近距离内射合集

CUNDIY脫 鈥� It was Sept. 2, toward the end of harvest season here in northern New Mexico, and Billy Vigil stood in an acequia filled not with water, but a tarry track of ash, mud and debris nearly a foot thick.

鈥淚t was running with clear water the other day,鈥� he said, his boots sucking the mire as he hefted another shovel load from the Acequia de los Cuarteles, which feeds his fields and those of his neighbors. 鈥淣ow there鈥檚 about 10 inches of silt in it.鈥�

All across small villages lying west of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, late summer rains that have fallen on the 15,483-acre Frijoles Fire burn scar have sent the same thick sludge spilling into around 30 acequias and Santa Cruz Lake, blackening fields, ruining crops and leaving residents worried about future flooding.

But those impacts could be short-lived compared to some of the state鈥檚 most severe wildfires, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

A Burned Area Emergency Response team deployed to the Frijoles Fire burn scar this week, emerging with an initial picture suggesting the blaze didn鈥檛 cause catastrophic damage to the Santa Cruz or Rio Frijoles watersheds, for which the wildfire is named.

鈥淲e do have a preliminary Soil Burn Severity map and most of the burned area is very low or low soil burn severity, so that is very good news for post-fire watershed impacts,鈥� said Sandra Dingman, a project manager for the Forest Service.

Although total acreage for the Frijoles Fire has remained largely static this month, Dingman said flames remain active along its northeastern edge, with 鈥渁 few small pockets鈥� also smoldering on its west side. Containment stands around 80%.

BAER teams, as they鈥檙e known by their acronym, gauge a wildfire鈥檚 severity prior to full containment through a combination of satellite imaging and on-the-ground observations, which form a picture of how dramatically a wildfire has altered a landscape.

Experts look for variations in vegetation and soil 鈥� a particularly strong determinant of future erosion and flooding. If the earth has lost its structure and ability to retain moisture, especially in steep areas, post-fire treatments are often implemented.

Fire managers classified large swaths of the 2022 Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire on the windward side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains as severely burned, for example, designating those areas for aerial seeding, mulching, log erosion barriers and fences designed to filter silt from watersheds.

The 2024 South Fork Fire that burned 17,569 acres near Ruidoso was another severe New Mexico fire that鈥檚 become the subject of post-fire treatments in recent years.

Both burns scars are also test beds for the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center in Mora, where acequias continue to be impacted by post-fire erosion and runoff from the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire.

By 2028, the center will be home to the New Mexico Reforestation Center, which broke ground this spring and is set to produce up to 5 million climate-adapted tree seedlings per year. Those baby trees can be planted strategically to help restore forest ecosystems and reinforce compromised watersheds.

Andrei Toca, a research scientist at the John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center, said early assessments of the Pecos Wilderness Area, where the Frijoles Fire primarily burned, suggest the watershed was due for 鈥済ood fire.鈥�

It鈥檚 a term foresters use to describe wildfire that delivers ecological benefits, such as removing dead and down debris, as well as delivering fertilizing nutrients to soil from ashen plant matter.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we are in catastrophe territory,鈥� Toca said. 鈥淚n terms of the well-being of the forest, I think we are still in good fire territory.鈥�

While the review of the Frijoles Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest is ongoing, Dingman said the Forest Service does 鈥渘ot anticipate the need for any watershed treatments on Forest Service lands,鈥� but was 鈥渟haring information and data with cooperators to consider potential for impacts off Forest Service lands or waters.鈥�

The early assessment signals hope for downstream water users, but elected officials have taken early steps to ensure acequia communities are able to communicate a generational, local perspective to federal partners.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to meet directly with the people of the land who will be most impacted by flooding, ash and debris after a fire,鈥� U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fern谩ndez, D-N.M., said in a statement. 鈥淔or the Frijoles Fire that includes the farmers, acequias, the land grants and mayordomos who care for the water of the Santa Cruz watershed.鈥�

Fern谩ndez said lessons learned in the yearslong aftermath of the state鈥檚 largest wildfire, which spanned 341,471 acres in Santa Fe and Carson national forests, helped New Mexico better advocate for communities that have relied upon major watersheds for centuries.

鈥淲e did a lot to educate federal agencies about acequias and their role after the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire and I hope those lessons are well understood for the BAER assessment after Frijoles,鈥� Fern谩ndez added.

New Mexico filed a lawsuit against FEMA this week related to the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, arguing the agency unlawfully denied the state鈥檚 request for $61.6 million to fund New Mexico National Guard deployments to the burn scar.

The state鈥檚 battle for federal support in the wake of the fire, which resulted from a Forest Service prescribed burn and pile burn that grew out of control and then merged, has left some New Mexico communities skeptical of their federal partners.

Rio Arriba County Commissioner Alex Naranjo said he attended a Sept. 1 meeting the Forest Service hosted at the Truchas Community Center to press officials for answers regarding post-fire effects on water quality from the Frijoles Fire.

鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be damage when that water comes down,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he issue is it affects everybody, including a lot of people who have farms down here in the valley. I live in La Mesilla, so I鈥檓 involved with the La Mesilla ditch.鈥�

Vigil and his wife, Jolene, called 911 to report smoke from several lightning strikes that flashed low in a saddle of the Pecos Wilderness several miles east of their home on Aug. 4, when the Frijoles Fire began.

But after the rains finally came in late August, as hundreds of wildland firefighters battled the blaze, water quickly supplanted fire as their greatest concern.

鈥淢any, many people utilize the water from Santa Cruz dam,鈥� Jolene Vigil said. 鈥淚t flows into the village of Chimay贸 and all the way to San Pedro to the Espa帽ola area. Many of those people raise cattle and also have farms. This will impact their businesses.鈥�

John Miller is the 近距离内射合集鈥檚 northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.