Fall promotes an ideal window of opportunity for prescribed fire operations. These optimum conditions for prescribed burning are noticeably cooler temperatures, a rise in relative humidity, higher fuel moisture, and predictable winds. All of this together achieves a low intensity burn to consume an overload of dead ground fuels in a controlled manner.
Chief Deputy Apache County Sheriff’s Office, Brannon Eagar said, “This is the time of year when Fire Management personnel have the best conditions to introduce prescribed fire on our forests. The amount of dead ground fuels is so great in some areas that wildlife or people can’t even walk through it. Prescribed fire helps to ensure better grazing for cattle, habitat for wildlife and helps to restore our watersheds. For the health of our forests we must get used to having prescribed fire and the resulting smoke in the air as our forests depend on fire to regenerate and remain healthy.”
As highly trained firefighters place fire on the ground they know what patterns to use to help get the desired effect and manipulate the fire’s behavior in achieving a low intensity burn. Over 99% of prescribed fires are successfully held within the planned perimeters.

The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests are holding a community meeting on Wednesday, October 3, from 6 to 7p.m. at the Supervisor’s Office, 30 South Chiricahua Drive in Springerville.

The Forests will be discussing the upcoming implementation of the Wallow West prescribed burn block, about 10,000 acres south Springerville. This has been in the planning process since the 2011 Wallow Fire. Fire managers are hoping to begin implementation this week, and will be prepping containment lines. The current storm may effect fuel moistures, but the Forests still hope to begin implementation on areas that have remained fairly dry and whose conditions are ideal for burning.

Prescribed burning provides many benefits and is essential to protecting communities and maintaining healthy forest ecosystems. This prescribed fire is within the 2011 Wallow Fire footprint and is designed to reduce fuel loading and maintain low intensity fire within this area.

For more information on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and its district offices, visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/asnf , follow us on Twitter @A_SNFs or join the conversation on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/apachesitgreavesnfs/.

9/27/18 – Prevailing winds are causing smoke from prescribe fires to drift and will be settling in low lying areas during over the next several days. There are several prescribe burn projects currently and the smoke that is impacting northeast region is likely coming from the Cragin Prescribe Burn project.

Many agencies throughout the state will be using prescribed burns over the next several weeks. Any unplanned fires started by lightning or human will be reported in addition to updates on prescribe fires that we will be posting through out the upcoming weeks.