Nature Conservancy aims to boost watershed through prescribed burns
If you’ve driven, hiked or biked in a large forested landscape in the upper half of New Mexico, you’ve likely passed through the massive area where a nearly decadelong restoration program has made its mark.
The Nature Conservancy has led a collaborative effort since 2014 to boost the health of forests and watersheds in a 7 million-acre expanse stretching from south of Albuquerque to north of Taos and Chama.
The program, dubbed the Rio Grande Water Fund, uses prescribed burns and mechanical thinning to follow most foresters’ recommended methods for reducing the risks of catastrophic wildfires by removing the fuels.
It also seeks to expand New Mexico’s wetlands — which have shrunk by a third in the past two centuries — by employing techniques such as reintroducing beavers and planting vegetation that can better retain water.
The environmental nonprofit points to big numbers to go with the huge acreage the program covers — $53 million in public money leveraged, $5.3 million in private contributions and $130 million in estimated economic impact.
The goal is do thin-and-burn treatments on 600,000 acres in a 20-year period. So far, 160,000 acres have been treated since 2014, with 440,000 acres to go in the next 12 years.
But with the state recovering from the largest wildfire in its recorded history — caused by two planned burns gone awry — the use of controlled fires on a wide scale is meeting resistance as some conservationists, government leaders and residents have grown more wary about the practice amid a warming climate and prolonged drought.
“One of our biggest challenges after this catastrophic fire season is, in general, regaining public acceptance of fire use,” said John Waconda, the Conservancy’s Indigenous partnerships program manager. Wildfire creates pause A cornerstone of the program is dialogue with communities, especially those that border wooded areas where the risks of wildfire damage are greater, said Waconda, a member of the Isleta Pueblo.
As could be expected, more people are voicing concerns and asking questions about prescribed burns than before the Hermits Peak–Calf Canyon Fire, Waconda said, referring to the inferno that scorched 341,000 acres in spring and summer 2022 and destroyed at least 500 homes.
The Forest Service lit both prescribed burns that went astray and later merged into the giant fire.
One was a “sleeper fire” that smoldered below ground through the winter before igniting into a blaze. The other was a controlled fire that blew out of control by unexpected winds.
The agency, which conducts most planned burns in the watershed program, is holding off on igniting controlled fires while the policies are reviewed and revised to better adapt to climate change and persistent drought conditions.
Waconda said he agrees with being more careful with prescribed burns as the climate grows warmer and drier, creating conditions that make fires burn hotter.
“There’s been a need to reevaluate the process and do a little more checks and balances in how these land managers are conducting these projects to ensure safety,” Waconda said. “I think it’s good.”
Still, he thinks planned burns are one of the best tools to prevent devastating wildfires and should be done whenever possible. During the interview, he noted the drizzly weather happening that day would be an ideal time.
“There are probably areas that can be burned right now,” Waconda said. Supporters and critics
In the program’s 2022 annual review, The Nature Conservancy says it has more than 100 signatories. Its partners include government agencies, nonprofit groups and regional tribes.
It notes that in the past 25 years, Santa Clara Pueblo fell victim to several large wildfires, which burned nearly 80 percent of its tribal forests, scorched riparian and fish habitat and destroyed canyon infrastructure.
The devastation is a stark example of why preventive measures, such as thinning out overgrown forests, are necessary, it says.
The program has increased thinand-burn treatments to an average of 30,000 acres a year from 20,000 acres in 2014, the group says in a news release. Several of the treatments created fire breaks that stopped runaway blazes from spreading, such as the Medio Fire in 2020.
Follow-up treatments are typically required as maintenance, and to date, about 92,000 acres of these treatments have been done, said Steve Bassett Nature Conservancy’s director of planning and spatial analysis.
Many land managers, agencies and private groups have assisted in the restoration work, including the National Park Service, state Forestry Division, Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and the Chama Peak Land Alliance, Bassett said.
The Forest Stewards Guild has overseen many controlled burns in the watershed, Bassett said.
“All deserve credit for increasing the resilience of the Rio Grande watershed to wildfire,” Bassett said.
There are often not enough qualified firefighters available when weather conditions allow for a controlled fire, so the program has funds dedicated to bring in additional personnel when needed, he said.
Not all conservationists support the program’s objectives.
This program’s cutting and burning combined with what the Forest Service is doing in other areas creates cumulative impacts that are not beneficial for the environment, said Sarah Hyden, co-founder of The Forest Advocate.
“All in all, I think they just need to put the brakes on and reconsider and come up with a much more moderate approach,” Hyden said.
The conventional thinking about prescribed burns is they should be done every five to 15 years, but that’s far more frequent than natural fires that come through a forest on average every 55 years, Hyden said.
The result is too much of the “understory” — small trees, shrubs and vegetation growing between the forest’s canopy and floor — get consumed and, with it, vital wildlife habitat, Hyden said. In general, it creates an unnatural forest landscape, she said.
Prescribed burns, which often are lit near forested communities, also generate smoke that impair people’s breathing and compound respiratory problems, Hyden said.
Hyden contends the value of artificial fire breaks is overstated. Only about 1 percent of wildfires intersect with areas that have undergone controlled-burn treatments, she said.
“They [Nature Conservancy] have one ecological perspective, and that’s aggressive toward thinning and burning,” Hyden said.
Waconda said fire suppression policies of the past have left forests unnaturally overgrown and unnaturally hazardous.
Fire is a natural part of the wooded landscape and reintroducing it, even with human hands, is healthy if done carefully and responsibly, Waconda said. Doing nothing creates a potentially worse danger, especially in areas near homes, he said.
It’s feasible to let wildfires burn in areas that have been treated or in more remote wilderness areas where neighborhoods and infrastructure aren’t threatened, Waconda said.
“There always has to be a balance in determining where we need to … protect communities and people,” he said. “And the most economical and easiest way is through the use of fire. Yes, things went bad this summer, but I think there are corrections being made.”