Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan
COMMUNITY PROFILE

Fire Risk/ Risk of Occurrence

Risk of Occurrence	Acres
Low	3,100,833
Moderate	964.205
High	372,491
Table # 6

The base data used to map the risk of occurrence came from a report "Coarse Assessment of Federal Wildland Fire Occurrence Data" (Brown, T.J. 2002) made for the National Wildfire Coordinating Group http://www.nwcg.gov/. The data only covers Federal lands and the completeness varies from agency to agency, but the report was useful in providing a good base. Density grids of lightning-caused fires plus topographic maps and local knowledge were used to draw a Risk of Lightning Occurrence map. When the human-caused fire data was overlaid on a map of major roads in the County, a strong correlation was evident, so roads were buffered to create a base Human Risk of Occurrence map. This map was further edited using local knowledge to add other high use areas such as campgrounds and other higher recreational use areas.

See Appendix Volume 3 Map 6

Fire Regime Condition Class

Fire Regime Condition Class (FRCC) mapping provides ecological information that can be used to classify the landscape fire regime and determine similarity, departure, ecological sustainability risks, abundance of vegetation-fuel classes. This analysis displays FRCC mapping at the landscape scale with calculations run on HUC 6 watershed level. FRCC is a tool useful to the land management professional to evaluate and monitor the ecological health of vegetation. Though not overly complex, the concept requires some effort to understand. FRCC is explained in more detail in the appendix.

Forested portions of the County are mostly Fire Regime I ( 0-35 year natural fire frequency and low to mixed severity). There is some Regime III (35-100+ natural fire frequency and mixed severity) It is important to note that FRCC is not necessarily an indicator of fire threat. Maps showing FRCC, abundance (of a vegetative-fuel class compared to the reference condition amount) and risk (of a vegetation-fuel class sustainability) [are included in this Plan for comparison purposes and as indicators of general ecological condition. See Appendix Volume 3 Map 20 and Map 22

Threatened and Endangered Species

There are numerous Threatened and Endangered Species (T&E) which will need to be considered in the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) environmental analysis of projects on Federal lands. It is beyond the scope of this plan to analyze the environmental effects of fuels reduction projects, or to list potentially effected T&E species. Wildlife biologists and other managers on the Gila and Cibola National Forest and Bureau of Land Management were consulted for advice on which key habitat should be included in this analysis as indicators of priority for treatments that would protect those species from widespread destruction of habitat by wildfire. Four key species were chosen:

• Mexican spotted owl (critical habitat and management areas)
• Loach minnow
• Leopard frog
• Bald eagle

The map "Threatened & Endangered Species Needs for Protection" shows the composite model rating for the above 4 species. There is more information about T&E species and how this analysis used the data about them in the Appendix. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 52) and Appendix Volume 3 Map 23.

Agricultural Fields

There are some irrigated and dry bottom land agricultural fields in the County, mainly located along the lower portions of the San Francisco River . A larger sediment and flood-producing wildfire upstream from these fields could cause damage or loss of these fields. For this reason HUC 6 watersheds above these fields were rated for the potential of damage if burned over by a larger wildfire burning under severe conditions. The map "Potential for Downstream Damage to Agriculture by HUC 6 Watershed" shows the ratings. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 53) and Appendix Volume 3 Map 24.

Recreational Use	Acres
Below average	2,022,487
Average	1,927,084
Above average	487,880
Table # 8

Table # 8 shows the ratings by acreage. The map "Recreational Use" shows the ratings used in the model. The appendix contains a detailed description of how these values were derived. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 53) and Appendix Volume 3 Map 25.

Water Quality

The State of New Mexico lists water bodies which are in "non-attainment" status with New Mexico water quality standards for the designated use, commonly referred to as the 303d list. Although there are many conditions that would result in a stream or lake being put on the list, the list was used as an indicator of a need for treatments to prevent large sediment and flood producing uncontrolled wildfires. The number of listed water bodies within a HUC 6 watershed was used to rate each watershed as shown in the map "State Listed Water Bodies Per HUC 6 Watershed". See Appendix Volume 3 Map 26.

Access

Machine access for reducing fuels is an important consideration. Much of the Gila and Cibola National Forests are not accessible. Areas know to be inaccessible, areas greater than 35% slope, roadless study areas and wilderness were subtracted to give the remaining accessible areas of the County. The map "Machine Accessible Areas" shows the inaccessible and accessible areas of the County. One will note that a large portion of the high fire threat and high treatment priority areas are inaccessible. There is more information on the amounts in the summary of analysis results. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 54-55) and Appendix Volume 3 Map 27.

Treatment Priorities

Treatment priorities as calculated by the modeling is displayed in several ways. As explained in the appendix, an initial priority for the County as a whole was determined using fire threat, values at risk and risk of occurrence. This is shown on the map "Initial Treatment Priorities". See Appendix Volume 3 Map 19.

Initial Treatment Priorities	Acres
Low	1,871,073
Moderate	2,186,317
High	378,826
Table # 9

Table # 9 shows the acreage for Initial Priority in three classes

Final Treatment Priorities	Acres
Low	1,566,247
Moderate	2,423,156
High	446,667
Table # 10

The initial priority was adjusted in the model to give the final priority as shown in the map "Final Priority". Table # 10, left, shows the acres of Final Priority by three classes. See Appendix Volume 3 Map 28.

