Alan Barton
NMFWRI Director
In an article published in the Santa Fe New Mexican at the beginning of August, New Mexico’s State Forester Laura McCarthy offered a heartfelt thank you to our state’s wildland firefighters for their heroic work in 2026. With a snow drought last winter, and exceptionally hot temperatures during the summer, conditions were ripe for a very tough fire season. And this season has been tough across much of the western U.S., with record breaking and tragic wildfires in several states. In New Mexico, McCarthy noted, the fire season began in earnest in March, with an average of two fire starts each day through early July. During this period, the state saw 524 wildfires, well above the five-year average of 321 fires during the same period.
New Mexico’s fire season used to peak in May and June, and when monsoon rains started in July, the risk of catastrophic wildfires decreased. However, as has been widely noted, the concept of a “fire season” is diminishing each year, as the time wildfires might ignite and burn extends both earlier and later. In New Mexico this year, our snow drought expanded wildfire season into the winter, while a light monsoon and unusually high temperatures in July and August prolonged wildfire season through the summer.
Yet, despite many fire starts, New Mexico has seen relatively few fires exceeding 1,000 acres through August. We have not escaped major wildfires completely. Notably, the Seven Cabins fire has burned more than 30,000 acres in the Capitan Mountains of the Lincoln National Forest, northeast of the Village of Capitan, and the Frijoles Fire has burned over 15,000 acres in the Pecos Wilderness of the Santa Fe National Forest, east of Española and Nambé Pueblo. However, given the conditions this year, we can be thankful that the acreage burned this year has been much less than we might expect.
We owe our thanks to the wildland firefighters who have worked in New Mexico this year. Their careful strategic planning and dedicated follow through have been largely responsible for keeping the high number of fire starts under control. Foregoing a “managed burn” strategy that can sometimes convert natural wildfire starts into controlled burn treatments, in this exceptionally dangerous year state firefighters took a full suppression strategy, working to contain and extinguish ignitions as quickly as possible. The State of New Mexico also contributed funding and training to increase our firefighting forces, and these resources have more than demonstrated their value. As is the case when any disaster is averted, it is easy to attribute this to luck or nature; however, it really is the brains and muscle of our fire crews that keep us safe in these trying times. They endure long days and nights, and very difficult conditions, yet keep pushing to contain wildfires and forestall disasters.
Echoing State Forester Laura McCarthy, NMFWRI sends out our appreciation to all the firefighters who have worked in New Mexico this year. We are grateful for your work – which we know is never easy – and for your dedication and professionalism, which have produced remarkable results.
Thank you!