The USDA Forest Service Arapaho and Roosevelt office held a pre-burn briefing on April 12, 2024, at the Forsythe Canyon Trailhead, where they announced the start of a one-month burn period that will affect about 300 acres in the Forsythe Canyon area.

The prescribed burn prescription decision allows for a burn window from April 15 through May 15. This means that there could be smoke in the area from the planned burn any day for the next month.

The Forsythe II Fuel Reduction project is southeast of Nederland, northeast of Rollinsville and directly east of Pinecliffe. The landscape consists almost exclusively of Ponderosa Pine, with a little section of Lodgepole on the western side of the project. This year’s burn plan is designed to treat the Ponderosa acreage.

Operations Section Chief Mike Smith started the meeting by outlining the objective of the operation, to burn about 300 acres of a projected 940. Smith said that the Forest Service had burned over 22,000 slash piles over this last winter in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest. These fire crews have been prepping the area to get ready for these broadcast burns.

A broadcast burn differs from burning a slash pile in that the fire travels along the ground through a landscape of forests and meadows. This type of controlled burn treats the ground cover early so that the fuel levels are reduced ahead of the summer season. In some situations, the burn will be used to control noxious plants or decrease stand density.

Fuels Planner Chad Buser gave a detailed description of how the burn will proceed. Buser said that burns are dependent on a number of factors that are measured every day by burn specialists, who analyze aspects like temperatures and water content in the vegetation. A burn will only proceed for the day if all the burn parameters are a GO.

A “burn boss” makes the final determination as to whether to burn that day. Daily burns can vary in size in response to the steepness of the terrain and wind direction and speed. Specialists on the burn team can include a smoke coordinator and a fire-effects monitor who measure the speed of the fire along the ground.

Fire crews are deployed around the designated prescribed burn area and either start fires and direct them or suppress them at the edges. Buser said that generally broadcast burns are run from high ground to low.

After a broadcast burn is finished, crews will continue to monitor the site in person and with infrared drones that check for heat signatures. Buser added that the Forest Service is also using drones to ignite fires in places that would be too dangerous or steep for a crew member.

Regional Smoke Coordinator Amber Ortega spoke about the behavior of smoke and how the Forest Service monitors it. Ortega said that smoke has a tendency to rise during the day and sink at night. The Forest Service measures dispersion rates and will have smoke monitors in Nederland and on Flagstaff Mountain.

She added that residents can purchase relatively cheap monitors if they want to measure smoke levels around their house. Purple Air (purpleair.com) has a decent smoke monitor for around $200 that can last up to three years.

White finished the briefing by reiterating that prescribed burns can be conducted on any day during the April and May burn window. He stressed that people should sign up for alerts for when prescribed burns are taking place. White cautioned against calling 911 when they see smoke in the air. Calls to 911 centers regarding prescribed burns take the call center staff away from emergency calls.

A link to sign up for Forest Service alerts can be found at the bottom of most Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest website pages. The prescribed burn alerts are emailed and contain links to maps of the current prescribed burns. This is called the Rx Fire Map, and can also be found on the agency website.

The other map to study is called the Incident Information System (Search term: inciweb fire map). It shows all fires in the area including the uncontrolled ones.

There was a question-and-answer session after the briefing. White said that more briefings are planned, and the public will be notified when they are scheduled.