For eons, fire has played an important ecological role in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Historically, small fires occurred at regular intervals, preventing fuels like leaf litter, dead trees, and limbs from building up on the forest floor over time. For this reason, historic fires burned low to the ground and moved slowly across the landscape. These fires provided great ecosystem benefits: nutrient cycling, boosting soil fertility, stimulating new plant growth, promoting seed germination, deterring invasive species, and improving habitat for fire-adapted native species.
However, in recent times, fires have become larger, faster, and more severe. As Anglo-European settlement burgeoned across North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, naturally-occurring fires were often suppressed to protect life and property. This led to a build-up of fuels that would eventually facilitate catastrophic wildfires. Today, hotter and drier climatic conditions are also contributing to higher-intensity wildfires.
To restore ecosystem health and reduce the risk of future wildfires, Valles Caldera National Preserve implements prescribed forest treatments (controlled burns) that are meant to mimic a natural fire interval. Fire managers work closely with natural and cultural resource specialists to monitor the effects of forest treatments on wildlife, plant communities, watersheds, archeological resources, and overall ecosystem health.
Firefighters monitor the Las Conchas Fire (2011) as it sweeps across Valle Grande. Click photo to view StoryMap.
J. Dewar
A map showing the burn areas of two wildfires at Valles Caldera: Las Conchas (2011) and Thompson Ridge (2013). Click for enlarged map.
NPS/M. Shelley
Wildfires at Valles Caldera
If you have visted Valles Caldera National Preserve since 2011, you have likely noticed lasting visual impacts of previous wildfires. The Las Conchas Fire (2011) and Thompson Ridge Fire (2013) burned a combined 60% of Valles Caldera National Preserve, leaving behind prominent burn scars on the landscape.
Las Conchas Fire - 2011
In 2011, the Las Conchas fire burned 156,000 acres (243 square miles). In the first 14 hours it burned more than 40,000 acres; this was nearly as many acres as had burned in what previously had been the largest documented fire in the Jemez Mountains. By the time it stopped spreading, Las Conchas fire was more than three times the size of the previous largest forest fire in Jemez Mountains history (the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire).
Las Conchas Fire in 2011 was a shock not only because it spread so fast and burned such a large area, but also because the severity of the fire was so high. 45% of the fire area burned with high or moderate severity, meaning that across much of the fire area all or nearly -all trees died over large contiguous areas. The resulting impacts to vegetation succession and watershed functioning were moderate to severe and in many areas significant and long-term. The fire burned a broad range of elevations (6,500 to 10,000 feet amsl) across numerous land managing agencies, including the Santa Fe National Forest, Valles Caldera National Preserve, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico State Trust Land, and the Pueblos of Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, Cochiti, San Ildefonso, and Jemez.
Thompson Ridge Fire - 2013
Before the Jemez Mountains community had a full opportunity to grapple with the impacts of Las Conchas fire, the Thompson Ridge fire began early in the fire season at the end of May, 2013. While it was 24,000 acres in size, entirely on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, we have recently come to accept this as a fire of more “normal” size. Unlike Las Conchas, it burned with a reasonable rate of spread and expansion and resulted in a mosaic of varied fire severity. But it was unusual in that it occurred in high elevation (8,000-11,000 feet amsl) forests where normal fire return intervals are not as frequent and where the fire season usually begins later.
The historic Cabin District of Valles Caldera National Preserve burned through not once but twice. The fire fighters, aided by DC-10 aircraft fire-retardant drops, succeeded in protecting every one of the old log cabins and nearly all the majestic old-growth trees that comprise this cultural landscape. But with the onset of summer rains, erosion wreaked havoc down the slopes, bringing down cobbles and boulders, covering roads and making them impassable. The historic cabins saved from the flames were at risk from transported rock and meandering floods as La Jara Creek overflowed and threatened the the log structures. Sandbag walls were quickly constructed during post-fire burned area emergency response (BAER) to deflect the potential flooding around the historic cabins.
On August 25, 2022, a lightning fire burned a single tree near the Valle Grande Trail.
On August 7, 2022, a lightning fire was reported near the junction of VC09 and VC12. The fire burned a single ponderosa pine tree.
Estimated acreage: 0.1 acres
On the afternoon of August 2, 2022, a hiker reported a fire on the Rito de los Indios Trail, near the NE corner of Valles Caldera National Preserve (1/2 mile north of VC09 / VC13 junction). The fire was ignited by lightning and burned in needle cast beneath a large Ponderosa pine.
The La Jara Fire was reported on the afternoon of July 21, 2022, within the Cabin District of Valles Caldera National Preserve. The fire was ignited by lightning and burned in a single live Ponderosa pine. Firefighters from the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service were able to extinguish the fire the same evening.
Estimated acreage: 3.5 acres
On April 28, 2022, a new fire started on the western side of Valles Caldera National Preserve in the Freelove Canyon area. 3.5 acres burned in the old 2013 Thompson Ridge Fire footprint. Quick action by the Southern Area Red Team and local responders contained the fire. The cause of the fire is believed to be a lightning strike.
On April 22, 2022, the Cerro Pelado Fire started 7 miles east of Jemez Springs. As of September 19, the Cerro Pelado Fire was considered 98% contained with crews monitoring for any signs of heat or smoke. Cerro Pelado Fire’s estimated 45,617 acreage burned by land ownership:
USFS – 37,078 acres (81%)
Private – 2,634 acres (6%)
American Indian Reservation/Trust – 4,132 acres (9%)
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
Every time I venture on a new trail, I scan the mountains, looking for burn scars, trying to gauge the extent of the Las Conchas (2011) and Thompson Ridge (2013) fires. It’s one thing to study a color-coded map that shows severity and extent of the burns, it’s another to stand on a hillside among acres and acres of downed trees, then see similar damage miles away caused by the same fire.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
Historically, Mexican spotted owls, a federally threatened species, were known to inhabit and breed within the steep-walled canyons of Bandelier National Monument. In 2011, the Las Conchas wildfire burned through 58% of the Mexican spotted owl's critical habitat within the park, of which 23% burned at high and moderate intensities. Mexican spotted owl surveys have become essential for proper management of their remaining habitat.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
The Large Mammal Monitoring Project is a collaborative effort to monitor the responses of mule deer, elk, black bear, and mountain lion to ecosystem disturbances like wildfires in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico.
Since the Las Conchas Fire in 2011, scientists have monitored burned areas to evaluate post-fire vegetation change in order to find out the rate of conversion from forest to montane meadow and the rate of mixed-conifer and ponderosa pine forest regeneration.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
The Jemez Mountains area is a rich cultural landscape comprised of thousands of archeological sites and their related artifacts, rock art, trails, habitations, and countless other features that are vulnerable to wildland fire.
Understanding the effects of high fuel loads and the resultant high heat exposure to archeological resources during fire is one necessary step towards developing a range of climate change responses for land managers to implement on the ground.
Locations:Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve
Human-caused climate warming and 20th-century forest management policies have led to dramatic changes in wildfire frequency and size, which in turn has impacted our forests’ ecosystem structure and functioning. Climate change drives wildfire frequency by raising temperatures, lowering relative humidity and increasing vapor pressure deficits, all of which contribute to lower forest fuel moisture, increased combustibility, and subsequent expansion of areas burned.
