The Columbine Ranger District plans to conduct prescribed burns beginning Saturday and continuing through next week in the Yellow Jacket and First Notch areas of the San Juan National Forest east of Bayfield.
Crews worked this summer to widen past control lines that had become overgrown to help keep burning operations safely within determined boundaries. These fall burns will reduce the risk of high-intensity wildfires in these areas and increase forage on big-game winter range.
Yellow Jacket
This prescribed fire will encompass 2,539 acres within two burn areas, which will be ignited and monitored by trained firefighters using both ground and aerial ignition methods.
Weather and fuel parameters stated in the prescribed fire plan will be followed. Daytime smoke is expected to move into the atmosphere to the north and east into the Piedra River drainage, while nighttime smoke is projected to settle in the Beaver and Sauls Creek drainages. Smoke will be heavier in the mornings after burning operations, but it should lift and dissipate by mid-day.
First Notch
This prescribed fire will encompass 1,336 acres within four burn areas. Daytime smoke is expected to loft into the atmosphere to the north-northeast, with smoke impacts during the day predicted to be minimal.
Nighttime smoke will settle in the Piedra River drainage, with heavier smoke in the mornings, lifting and dissipating by mid-day.
For more information, call the Columbine Ranger District Office at 884-2512.