Treatment Priorities by HUC 6 Watershed	Acres
Low	2,137,155
Moderate	1,810,644
High	489,566
Table # 11

 

WUI Treatments	Acres
Low	73,435
Moderate	241,111
High	204,865
Table # 12

The Final Priorities for treatment of HUC 6 watershed are shown in the map "Final Treatment Priority by HUC 6 Watershed” and the acres by treatment priority are shown in Table # 11. See Appendix Volume 2 Data (page 68-74) and Appendix Volume 3 Map 29.

The treatment priority for WUIs was calculated in a model using only fire threat, values at risk and risk of occurrence ratings. Treatment priorities for WUI areas are shown in two ways. The first is weighted average of the model-calculated cell values in each WUI. This gives a relative treatment value between WUI areas in the County as shown on the map "Wildland Urban Interface Areas Treatment Priorities" Appendix Volume 3 Map 30.

Treatment Priorities in Each WUI Area	Acres
Low	86,959
Moderate	321,569
High	110,785
Table # 13

The second is the treatment priorities showing the calculated cell values in each WUI as shown in the map "Treatment Priorities Wildland Urban Interface Areas" and in Table # 13. Appendix Volume 3 Map 31

Note: Differences in acreage are caused by using polygon vs. grid to calculate acres.  These differences cannot be avoided; however they are insignificant (e.g. a 1000 acre error is a 0.02% error for the County).

Summary of the Analysis Results

Some significant results of the analysis are shown in the table below.

Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan Summary of Various Analysis Results
Summary By:	Acres Summary			Acres/yr treated if on 20 yr cycle
Canopy Closure ( County Wide )	Total Acres	Machine Accessible	Not Machine Accessible
Forest with open canopy	2,069,000	1,525,000	545,000	103,450
Gross closed canopy forest	1,229,000	653,000	576,000	61,450
Net closed canopy forest 1	853,323	544,317	309,006	42,666
Total forested area	3,299,000	2,178,000	1,121,000	134,950
Fire Threat	Total High and Moderate	High Threat	Moderate Threat
County wide	3,216,000	1,456,000	1,760,000	160,800
Within WUI boundaries	430,000	139,000	291,000	21,500
Treatment Priorities	Total High and Moderate	High Priority	Moderate Priority
County wide	2,870,000	447,000	2,423,000	143,500
Within WUI boundaries	436,000	112,000	324,000	21,800
HUC 6 watersheds (18 high, 80 moderate)	2,301,000	490,000	1,811,000	115,050
Fire Regime Condition Class	Total Class 3 And 2	Class 3	Class 2
County wide	1,630,000	485,000	1,145,000	81,500
1 Net = Gross minus Wilderness areas and estimated amount of naturally occurring closed density 2 Note: 196 WUI areas = 519,412 acres 3 209 HUC 6 watersheds in County 06/28/2005 Table # 14

 

The analysis results as shown above give estimates of the existing condition from several view points, for example:

• 450,000 to 1,460,000 acres need immediate treatments
• 1,760,000 to 2,420,000 acres are in moderate need of treatment.

10% to 20%, of the 2,000,000 acres presently in low threat and low priority condition will grow into a denser condition without maintenance treatment.

There are other notable points concerning the results of the analysis are:

• 2,863 E911 addresses are in the County
• 83 subdivisions were recorded in the County Clerks office as of summer/2004
• Over 5800 total lots
• Mostly in northern half of County
• 13 volunteer fire departments
• Over 40 subdivisions are further than 5 miles from a fire station
• Average age of vehicles varies by department from 38 years old to 13 years old
• ISO grades are 2 tens, 9 nines, 1 six and 1 five (10= lowest, 1= highest)
• 79 subdivisions have no evacuation or structure vulnerability evaluation
• Water on wheels for each dept. varies from less than 3000 gal. to over 12,000
• Water supply sources vary from very poor to excellent.



There are several conclusions that can be drawn from the above data. Population will increase, and the center of population is shifting to the north. Not so evident is the fact that there is a considerable amount of private land on both the north and the south halves of the County with the potential for subdivision. It is therefore reasonable to assume an ever increasing number of improvements at risk to damage by wildfire.

It is also apparent that there is room for improvements to the local fire departments. It is estimated that about 13 additional fire stations are or will be needed to cover just the existing larger subdivisions (not to mention the smaller concentrations of homes and structures). As population increases, fire department resources will become ever more important to the quick suppression action of fire. The need for quick suppression action applies to fire threats both to and from the wildlands, i.e. populated areas are both a threat and threatened. All of the fire departments are in need of adequate training, equipment and planning. Coordinating and managing the fire suppression resources in the County will be an increasingly complex task in the future.


2004-1968, New and Old" Photo Credit: Donal Weaver

 

The fire departments have 63 vehicles on inventory. The oldest truck in the County is a 1952. Only twenty (32%) of the vehicles are younger than 15 years old. The above 1968 truck was bought new by the Village of Reserve and the 2004 truck was received via a State Grant.

Next: Planning for the Future