Grants, NM — El Malpais National Monument successfully completed two prescribed fires this spring reducing hazardous fuels and improving conditions for native plants, animals, and habitats on over 1,700 acres of park lands. Both fires reintroduced low-tomoderate intensity fire to the park’s pinyon-juniper and Ponderosa pine woodlands.
The 369-acre East Encerrito prescribed fire, completed in late April, was successful in maintaining and encouraging growth of native grasses while limiting new growth of pinyon-juniper in the area.
The 1400-acre Calderon Triangle prescribed fire, completed in late May, was successful in maintaining the Ponderosa pine forest by removing grasses from the understory as well as brush remaining from past fuels treatments. The reduction in ground fuels reduces the risk of future catastrophic fire when conditions are hotter, drier, and less favorable for firefighters.
An example of fuels treatments and prescribed fire reducing the intensity of wildfire occurred in the summer of 2022 when the Cerro Bandera fire started northwest of the park’s boundary and spread rapidly towards the park. When the fire encountered areas that had been treated with prescribed fire in 2018, the fire dropped from the crowns of trees to the ground, allowing firefighters to manage the fire more easily and eventually contain it near the monument boundary.
To be effective, thinning and prescribed fire should be applied to the landscape regularly to maintain the desired effects. El Malpais burns different areas, or prescribed fire units, each year; the East Encerrito and Agua Fria units will need to experience low intensity fire again in 10-12 years.
“Prescribed fires like the ones that were recently completed maintain the park’s fire dependent ecosystem and protect park resources by encouraging growth of native species and reducing the risk of high-severity wildfires in the park,” said Kevin Parrish, El Malpais National Monument’s Fire Management Officer. “We thank the many firefighters and support staff who came from other national park sites and partner agencies to help with these prescribed fires.”
El Malpais staff were assisted by firefighters and staff from a total of 11 national park units and offices as well as resources from the Bureau of Land Management and Cibola National Forest.
Additionally, El Malpais would like to thank park neighbors and the local community for their patience during brief periods of smoke and alternating traffic on Highway 53.