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Sat. Aug 21st 2010 Horse Mt. lVolunteer Fire Dept. "Open House" 8/21/2010  HORSE MT. VOLUNTEER
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OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY AUGUST 21, 2010 FROM 8:00 AM TO 2:30PM ACTIVITIES IN... Read more » |
Thu. Dec 31st 2009 Hazard Fuel Reductions - Landowner Acres 2009 Treatment Accomplishments for 2009. Read entire article under Files....Accomplishments Other. Read more » |
Wed. Aug 26th 2009 GRANTS are available for Hazard Fuel Reduction Projects Please contact Catron County Commission Office and ask for Linda Cooke. Application and Procedures are located... Read more » |
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CWPP - Mogollon Print this page The Mogollon Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is a supplement to the Catron County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The County CWPP completed in October, 2005 assesses the wildfire threat and hazardous fuels treatment priorities on a landscape scale. The Mogollon CWPP uses the data and findings of the County CWPP to assess the wildfire threat and treatment priorities specific to the Mogollon Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) (#4). Mitigation which will reduce the threat of wildfire damage to property, life and the land are proposed. Project scale data from the County CWPP and other sources is presented to aid in planning and design of the proposed projects.
The Mogollon WUI #4 is located in the historic Mogollon mining district which actually included several small communities, Mogollon being the largest. Private and National Forest ownership is included within the boundaries. The values at risk include homes (summer and year-long), businesses and historic structures. Recreation is mostly associated with the interesting history and scenic drive into Mogollon. The fire threat is quite high, partly because of vegetation conditions, but mostly because of the very steep terrain. Safety is a concern for this area. These characteristics are the reason the Mogollon WUI area rated fourth in treatment priority in the County CWPP.
The County CWPP contains a thorough presentation of how determinations of values at risk, risk of occurrence and fire threat were used to locate the areas and values most at risk from catastrophic wildfire in the County and to prioritize treatment needs. Please refer to the County CWPP for more information. It is not the intent of this plan to duplicate the County CWPP. The general outline of the County CWPP is followed in this CWPP, except where there is no supplement necessary to the County CWPP.
As a supplement to the County CWPP, the main objective of the Mogollon CWPP is to propose work needed to reduce and mitigate fire threat. To accomplish this objective this supplement continues the collaboration started in the County CWPP, coordinating the needed work with past efforts, the various land owners and other interest.
The desired condition for WUI areas as stated in the County CWPP will be difficult to obtain: "The desired condition for WUI areas is a fire safe environment around protected improvements that will provide "defensible space" for firefighters in the event of a wildfire in the surrounding area". Access to any of the Mogollon WUI is over very steep terrain with roads on the very steep hillsides or in the bottoms of narrow steep canyons. The steep terrain complicates the treatment of fuels and the safety of firefighters and others. Also the Gila Wilderness borders the southern boundary of this WUI. Land owner cooperation for access across private land and treatment on private land may be a problem in some cases. Though not an impossible situation, obtaining the desired condition will require innovative solutions and some time.
No modifications were made in the WUI boundary as established in the County CWPP.
Mogollon began as a mining camp about 1889 and soon became a typical mining town of the early west with lawlessness and extremely rapid growth. At one time, Mogollon was the largest town in New Mexico and there was talk of becoming the capital. Actually there were several communities south and north of Mogollon that are either entirely gone now or nearly so. About $15,000,000 of gold, silver and copper was mined since 1889. As recent as 10 years ago there was still some mining being done but the town is mostly a "ghost" town with a few structures and a few residents.
Land ownership problems are typical of old communities that began with mining. Mining claims overlap and clear title on some parcels today are nigh impossible to obtain. This presents some problems to coordinating treatments on private land and with treatments on the Forest. In most cases, it will have to lived with unless someone is willing to spend large sums of money and time to resolve the ownership question.
Cutting of trees for lumber, mining timbers and firewood was extensive around Mogollon. The closer to the old mines, the greater the change in species composition and tree size due the old cutting.
Besides the meetings held around the County and one meeting at Mogollon Fire Dept. for the County Wildfire Protection Plan, a public meeting was held for this specific CWPP on May 9, 2006 at the Mogollon Fire Station. There were several meetings with Forest Service personnel. Comments from all these meetings and contacts were incorporated in a rough draft. Comments on the rough draft were incorporated in a draft which was sent out for a last review by the involved agencies before the final was signed.
Most of the data used for this CWPP is from the County CWPP and was scaled to fit this WUI, Although the County CWPP was a landscape scale analysis, much of the data originated at a scale that fits the purpose of this CWPP (30x30 meter satellite imagery for example). In addition collaborative input from the various cooperators and interested parties was obtained through group meetings and individual contacts.
See Collaboration section above.
The Mogollon WUI area is located east of Glenwood in the Gila National Forest and on the northern edge of the Gila Wilderness. Access from the West into Mogollon is over a narrow paved highway with numerous very tight hairpin curves on very steep rough terrain. Access from the east into Mogollon is much the same except the road is gravel and is through areas of very dense high elevation timber. Access to the Cleveland or northern part of the WUI is from the west over gravel roads also on very steep terrain. Private land in the WUI was established through mining claims and so are mostly very irregular shaped. As shown in the table below, about 14% of the WUI is in private ownership and the remainder is National Forest. The National Forest is administered by the Glenwood Ranger District, Gila NF out of Glenwood.
About 1/3 of the WUI is ponderosa pine, a little less than 2/3 is pinyon/juniper and the small remainder is mixed conifer or grass/shrub. 52% of the area is in a "closed" canopy condition.
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| Healthy Forests |
"Communities for Healthy Forests" Mission Statement: Communities for Healthy Forests was founded to inform the public, natural resource managers and policy makers about catastrophic stand clearing events in public forests caused by fire, and other natural disasters. Communities for Healthy Forests exists to illustrate and explain the benefits of applying the best scientifically supported prescriptions for restoring health to overgrown forests and to rehabilitate severely damaged forests promptly following such events. For more information, see link below: www.communitiesforhealthyforests.org
"The Forest Factor": the factor in the carbon cycle, climate change, and our community. |
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