Fall prescribed burning on the Canyon Lakes Ranger District

Firefighters on the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Roosevelt National Forest plan to conduct prescribed fire operations on one or two locations this fall as conditions allow. The Pingree Hill Prescribed Burn is located north of Colorado 14, east of Rustic. The Red Feather Prescribed Burn is located north of Red Feather Lakes.

Burning has previously taken place on the 2,027-acre Pingree Hill Prescribed Burn in both 2014 and 2015. This would be the first year of burning on the 4,348-acre Red Feather Prescribed Burn.

Appropriate conditions must be met before ignition of prescribed burns can take place. Fire managers are carefully monitoring these conditions, including a favorable weather forecast (temperature, wind, precipitation), fuel moisture, smoke dispersal and staffing. Weather is monitored throughout the burn and burning will be halted if conditions fall outside of the required conditions.

In ideal conditions, as many as 500 acres could be burned in one day on either of these burns. The goal of the burns is to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health and wildlife habitat. Work has already taken place within these project areas to help ensure the burn stays within its identified perimeter, including line construction and mechanical fuels reduction.

The Forest Service notifies local cooperators, including Larimer County Emergency Services, about these activities before and throughout implementation. Prescribed fire smoke may affect your health. For more information see https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health. To check the latest updates on when this burn will occur, check our recorded incident information line at 970-498-1030, follow us on Twitter @usfsclrd or check Inciweb. Information on the Pingree Hill Prescribed Burn is located at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4727/. Information on the Red Feather Prescribed Burn is located at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5027/.