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Fire Landscapes, Wildlife & People: Building Alliances for Restoring

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Fire Landscapes, Wildlife & People: Building Alliances for Restoring Fire Landscapes, Wildlife & People: Building Alliances for Restoring Ecosystem Resilience Field Trip Agenda February 27, 2012 8am Leave La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe During the bus ride: Welcome Anne Bradley, The Nature Conservancy Speaker: Zander Evans, Research Director, Forest Guild, General Overview of the Field trip, the Las Conchas Fire and handout materials 9:45 Arrive Walatowa Visitor Center parking lot Speakers: Tom Swetnam, Professor of Dendrochronology, University of Arizona Forest-Fire-Climate-Human Interactions; Robert Morales, FMO Santa Fe National Forest, The First 36 hours of the Las Conchas Fire 10:25 Leave Walatowa 10:40 Arrive in Jemez Springs at the Valles Caldera NP Science Center Speakers: Valles Caldera NP and Santa Fe NF Staff, Jemez Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project 11:30 Lunch at Valles Caldera NP Science Education Center 12:15 Leave for Las Conchas Trailhead 12:25 Speaker: Bill Armstrong, Santa Fe NF Forest Fuels Specialist, Fuel Treatments and Their Effectiveness during the Las Conchas Fire 12:50 Stop at large pull off looking out over the Valle Grande Speaker: Bob Parmenter, Preserve Scientist, Monitoring Change at the Valles Caldera National Preserve 1:10 Leave for TA-49 1:45 Arrive at TA-49 Speaker: Manny L’Esperance, Fire Management Officer, LANL, Los Alamos National Lab Experience with Las Conchas 2:15 Leave TA-49 2:20 Arrive Burnt Mesa Trail Head (1/2 mile west of TA 49 on Highway 4) Speaker: Rory Gauthier, Park Archeologist Bandelier National Monument, Fire Effects on Cultural Resources 3:00 Leave for Frijoles Canyon in Bandelier NM 3:15 Arrive at bottom of Frijoles Canyon Speakers: Barbara Judy, Chief, Natural Resources Protection and Rod Torrez, Chief, Visitor Services and Interpretation, Post Fire Flooding in Frijoles Canyon 4:00 Leave Bandelier 5pm Arrive La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe Las Conchas Fire Jemez Mountains, NM The Las Conchas (LC) Fire began around 1pm on June 26, 2011 when a gust of wind blew a 75 foot tall aspen into a power line. From that ridgetop began the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. During the first 14 hours, the fire raced eastward, consuming more than 43,000 acres of forest and destroying dozens of homes. The speed of the fire’s spread was astonishing—averaging an acre Las Conchas Fire ignition point. Photo by Bob Parmenter. of forest burned every 1.17 seconds for 14 straight hours. The fire continued to grow over the next Weather and Fuel Conditions five weeks, and was eventually contained by At the time the LC Fire started, the atmosphere USFS firefighters on August 1st at 156,593 acres was unstable and dry through 22,000 feet above (245 square miles). ground level. This also allowed strong winds to mix to the surface from aloft. The temperature was 90°F, relative humidity was 6% and 20-foot winds were gusting to 40 mph from the west. Fuels across the fire area were very dry, with live fuel moistures ranging from 110 in the ponderosa pine to 145 in the oak brush. Dead fuel moistures ranged from 2 to 3 percent in fine fuels and 7 to 10 percent in heavy fuels. Fire Behavior The fire demonstrated extreme fire behavior and long range spotting where winds and terrain aligned to funnel winds and cause the fire to become plume dominated. Extremely dry fuel moistures led to nearly complete consumption and very little smoldering fire. Active crown fire occurred mainly in mixed conifer fuel types with passive crown fire occurring in ponderosa pine and pinyon-juniper fuel types. Stage III fire restrictions had been put in place prior to the fire start, closing forest roads and backcountry use in the area. This action most likely saved lives. With as quickly as the fire moved, evacuation of the area would have been impossible if there had been disbursed recreation going on in the Forest and Park. Previous Fires Several large wildfires have occurred across the landscape where the LC Fire burned. Reduced fire behavior occurred in the most recent fire For more information on the Las Conchas Fire, visit Inciweb at www.inciweb.org/incident/2385/ or the Santa Fe National Forest homepage at www.fs.fed.us/r3/sfe/index.html perimeters, whereas conditions in which firefighters were able to safe- areas with older fires ly conduct burnout and holding operations to resulted in little to no keep fire from spreading onto Los Alamos Na- reduction in fire be- tional Laboratory (LANL) property and into the havior. On the north- community of Los Alamos. Third, thinning and eastern edge of the fire prescribed fire treatments during the Blanco and perimeter the fire Gallina projects (early to mid 1990s) along Forest Las Conchas Fire ignition as burned into both the Road 144 helped firefighters conduct successful seen from space. Cerro Grande (2000) burnout operations to keep fire