{"id":1982298,"date":"2023-07-25T14:39:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T18:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-forest-service-admits-controlled-burn-caused-extreme-wildfire-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2023-07-25T14:41:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T18:41:26","slug":"us-forest-service-admits-controlled-burn-caused-extreme-wildfire-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-forest-service-admits-controlled-burn-caused-extreme-wildfire-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"US Forest Service admits controlled burn sparked New Mexico wildfire."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fus-forest-service-admits-controlled-burn-caused-extreme-wildfire-in-new-mexico%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1982298&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The United States Forest Service Admits Prescribed Burn\u200c Caused Devastating \u200dWildfire<\/h2>\n<p>The United States \u200dForest Service made a startling admission on Monday, revealing that a prescribed burn authorized by the agency was responsible for the extreme wildfire that \u200bravaged New Mexico\u2063 in 2022. The admission came in a comprehensive 230-page report, following an extensive investigation into \u2063the Cerro Pelado fire. This destructive fire, which \u200bbegan in April 2022, engulfed over 60 square \u200dmiles of land and came dangerously close\u2062 to Los Alamos\u200b and a U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/162-researchers-from-top-u-s-nuclear-facility-now-working-for-china\/\" title=\"162 Researchers From Top U.S. Nuclear Facility Now Working for China\">national security lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>The Impact\u200b of the Wildfire<\/h3>\n<p>Last spring, the Southwest \u2062region was plagued by \u200da <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/western-governors-ask-biden-for-more-resources-amid-intense-fast-growing-wildfires\/\" title=\"Western governors ask Biden for more resources amid intense, fast growing wildfires\">devastating wildfire<\/a>, fueled by severe drought and high temperatures. In New Mexico,\u200d the Cerro Pelado fire destroyed at least three homes, leading\u200d to multiple\u2063 evacuations and school closures. The\u200c Forest Service now\u200d reveals that the fire originated \u200cfrom a\u200d controlled burn that continued to smolder undetected.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur investigation has confirmed that the Cerro Pelado Fire on the Jemez\u200c Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest was caused by a holdover fire from the Pino West Piles Prescribed Fire, a debris pile burn,&#8221; stated Forest Service \u2062Southwestern Regional Forester Michiko Martin in a press release. &#8220;A holdover fire is\u2062 a \u200cfire\u2062 that smolders\u2062 undetectably. In this case, despite being covered by wet snow, this holdover fire remained \u200bdormant for a considerable time with no visible sign of smoke or \u200cheat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Martin further emphasized the severe impact of extreme environmental\u200d conditions caused by historic drought in 2022, which greatly affected the Santa Fe\u200c National Forest. As a result of the escaped prescribed fires in 2022, the \u2062Forest Service has implemented a 90-day halt on prescribed burns and recommended changes to their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-incompetence-is-responsible-for-new-mexicos-largest-wildfire\/\" title=\"Federal Incompetence Is Responsible For New Mexico\u2019s Largest Wildfire\">prescribed fire program<\/a>.\u200c Firefighters now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-forest-service-admits-controlled-burn-caused-extreme-wildfire-in-new-mexico\/\" title=\"US Forest Service admits controlled burn sparked New Mexico wildfire.\">utilize handheld thermal devices<\/a> and \u2063drones \u2064to detect heat and monitor pile burns.<\/p>\n<h3>Backlash and Accountability<\/h3>\n<p>The Forest\u200d Service&#8217;s admission has sparked backlash from lawmakers in New Mexico at both the state and federal levels. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed her outrage over the \u2062agency&#8217;s \u200cnegligence, stating, &#8220;While climate change and extreme\u200d drought continue to plague the Southwest, the Forest\u200d Service must abandon their \u2063business-as-usual approach to prescribed \u200dburns and \u2063forest management in our state. I \u2063am relieved to hear that \u2062the Forest Service will now \u2062use technology to prevent this from occurring in the future.\u200c We will continue to hold the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fla-sues-biden-admin-over-catch-and-release-border-policy\/\" title=\"Fla. sues Biden admin. over \u2018Catch and Release\u2019 border policy\">federal government accountable<\/a>\u2064 for each of the disastrous fires they caused in our state last summer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico Cabinet Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst echoed Governor \u200bGrisham&#8217;s \u2062sentiments, accusing the Forest Service of harming New Mexicans and failing to promptly disclose the origin of the Cerro Pelado fire.<\/p>\n<p>At the federal level, Congress \u2063and the Biden administration have taken steps to confront and prevent wildfires, allocating over\u200b $4 billion in funding and initiating a billion-dollar\u200d cleanup of forests filled with dead trees and undergrowth.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Martin Heinrich, who serves on\u200c the Appropriations subcommittee for the environment, criticized the Forest Service for the lengthy investigation, \u200dstating, &#8220;The \u2064warming climate is making our \u2064forests more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires. That\u2019s a reality that our Forest Service \u2063can and\u200b must urgently \u2064respond to\u2062 when deciding when and how\u2063 to do prescribed burns.\u2063 We cannot catch up to this reality if it takes nearly a year to even make\u200d the findings on the Cerro Pelado Fire public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For more information, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\">click here<\/a> to read the full article\u200c from The Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Forest Service confessed that a prescribed burn they authorized in New Mexico led to a severe wildfire in 2022. After an extensive investigation into the Cerro Pelado fire, the agency released a 230-page report acknowledging their responsibility. Starting in April 2022, the fire ravaged more than 60 acres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1982299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1982298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1982299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}