Correction appended.
A specialist from the 疯客直播 Fe Fire Department has walked all over a large chunk of the city鈥檚 north side and tied thousands of tags to pi帽on and juniper trees in recent months, envisioning a new landscape.
A green tag indicates a branch that should be cut, while a pink tag indicates the whole tree needs to go.
Porfirio Chavarria, a wildland urban interface specialist with the fire department, described a process of visualizing groupings of trees and shrubs with about 10 feet of space in between each clump.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not building a park, and we鈥檙e not building a plantation,鈥 he said. 鈥淪o things aren鈥檛 all even and we don鈥檛 want exact numbers.鈥
The point is to prevent a wildfire from spreading, or at least to slow it down.
鈥淔ire is a series of ignitions, not just this rolling mass,鈥 Chavarria said, adding a fire needs to start 鈥渙ver and over again鈥 in order to spread, and it does that primarily with kindling 鈥渟maller than the size of your wrist.鈥
The Loma Encantada subdivision encompasses 59 residential properties on the north side of the city, off Calle Estado. The subdivision runs from Old Taos Highway on the west side to the governor鈥檚 mansion on the east side, and down south to Valle del Sol Drive. It鈥檚 covered by 29 acres total of pi帽on-juniper forest that is collectively owned by the Loma Encantada Homeowners Association.
The area is the site of a large fire mitigation project the association has taken on with the help of the city of 疯客直播 Fe and the Forest Stewards Guild, strategically thinning trees on the property to lower the risk of a wildfire spreading across the landscape. It鈥檚 the largest project of its kind so far in a grant program advocates hope to ramp up across the local fireshed 鈥 a large area across the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristos where studies have shown a fire is most likely to spread and damage large amounts of property.
Kristie Zamrazil heads a subcommittee in the homeowners association that has been planning the thinning of the common property for years, a project that got underway last year.
Zamrazil said the effort began with the group asking themselves, 鈥渁re we using the best practices in taking care of the land that we own and the trees that we love so, so much?鈥
鈥淓very expert we talked to, one of the first things they said was tree thinning is essential for tree health,鈥 Zamrazil said. 鈥淪o that got us down the road of exploring programs and funding sources that would help us out with our thinning effort.鈥
The group learned about the fire mitigation program 鈥 a collaboration between the city of 疯客直播 Fe, the Forest Stewards Guild and others 鈥 in an article that was published last year in The New Mexican, Zamrazil said.
鈥淲hen we first started going down this road, we really were concerned about, what those thinning guidelines would look like and manifest,鈥 she said. 鈥淣obody wanted a clear cut landscape, and we value our trees, and I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if other people have similar concerns.鈥
She said the residents have been happy with Chavarria鈥檚 work to help to reduce the risk of fire damage to their homes as well as 鈥渞etain the aesthetic beauty of the property that we own.鈥
The neighborhood sits in an area determined to have 鈥渕oderate鈥 fire risk, according to a city assessment.
The board chair of the homeowners association, Paul Relis, said the group has been involved in forest thinning on its property for years, but 鈥渁t a fairly slower pace鈥 before.
鈥淭his is part of our overall upgrade as an association to try and anticipate and adapt to the changing climate of our forest and our environments, to both ensure the health of the forest and to minimize the fire hazard,鈥澛Relis said in an interview. 鈥淓very place is vulnerable today, and even though we鈥檙e not in a high-risk area, according to fire department, that doesn鈥檛 alleviate our concerns about fire ripping through this area.鈥
In addition to tagging the trees to be thinned from the neighborhood鈥檚 common property, Chavarria has also advised residents on other fire mitigation measures, such as structural hardening for homes and vegetation management, which could save them from losing their houses in the event of a wildfire.
The association plans to have 14 acres 鈥 almost half of the property 鈥 thinned by the end of this month. The work can only be done during the winter months in order to stave off infestations of bark beetles. The insects are more active in the spring and summer months and more likely to flock to sap flowing from wounded tree limbs.
The project is significant because it addresses fire mitigation not just at the scale of individual homeowners, but at the community- and landscape-scale, Rachel Bean of the Forest Stewards Guild said.
鈥淭he landscape scale is really the scale that we鈥檙e trying to work at, and this is part of that,鈥 Bean said of the ramp-up of the group鈥檚 fire mitigation efforts.
The guild and the city hope the effort at Loma Encantada might inspire other groups such as homeowner associations in the area 鈥 particularly those in the highest-risk areas on the east side and in Hyde Park 鈥 to consider such a larger project of fire mitigation.
The organization received a Community Wildfire Defense Grant worth over $1 million in 2024, which they use to share costs for work in wildfire mitigation projects in the area. The grant 鈥 which stems from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law 鈥 will cover 60% of the cost for recommended thinning for wildfire mitigation, and will cover up to 90% of the costs for low- to moderate-income homeowners.
The Forest Stewards Guild has begun 10 projects so far since the program began last year, ranging in size from .2 acres to the Loma Encantada project, which is almost 30 acres, according to the guild鈥檚 spokesperson Maya Hilty.
鈥淲ith what we鈥檙e seeing in the news, and communities being critically impacted by fires during a time of year that we typically think of as off-season 鈥 this program has gotten a lot more interest,鈥 Bean said, adding the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire made the possibility of a catastrophic fire seem very real for some in the area.
She said they see the grant program as 鈥渟eed funding鈥 to begin the fire mitigation work that needs to be done in the Greater 疯客直播 Fe Fireshed, which stretches from Tesuque Pueblo down to Glorieta.
鈥淓ven though we have this funding, it鈥檚 not nearly enough to do everything that needs to be done,鈥 Bean said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why the education piece is important, and why the home hazard assessment piece is so important, because we鈥檙e going out and we鈥檙e empowering landowners with the knowledge of the reality of their risk.鈥
She stressed the importance of fire mitigation efforts at the 鈥渃ommunity scale鈥 are more effective than individual-level projects.
鈥淛ust doing it on your parcel isn鈥檛 really going to make that big of a difference 鈥 it鈥檚 only when the community does it as a whole that you鈥檙e going to really see that threat drop,鈥 Bean said.
Chavarria, who has been working on fire mitigation in the area since 2005, said he has seen the issue rise in prominence, amid a changing climate and several historic fires in the region.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been progressively moving to a better state over the last 20 years that I鈥檝e been here, and now we鈥檙e at the point where we鈥檙e able to start working at that neighborhood scale, which I think is really much more beneficial than individual properties,鈥 he said.
Chavarria said he has been working lately to perform fire mitigation assessments with property owners in some of the highest-risk areas of the city, including a homeowners association in Hyde Park. This year, the department has a federal grant to perform a new risk assessment for 疯客直播 Fe, to develop a new map indicating fire risk for the city鈥檚 various neighborhoods.
Chavarria said when neighborhoods work together for fire mitigation measures, it鈥檚 a 鈥渇orce multiplier鈥 to reduce everyone鈥檚 risk.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessarily only HOAs,鈥 Chavarria said. 鈥淚t just depends on whether a neighborhood鈥檚 kind of tight knit, or there鈥檚 people willing to work across that 鈥 it鈥檚 about helping them build those relationships with their neighbors and making that that neighborhood stronger, and they鈥檙e able to work together to get something done.鈥
Correction: This story has been amended to reflect the following correction. A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of Paul Relis.
