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- Info
Changes in fire hazard as a result of the Cerro Grande Fire
| Author: |
Greenlee, D.; Greenlee, J. |
| Date: |
2002 |
| Periodical: |
Fire Management Today |
| Link: |
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/Library/Fire_Mgt_Today/Cerro_Grande_Chg_fmt62-1.pdf
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| Abstract: |
On May 4, 2000, a prescribed burn was ignited on the Upper Frijoles Burn Units 1 and 5 on New Mexico's Bandelier National Monument. The units were located at between 9,000 and 10,000 feet (2,700–3,000 m) elevation in the Jemez Mountains, 6 miles (10 km) west of Los Alamos, NM. The burn was part of the Valle Project, an interagency fuel reduction program designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire in the Los Alamos region. The burn’s objectives were to reduce tree densities and fuel loads in overgrown meadows and stands of aspen, ponderosa pine, and mixed conifer (NPS 2000). Two large wildfires had threatened Los Alamos in preceding years (the 1977 La Mesa Fire and the 1996 Dome Fire), causing researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to publish a prediction that proved to be an uncanny harbinger of the events that followed (LANL 2000). |
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