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Public information meeting to be held for a planned prescribed burn on Animas City Mountain in Durango

The Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Field Office will hold an open house style public information meeting to discuss a prescribed fire treatment on up to 717 acres on Animas City Mountain in Durango, Colorado. In accordance with Center for Disease Control and local guidelines, the meeting will be held at the Durango Community Recreation Center, 2700 Main Avenue, Durango, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm on Oct. 6, 2021 and will be limited to 50 people at a time and masks are required regardless of vaccination status to provide for everyone's safety. 

Depending on weather conditions and firefighter availability, the BLM expects the prescribed burn to occur as early as the fall of 2021 or the spring of 2022 and take place over two to three days. During the project, out of concern for public and firefighter safety, there will be a brief closure of Animas City Mountain. The BLM anticipates using designated trails as containment lines used for this operation. The BLM intends to ignite the units using a combination of ground and aerial resources and will then patrol the burn until extinguished.

“Each year southwest Colorado communities like Durango are increasingly impacted by large catastrophic wildfires,” said Tres Rios Field Manager Connie Clementson. “Treatment strategies like prescribed fires lessen the impacts of future fires and increase firefighters’ ability to work safely and effectively. This meeting is a great opportunity for people to understand what the plan is and provide suggestions.”

Prescribed fire mimics natural processes, improves forage for wildlife, increases plant diversity by creating breaks in the understory where grasses and flowers can thrive, and effectively reduces hazardous fuel while enhancing woodland health.

The project is part of the BLM’s ongoing commitment to protecting human health and safety while maintaining or enhancing forest and woodland health and functionality. To make this project a success, the BLM is in close coordination with the federal, county, and local government as well as non-governmental organizations, emergency managers, fire departments, public health officials, and state smoke regulators.

More information on the Animas City Mountain prescribed fuels treatment is available online at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7688/, and for the most up-to-date information on wildland fire in the Southwest District, you can follow our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BLMMontroseFireUnit.