Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest to Start Pile Burning on the Spring Mountains National Recreation

Las Vegas – The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area fire crews are taking advantage of recent snowfall to begin pile burning on National Forest System land next week, conditions permitting. The piles that will be burned are a part of habitat improvement projects. 

According to Fuels Specialist Josh Thalacker, prescribed fire is a vital forest management tool used by land managers to decrease the threat of high-severity wildfires, reduce risk to homes and infrastructure, and minimize human exposure to long periods of high-particulate smoke. It also creates spaces from which firefighters can safely and effectively fight a future wildfire. 

“The piles we plan to burn contain vegetation removed during a deliberate effort to enhance wildlife habitat by creating open spaces and removing dense vegetation that might hinder access to food and shelter for various animals,” he added. 

“Burning excess vegetation can also recycle nutrients back into the soil, promote the growth of native plants, limit the spread of insects and diseases, and control invasive plant and weed species.” Thalacker explained. “It can even contribute to maintaining clean water sources and increase the quantity of water, which benefits plants, animals and people.”

Prescribed fire managers use different methods to reintroduce low-intensity fire into forests through pile, broadcast, and understory (underburning) burning. Pile burning is a type of prescribed fire where cut and stacked vegetation is burned after giving time to dry out. These piles are made from the debris left after fuel reduction projects that involve thinning or cutting of trees in the forest. Piles are generally burned during the wet season to reduce damage to the remaining trees and to confine the fire to the footprint of the pile.

Before any prescribed fire is conducted, fire managers also create a burn plan, which includes smoke management details, fire control measures, acceptable weather parameters, and equipment and personnel needs. The burn plan also describes in detail how the ecosystem will benefit from fire.

Air quality is an important value that is considered by land managers during planning to implementation to avoid impacts to communities, minimize public health effects, and reduce visibility impairment on roadways. Before burning, prescribed fire managers coordinate with the appropriate state or local air quality regulatory agency or state forestry agency to ensure smoke is managed. For air quality data, visit:

• Current Air Quality Index - https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Mount%20Charleston&state=NV&country=USA
• Fire and Smoke Map - https://fire.airnow.gov/

“The actual days of ignition for the broadcast burn will depend on several factors including appropriate humidity levels, wind speed and direction, temperature, and fuel moisture,” Thalacker said. “Burns only occur on days when weather conditions exist for smoke dispersal.”

Fire crews will divide extensive landscape burns into blocks of land over multiple days. This allows them to halt burning activity within those areas if anything is out of the pre-established prescription conditions, such as too much wind. Crews can start again when conditions are more acceptable.

The public is asked to not call 911 about seeing smoke in the areas listed below. Local fire departments are aware of these burning activities. The public can get prescribed burn updates by visiting the Forest’s InciWeb (https://bit.ly/PrescribedFireInciWeb) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HumboldtToiyabeNF/) or X (https://x.com/HumboldtToiyabe) pages. 

For information on pile-burning activities on the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, please contact SMNRA Fire Management Officer Ray Dombroski at raymond.dombroski@usda.gov or 702-515-5422.

An ArcGIS StoryMap that explains how prescribed fire is good for National Forest System land can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/PrescribedFireStoryMap

Possible burn locations include:

• Wheeler Well
  • Roughly 418 acres of pile burning for a habitat improvement project is planned in the Wheeler Well area along Forest Service Road 45601 (Wheeler Pass Road), approximately ten miles northeast of Pahrump, Nevada.
• McFarland Canyon
  • Roughly 190 acres of pile burning for a habitat improvement project is planned along Forest Service Road 45570, approximately two miles to the southeast of Cold Creek, Nevada.
• Lee Canyon Borrow Pit
  • Approximately seven acres of pile burning as part of a hazardous fuel reduction project is planned near Nevada State Route 156 (Lee Canyon Road) near mile marker six.
• Foxtail Ridge
  • Roughly eight acres of pile burning for a habitat improvement project is planned less than a quarter mile to the east of Lee Canyon Road, near mile marker one.