from spreading and Oso (1998) fire areas which was useful in further north. slowing the LC Fire spread. The northern edge of Treatments had also been done around the LANL the fire burned into the South Fork Fire (2010) and the town of Los Alamos. The Valles Caldera which served as a barrier to firespread. National Preserve had no fuels treatments in the Fuel Treatment Effectiveness area except for a previous prescribed burn in the The LC Fire encountered two areas that had been Valle Toledo grassland. treated for hazardous fuel reduction within the BAER Implementation last 10 years on USFS lands and another area that BAER treatments began around July 20, 2011 had been treated 16 to 21 years ago but was still within the Santa Fe National Forest. Aerial effective. First, thinning and fuelbreak projects seeding occurred on 5,200 acres and aerial mulch- were conducted in the Cochiti Mesa WUI area ing is underway on 1,100 acres. Road improve- (2004 - 2008). These treated areas caused the fire ments and work in drainages is completed. Ap- to drop to the ground briefly. Second, thinning proximately 117 cultural sites were identified and and fire treatments done in the Valle II Hazardous treated by hand. The Valles Caldera has done Fuels Reduction Project (2003 – 2009) created some rehabilita- tion and hazard reduction, but no large scale pro- jects. Santa Clara Pueblo is also conducting active restoration projects. Las Conchas At-A-Glance Date of Origin: Sunday June 26th, 2011 Size: 156,593 acres Location (% of total acres burned): On Santa Fe National Forest (50%) in Sandoval, Los Alamos, and Rio Arriba Counties; Santa Clara Pueblo (11%); Jemez Pueblo (2%); Cochiti Pueblo; Santo Domingo Pueblo (<1%); Bandelier National Monument (14%); Valles Caldera National Preserve (19%); and state and private in-holdings (3%). Cause: Human Total Personnel: Up to 2,196 (varied over time) Resources: 2 Helicopters; 6 Engines; 2 Water Tenders; 0 Dozers Structures Destroyed: 63 homes, 49 outbuildings Suppression Cost: $40.9M (as of September 2011) Jemez Mountains Field Trip Handout – From Tom Swetnam, February 27, 2012 Tree-Ring fire scar study sites are shown above (with 3 letter codes), and perimeters of large wildfires since about 1970 are visible as red lines (the 2011 Las Conchas Fire is not shown). This is a very rich physical, ecological and cultural landscape. I grew up in Jemez Springs (1965 to 1973), attending the elementary and high schools at Cañon, NM. Since then I have worked with students and colleagues in this landscape on various fire, insect outbreak, climate, and human history studies. Our newest study is aimed at learning how people, fire and ponderosa pine forests co-existed in these mountains over many centuries. The opportunity is great, because there are archaeological, historical, cultural, tree ring, and sedimentary sources that we can learn from. The need to learn is also great because of the increasing risk of forest loss. I include the public abstract for this National Science Foundation funded project at the end of this handout. A key learning opportunity is the fact that the Jemez people lived within ponderosa pine forests here for many centuries prior to the Spanish settlement period (circa 1610-1700). A number of large, multi-story villages with more than 1,000 rooms each were occupied when the Spanish first arrived. The population density on the southern flanks of the mountain is not known with certainty, but a conservative estimate would be about 28 people/km2. The modern definition of the Wildland Urban Interface is 25 people/km2. 1 These ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests were extensively occupied and utilized for living space, agriculture, hunting, and other purposes. Dryland farming was practiced on mesa tops, in shallow drainages , and along canyon bottoms. The long-term human use of this landscape is hard to fully appreciate today. Diterich Fliedner’s mapping of a small area near Battleship Rock (above) exemplifies the remarkable number and distribution of agricultural, water control, travel and living features in this landscape (Annals of Assoc. Amer. Geog. 65(3), 1975). What effect did such long-term, intensive human occupation and use of this landscape have on forests and fire regimes? What effect did wild and managed fires have upon the Jemez people? How did past climate variability and its effects on fire and agricultural systems affect the people and the forests? What insights and lessons can we learn for understanding and managing these systems today and in the future? Our fire history studies from fire scarred trees in the Jemez Mountains show typical Southwestern ponderosa pine patterns: frequent, widespread surface fires prior to circa 1900, and a sharp reduction of burning after that time. Don Falk’s dissertation research in the Monument Canyon Research Natural Area (about 3 miles northeast of the Fliedner map above), suggests that widespread fires may have been less frequent during the intensive occupation period of these forests before circa 1630.
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