What happened in New Mexico?Its a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of thing. I am pretty heavily involved in fire here in Montana, right now we have a lot of political push to put out fires aggressively, outside of designated wilderness areas. Doesn't seem like we can do anything that keeps people happy. You let them burn, especially in todays forest conditions and there is too much risk, and heavy criticism. You put them out and the same people who bitch when you let them burn complain that we put them out too early. Most attempts to thin fuel loads on public lands are shut down or litigated. You try doing prescribed burns, and people complain about the smoke, or you run the risk of having an event like what happened in New Mexico last year.
Luckily here where I am at, there is a heavy push towards more WUI fire wise practice awareness, and money from the feds to help private landowners with mitigation efforts, but still the majority of landowners won't put any money towards it. I do some mitigation and fuel reductions work, most people understand it needs to be done, but few try to take advantage of the grant money available, or are willing to pay for it themselves.
This problem is only going to get worse.
That biggest fire last year started from a FS controlled burn that got away from them.What happened in New Mexico?