Single Publication

Conditions look good for firefighters to continue prescribe pile burning in the Dawson Draw project area on Tres Rios Field Office BLM-managed lands located 15 miles northeast of Dove Creek, CO on December 4, 2023. If conditions allow firefighters plan to burn in Dawson Draw on Tuesday, December 5, 2023.

Slash piles are from previous treatments that were conducted to reduce hazardous fuels to protect wildland-urban interface communities by providing defensible space adjacent to private property and removing invasive species to restore forest health.

The project area has a detailed burn plan that outlines the parameters for prescribed burning and contains specific criteria regarding weather conditions and air quality that must be met to ensure control of the burn, as well as minimizing the potential smoke impact to local communities. 

The prescribed burn may take multiple days to complete once initiated and will be monitored after completion to ensure public safety. While smoke may be visible in the area at times, most of the smoke will lift and dissipate during the warmest parts of the day. Expect visible smoke in the area for several days after each burn is completed as vegetation in the interior continues to smolder. 

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).