The U.S. Forest Service scheduled two prescribed burns last week in the southwest part of the state despite a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service. Ultimately the agency burned the day before, but not the day of the warning.
However, officials also said a new state law banning burning during red flag events does not apply to the federal agency.
Following the largest wildfire in the state’s history last year, New Mexico lawmakers passed, and the governor signed, a bill that prohibits prescribed burns during a red flag warning. The bill was in response to the Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak Fire, which started as two prescribed burns by the Forest Service that got out of control.
U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Maribeth Pecotte told KUNM that the state law does not apply to the federal agency. Spokesperson Ivan Diego Knudsen with the U.S. Forest Service’s Southwest region, sent a written response to KUNM’s followup questions.
“While the Forest Service does not strictly prohibit the ignition of prescribed fire on national forests during red flag conditions, prescribed burn plans, and the decisions to allow ignition, are based on site-specific assessments of the conditions necessary to achieve the resource objectives of the proposed prescribed fire safely, and to contain the prescribed fire to the planned burn area.”
Republican State Senator Ron Griggs from Alamogordo was the bill’s sponsor, and said there’s not much New Mexico can do if the Forest Service doesn’t follow the law.