ALBUQUERQUE, NM – As we enter springtime, we have an opportunity to prepare for the drier conditions and wildfire season. April is a great time to do spring cleaning around your property and create the spacing that can help protect your home. The 2024 Wildfire Preparedness is Year-Round campaign provides monthly wildfire preparedness tips and information. As the snow melts off, the April message from the Cibola National Forest & National Grasslands (NF & NGs), in partnership with the Fire Adapted New Mexico learning network (FACNM), agencies and non-governmental organizations is, Get Your Home in Condition to Resist Wildfire Ignitions.
The Living with Fire: A Guide for the Homeowner is available for New Mexicans to assist in reducing fire’s threat to your home and other structures. By creating vertical and horizontal spacing of vegetation, you may interrupt the ability of wildfire to spread. It may involve removing some trees or brush to increase the horizontal spacing as well as removing lower branches to increase the vertical spacing from the ground.
Closer to your home or other structures, embers can land and ignite flammable materials that may destroy or damage them. To reduce this potential, you can take the following actions:
• Clean up dead vegetation that gets trapped against your house, under your deck, and against fences. Make sure to remove fine fuels, such as pine needles, leaves or anything else that may ignite when exposed to an ember or flame.
• Replace mulch from around the base of your home with a non-flammable material such as river rock or pea gravel.
• Keep any plants in the 5-foot zone irrigated and pruned. Replace vegetation that is woody, dry or difficult to maintain with low-maintenance, fire-resistant vegetation using this firewise planting guide.
• Store firewood, gas cans, lawn mowers, cardboard or other combustible materials 5 or more feet away from the outside walls of the house.
If burning debris from the cleanup, follow all local burn ordinances and be aware of current and forecasted weather conditions. Don’t ignite on Red Flag days, when the combination of strong winds, dry air and dry vegetation can be dangerous.
Partners in the 2024 Wildfire Preparedness Campaign are the Forest Stewards Guild, Fire Adapted NM learning network, New Mexico Forestry Division, New Mexico Coalition of Conservation Districts, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management New Mexico, the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests and the Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands. Bookmark the wildfire preparedness webpage to continue our wildfire preparedness calendar and share the message across multiple platforms, including social media, webinars and community events. Bookmark the wildfire preparedness webpage to follow the campaign throughout the year.