The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on Friday called for a temporary nationwide halt to controlled burns meant to reduce fire risk after the agency accidentally started part of New Mexico’s largest-ever wildfire.
Expanding drought conditions, along with hot and dry weather, extreme wind, and unstable atmospheric conditions have led to explosive fire behavior in the southwestern U.S., where large fires continue a relentless march across New Mexico.
Fire crews are also battling blazes in Texas and Colorado, where forecasters issued red flag warnings on Friday due to elevated fire danger.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore cited the extreme conditions Friday in announcing a pause on prescribed fire operations on all national forest lands. At the same time, his agency will be conducting a 90-day review of policies ahead of planned operations this fall, according to NPR.org.
“Our primary goal in engaging prescribed fires and wildfires is to ensure the safety of the communities involved. Our employees engaging in prescribed fire operations are part of these communities across the nation,” Moore said in a statement.
“The communities we serve, and our employees deserve the very best tools and science supporting them as we continue to navigate toward reducing the risk of severe wildfires in the future,” he added.
Many forest biologists see controlled or prescribed burning as crucial to reducing high fuel levels in national forests after a century of fire suppression and decades of logging bans in the case of New Mexico.
However, they are also concerned about the potentially devastating effects of prescribed fire if misused, reports Reuters.
A temporary halt to prescribed burns is needed
Controlled burns have a long history in wildland management. Pre-agricultural societies used fire to regulate both plant and animal life. Fire history studies have documented periodic wildland fires ignited by indigenous peoples in North America.
However, due to fire suppression efforts during the early and mid-20th century, low-intensity fires no longer occurred naturally in many forests and led to ground fuel build-up and the dense growth which posed the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
In the 1970s, the National Park Service began using controlled fires for the purpose of new seed growth. While the methodology was still relatively new, the Yellowstone fires of 1988 occurred, which significantly politicized fire management.
Since the 1980s, the climate crisis has steadily taken hold across the world, changing the start of seasons, bringing us a megadrought across the southwestern part of the country, and created a water crisis.
The U.S. Forest Service is going to be reviewing current procedures used in prescribed burns, as well as any new tools and science that can be utilized in supporting the use of prescribed burns.
As of May 20, 2022, six new large fires have been reported, three in Florida and one in Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico. More than a half million acres have burned in 16 uncontained large fires across the country. Currently, 5,736 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents across four geographic areas.
