Fire destroys part of Cienega wetlands
Officials evaluating impacts to wildlife, vegetation
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — Officials are evaluating the impacts to wildlife and vegetation of a wildfire earlier this month in the Cienega del Golfo de Santa Clara, an environmentally protected area.
The fire that started July 8 burned over six days in wetlands where the swampy terrain itself frustrated efforts to fight the blaze.
The Cienega, a reedy wetlands area that part of the Upper Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve, is located about 40 miles south of San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., and has become a popular destination for nature lovers and ecotourists.
“The place where the fire was is away from the area that draws visitors, and the problem is that it is an area of swamps where nothing but specialized vehicles can get in there,” said Benito Rocha, who oversees tourism in the Cienega for the city of San Luis Rio Colorado.
San Luis Rio Colorado officials said efforts to stop the fire were limited to using boats as well as vehicles with firefighting equipment that could spray water from firm ground nearby. Aircraft with firefighting equipment were tied up with fires in neighboring Baja California and could not be brought in, city officials said.
While the swampy conditions surrounding the burn area hampered firefighting, they also helped keep the blaze from spreading farther, Rocha said.
Rocha said lightning is the suspected cause of the fire since little human activity took place in the area where it started.
Created from brackish groundwater runoff from the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation & Drainage District, the Cienega covers nearly 25,000 acres on the edge of the Sea of Cortez, where it creates a unique ecosystem for fish and fauna. It is populated by more than 200 species of birds, both migratory and those native to the area. Some are protected species, including the endangered Yuma clapper rail.
Officials from the National Forestry Commission within Mexico’s environmental ministry have been at the scene of fire in recent days reviewing the damage from the blaze, he said.
Officials from the ministry — known by its Spanish acronym SEMARNAT — did not respond to calls from comment.