stage II restrictions. Those measures ban campfires altogether, off-road driving and use of chain saws without spark arrestors.

The next step is the big one. If conditions get worse, it’s possible officials could enact the most severe restrictions — Stage III. Those would shut down public access to all, or parts, of the forest.

The U.S. Forest Service hasn’t been considering these restrictions just yet, Santa Fe National Forest spokesman Bruce Hill said.

But, he added, “It’s not far from consideration.”

In a fire season that some fear could be one of the state’s worst due to drought conditions, forest personnel keep a constant watch on conditions Wyman called “bone dry.”

“It’s the driest I’ve seen it,” he said. “It won’t take much for a large fire to occur at this point, with how dry things are.”

Wyman doesn’t make the decision to increase forest restrictions. The official sign-off, he said, comes from the forest supervisor, James Melonas.

But the factors that go into such decisions, officials said, are actually more nuanced than just arid conditions. A key consideration is the avail-

ability of firefighting resources. The more fires going on around the country, the fewer people available to respond to a major issue here.

One of the major factors to determine whether public access to the forest must be closed off is the behavior of those who visit it.

“Right now, we’re in Stage I, and if it looks like the public is complying and Stage II is working … that’s great and we can stay that way,” Wyman said. “If we do see indicators that the public is being noncompliant, that’s when we may need to take additional steps.”

He said the Forest Service has staff patrolling the Pecos/ Las Vegas Ranger District to keep an eye out for campfires and behavior banned under the Stage II restrictions.

In addition to educating the public, Wyman said, Pecos/ Las Vegas Ranger District staff have been communicating with businesses in the area about what the next level of restrictions would mean for them.

Colleen Collins, who owns the store Weekends in Jemez Springs, which is right in the middle of the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest, said her business was hurt badly the last time the forest shut down in 2013.

Collins didn’t lose all of her business, she said, but “it got quiet real fast.”

The Santa Fe National Forest closed for almost three weeks that summer, with the exception of the Rio Chama corridor. Some parts of the forest, including parts of the Jemez Mountains damaged by the Thompson Ridge Fire, stayed closed for months.

“It was not a happy situation. On the other hand, [closure] would be kind of hard to argue with,” Collins said. “We want to keep our jobs and our businesses, but we also want to keep our houses and our lives.”

According to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, the peak of fire season in the Southwest is expected by late June, just before the annual monsoon rains should hit.

The next six weeks will be critical, Wyman said, adding “It’s that time of the year when you’re most likely to see those large, catastrophic wildfires.”

He encouraged people to get outside and enjoy themselves but to do it responsibly.

“That’s really what it comes down to,” he said. “If people are not being responsible … it can all be taken away by Mother Nature, right now.”