Wildfire Prevention

The National Climate Assessment, which comes out every five years, finds fires are expected to get hotter, more destructive and more widespread.

Many private landowners and small organizations conduct controlled burns in New Mexico, but the federal guidelines can be of limited help to them. A new voluntary certification program called for by a 2021 law is now up and running to teach New Mexicans how to safely conduct a prescribed burn.kunm

Evacuation centers not managing dual threats of COVID-19 and wildfire smoke

UNM HSC HERO program provides support to communities impacted by wildfires

The Hermits Peak fire began as a prescribed burn. Many officials, and evacuees at risk of losing everything, say the burn should never have happened. An ecologist says despite the risks prescribed burns are essential.

The KUNM News Department is continuing to update these lists with resources related to the fires in NM, including the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak

The Southwest’s fire season is lasting longer and getting worse, according to researchers. Fire officials do have a trick up their sleeve: prescribed or planned burns. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is creating a tool that uses physics and data modeling to predict how a prescribed burn might behave before it’s lit. But, in hot, dry weather it’s harder to keep them under control.

Hundreds of firefighters have worked to contain a fire that tore through a canyon in a residential area. But a village with about 8,000 permanent residents lost an elderly couple and more than 200 homes. And it must grapple with the possibility that a changed climate could make fires like this more common

Wildfires have burned just over 120,000 acres of land in New Mexico in the past year alone––and several organizations in the region have received federal funding to fight them.