In The Southwest, U.S. Forest Service Fights Fire With Fire
After years of record-breaking wildfires across the Southwest, fire managers are finally catching their breath this season. A wetter-than-average spring is allowing them to focus on preventing mega-fires in the future.
At a ranger station in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico a firefighter tested his chainsaw while a student volunteer dumped ice into a cooler full of Gatorade. Just north of them, a 4,000-acre wildfire burned virtually undisturbed. It's one of a handful of fires the U.S. Forest Service is letting burn naturally.
"Here in the Southwest, it's so dry our method of recycling is wildfire," said Gabe Holguin a fire manager in the Gila.
Fire is the forest's best housekeeper. It clears out dead organic matter and overgrowth that accumulate over time. Fire puts nutrients back in the soil which contributes to new growth. In the early 20th century, the Forest Service interrupted this process by suppressing all fires. That's what eventually led to the mega fires of recent years.
In 2011, the Wallow Fire in Arizona torched half a million acres. The following year in New Mexico, the Whitewater-Baldy Fire burned nearly 300,000 acres. Both fires were the largest in state history.
The practice of letting fires burn on their own was partially pioneered in the Gila of New Mexico. It's sheer size of 3.3 million acres, one third of which is wilderness, allowed plenty of room for experimentation.
"Nature knows how to take care of itself much better than we do and sometimes we have to let it take its course," said Aaron Jones, who's worked as a fire planner in the Gila since 1998.
Even when the Forest Service leaves a fire undisturbed, it creates a boundary around it to ensure the fire stays within a manageable zone and avoids damaging human infrastructure like power lines or homes. Jones said part of their job is helping the public to better understand fire.
"Fire is just a natural part of the ecosystem, it's been around a lot longer than we have," he said.
In Arizona, lighting-sparked fires in the Coronado and Coconino National Forests are currently burning naturally. Summer monsoons have already begun to roll in to parts of the Southwest, bringing even more relief to regions grateful for a quiet fire season.
