The BLM's Tres Rios Office in Dolores recently received an additional $557,000 for wildfire resiliency projects in the region.

The extra funding is part of $10 million effort by the U.S. Department of Interior aimed at restoring forest and rangeland health in the West.

"These projects will help restore critical landscapes, which is essential for mitigating the impacts of fire and climate change," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in a press release.

The Wildland Fire Resilient Landscape Program focuses on treating more remote BLM lands with prescribe burns and mechanical treatments to lessen the risk of landscape-scale, catastrophic wildfire.

"We've seen a lot of funding aimed at creating defensible space for neighborhoods near the forest," says Brad Pietruszka, a BLM fire specialist for the Tres Rios district. "This funding targets fuel reduction within the broader forest landscape."

Too much focus on fire suppression from a century ago has created overgrown BLM forests, a situation that can lead to very devastating crown fires fed by tall underbrush.

Using prescribed fire beats back the "ladder fuels" of oak brush and smaller trees, Pietruszka said, so when there is a fire it stays low intensity.

"The goal is have each section of BLM forest be touched by fire on an interval of every 6-10 years," he said. "We've got a lot more to do, and this extra funding helps."

Last week, on the rim of the Lower Dolores River near Egnar, a 138-acre section of ponderosa forest was treated with prescribed fire as a result of the additional funding.

The area had not burned for 50 years, resulting in a thick layer of forest litter and dense oak brush, some reaching 10 feet tall.

On a recent tour of the burn, smoke and low flames smoldered where the thick stands of oak brush once stood. The area is blackened and looks destroyed, but it's deceiving, Pietruszka said.

"People see it and think everything is dead, but within a year it comes back really green," he said. "The burning helps to creates a park-like mosaic with more meadows and fewer, but more healthy trees."

Larger ponderosas take on an orange hue called scorching as a result of the burn underneath them. Highly adapted to fire, ponderosas can withstand fire if it does not reach the crown, explained BLM fire specialist Kelly Boyd.

"After an area is treated with a prescribed burn, it allows for a future fire from a lightening strike to play a more natural role - burning back litter and brush low to the ground with low intensity, then burning out on its own," he said.

The West Dolores Rim burn area also acts as a fire break if a wildfire occurs in the rugged, inaccessible slopes of the Lower Dolores Canyon.

More prescribed burns are planned in the area, Pietruszka said, but the process takes time.

Each prescribed burn has 1-2 years of prep time, including complying with the National Environmental Policy Act, conducting raptor and owl surveys, mitigating for deer and elk critical habitat, and waiting for appropriate weather and fuel-moisture levels. Fire managers also must consult with U.S. Fish and Wildlife if the burn is in habitat for endangered Mexican spotted owl, or the Gunnison sage grouse, a local bird recently listed as a threatened species.

Also as part of the initiative, BLM districts in southern Utah received $2.6 million to remove encroaching pinon pine and juniper, and to vary the age of sagebrush communities to benefit the sage grouse.

The President's 2016 budget proposes $30 million for the Wildland Fire Resilient Program to reduce likelihood of large landscape-scale wildfires.

"The benefits of increasing the resiliency of our lands to wildfires is wide-ranging," Secretary Jewell said. "From conserving native species, to restoring rangelands and forests, these projects support our efforts to protect our nation's landscapes for this and future generations."

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com