Fire risk falls enough for forest to open

Sufficient rainfall means closure will end, campfires will be allowed starting Monday

Maureen Perkins was emptying stones, dirt and other debris from her hiking shoes off the Atalaya Mountain Trail on Saturday afternoon when she learned the Santa Fe National Forest would reopen early Monday.

“Good news — now we can go farther afield and worry about lightning strikes,” she joked.

Her companion, John Wolfe, said they were getting tired of repeatedly hiking the Atalaya and nearby Dorothy Stewart Trail — both of which are partly closed — near St. John’s College. They hike almost every weekend, he said, and are looking forward to returning to forest trails this week.

With guarded optimism, Wolfe said, “I hope they waited long enough before reopening.” The potential for fire danger, he said, “is a little bit nerve-wracking.”

But federal officials expressed confidence that the start of monsoon rains Thursday has greatly reduced chances of wildfire on the 1.6 million-acre forest, closed for more than five weeks amid a hot, dry spring following a warm, dry winter that left little snowpack in the mountains. It was the first time since 2013 that severe drought conditions and heightened concerns about fire risks had forced a forestwide shutdown. That summer, the closure lasted less than three weeks.

In a news release issued Saturday, U.S. Forest Service officials said the agency is lifting not only the closure order, which began June 1, but also Stage 2 fire restrictions, at 8 a.m. Monday. That means forest visitors will no longer be prohibited from making campfires.

“We noticed conditions starting to improve two weeks ago when moisture levels increased due to higher humidity,” Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor James Melonas said in the release. “The recent rain is the beginning of what we can expect to be a good monsoon season.”

Following Thursday’s heavy downpours, officials predicted they would soon reopen the forest, given forecasts of more rains Sunday and later this week.

Businesses that rely on revenue from forest visitors — and have been feeling the economic pinch — welcomed news of the reopening.

Brian Appell, owner of Los Ojos Restaurant and Saloon in Jemez Springs, a village tucked along N.M. 4 in the Jemez Mountains, said sales have been down about 50 percent since the closure.

“We won’t make it up,” said Appel, who was critical of the closure.

Still, Appell said, “We’re really excited they’re opening the forest.” He’s ready to see the return of a normal flow of tourists — and revenue — at his business.

On Saturday, he pointed to what he called the unnecessary shutdown of paved and developed campgrounds, and other areas that he thinks posed little risk of becoming the source of a wildfire.

“They did a little bit of overkill with the closure,” he said.

Lilah Williams, a manager at outdoor recreation outfitter REI in Santa Fe, said the shutdown impacted sales and interfered with recreational pursuits for the store’s staff. She and her co-workers — outdoors enthusiasts themselves — were becoming restless without forest hiking opportunities, she said.

“I used to hike at least once or twice a week,” Williams said.

The end of the forest closure isn’t enough, however, to ensure fly fishing can resume at a normal rate on the Pecos River, said Jeremy Brooks, a guide at The Reel Life in Santa Fe. The pastime also requires a return of higher river flows.

“At this point,” Brooks said, “I don’t see us taking many more people to the Pecos until the flows are back up. … It’s totally dependent on the next two weeks of rain.”

Brooks added he couldn’t be sure of the fishing outlook for the remaining summer months, because he has never seen a season quite like this one.

Jennifer Shoemake, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said more rain is expected this week. Storms anticipated Sunday could bring more than a half-inch of rain, she said. Then another storm system is expected to move in Wednesday, potentially bringing a few days of the heavy showers that signal the summer monsoon is finally underway.

“It should be rather wet toward the middle to end of the week, with scattered and numerous thunderstorms areawide,” Shoemake said.

According to Saturday’s news release from forest officials, rain was just one factor considered in ending the shutdown. Another reason was the public’s compliance with the closure and fire restrictions.

“Good public compliance can equate to a significant reduction in the number of human-caused wildfires,” said Lance Elmore, a forest fire staff officer, who said crews had responded to five human-caused fires since the closure began. None of them led to wildfire.

But Elmore urged caution: “Although current and expected conditions exist to allow the forest to open for visitor use, managers ask that everyone please practice fire safety by extinguishing all campfires,” he said.

Other national forests in New Mexico, including the Carson and Cibola, remain closed as the threat of fire continues.

The more than 2,300-acre Sardinas Canyon Fire, which ignited June 24, is still burning in the Carson National Forest southeast of Taos. The humancaused blaze, just 21 percent contained, remains under investigation.