By Alan Barton,
NMFWRI Director
In November, newspapers had front-page articles describing a national drought, affecting 48 states. This has hit the usually humid eastern states especially hard, as they are less accustomed to worries about water than those of us in the generally arid western states. Drought in the east has created conditions conducive to wildfires, and indeed the number of wildfires has ticked up, including several fires near urban areas. Reporters have attributed this phenomenon to climate change, and while a hotter climate produces more drought, those of us in the west know that an increase in large, destructive wildfires has many causes, some related to weather – hotter, dryer, windier days – and others resulting from past forest management policies and practices that altered the natural fire regimes on forested lands. Some foresters have equated many trees on a landscape to many straws in a punchbowl – a surplus of trees alone can lead to dryer conditions as trees draw out more water. Add in a warming climate and drought conditions, and forests comprised of many very dry trees provide ready fuels that will carry a fire across a large landscape quickly.
The work of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute is centered on providing resources to forest managers and communities that help them lower the risk of these harmful wildfires. Reducing the amount of fuel on a landscape through treatments like thinnings and controlled burns is one step, but the issue of the growing number of large wildfires is complex. There are many ecological, social and economic issues surrounding this problem. The generous support the federal and New Mexico governments – and the taxpayers that they represent – continue to provide the NMFWRI gives our well trained and professional staff the resources necessary to produce information and tools that facilitate informed management decisions, and help communities better understand what steps they can take to reduce their risks of being affected by a catastrophic wildfire. The NMFWRI and our SWERI partners work locally with communities and agencies in our states, but our place-based approach also can have a national impact as the tools and information we produce spread to many areas where wildfire is becoming more common – and as we saw evidence in November, this can reach the entire nation.
The NM Fire Viewer above shows active fires and hot spots as of early December.