Federal agencies and the State of New Mexico said Friday that one of the U.S. Forest Service’s forest management measures, also known as “prescribed burn,” started the largest wildfire in New Mexico.
“Forest Service fire investigators have determined that the Calf Canyon Fire on the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) was caused by a pile burn holdover from January that remained dormant under the surface through three winter snow events before reemerging in April,” agencies said in an update on a website jointly managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, State of New Mexico, and U.S. Forest Service.
