Single Publication

Conditions are looking good today for firefighters to conduct prescribe pile burning on BLM Tres Rios Field Office manage lands adjacent to Durango, CO. Currently, both Edgemont and Grandview project sites have six to twelve inches of snow on the ground. Firefighters plan to burn 65 machine piles north of Edgemont Highlands subdivision, along with 2000 hand piles in the Grandview area southeast of downtown Durango on January 10th to 11th. 

Edgemont piles are limbs and tops of mostly Ponderosa trees left over from a logging operation from a hazardous fuel’s reduction project. Grandview piles are piles are composed of predominately Pinyon and Juniper slash from a big game habitat improvement project and a hazardous fuels reduction project.

More snow is expected to accumulate in the Durango area on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Firefighters will be monitoring the weather to reduce smoke impacts and to ensure control of the burn. Each project area has its own burn plan that outlines the parameters for prescribed burning with specific criteria regarding weather conditions and air quality. Smoke may be visible from Highways 160, 550, 240, Edgemont Highlands Subdivision and Durango area. 

For more information on smoke, visit https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health.

For information on prescribed burns, visit the Southwest District BLM Prescribed Fire InciWeb page (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7852/) or follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SWD_Fire) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BLMMontroseFireUnit).