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Spring 2000 Bulletin
Fire and Water
Unfortunately, fish and their very limited habitats in this semi-arid environment are an exception. After the Hondo 'hot-fire' near Questa in 1996, for instance, when the whole forest canopy and much soil organic matter was lost, subsequent monsoon sheet flow became gully erosion and then full-scale debris flow, and thousands of tons of sediment were washed into the Río Grande's La Junta run, killing many of its fish and smothering spawning beds and feeding riffles. With luck the fire in the Jemez Mountains may not have been so intense, though the situation in Santa Clara canyon (not to mention Los Alamos itself) is pretty heart-rending. Just this year the pueblo had gained funding to acquire the last piece of its watershed as part of the forthcoming Baca (Valle Grande) deal, in order to protect its drinking supplies and the perennial Santa Clara Creek. It was carefully thinning even-aged trees to try and prevent the kind of fire it had suffered recently at Oso Canyon, which caused significant debris flows. If the Hondo fire is any precedent, the interagency team of scientists presently analyzing the damage will have its work cut out trying to prevent serious harm to the Jemez drainages and downstream communities if and when the monsoons kick in this summer.
Though we have not learned much from government sources about possible contaminants in smoke and ash from the Cerro Grande wildfire still burning (at press time) around Los Alamos and Santa Clara Pueblo, we have it from reliable sources that most of the impacts on wildlife should be temporary. Forest fires, man-made or otherwise, can free up nutrients and open up closed canopies to increase ecological productivity and diversity over the medium-term.
Please return to the Spring 2000 Bulletin Index.