Williams Arizona, October 10, 2023 — Fire crews are making steady progress on multiple prescribed fire projects across the south zone of the Kaibab National Forest. Treatments on 3635 acres were completed last week on the on the Kendrick Rx bringing this project to a close for the year. Ignitions are continuing on the Blue Stem Rx Project southeast of Tusayan with a little over 3500 acres currently treated over the last three days. 

Fire managers recognize that community members may be sensitive to smoke, and use strategies to limit the amount and duration. This includes dividing large projects into smaller units so that crews can focus efforts where and when conditions will help smoke disperse away from developed areas and ventilate quicker, reducing the impacts to local residents and businesses. 

Forest officials sincerely thank the residents of Spring Valley for their patience and understanding after experiencing two days of smoke impacts from the Kendrick Rx burn. Prescribed fires generally produce shorter-term impacts to air quality drastically reducing the consequences of a potentially uncontrollable wildfire while reinforcing public safety in the long term. 

The Three Sisters Rx Project just north of the City of Williams has been postponed due to current weather conditions that would not be conducive to achieve desired results and ensure adequate smoke mitigation. Treatments on the Pine Flat Rx Project south of Williams near Round Mountain may be forthcoming in the days ahead. Advanced notices will be posted as dates are selected for treatments on these individual projects. 

Goals of prescribed fire treatments include decreasing the threat of unnatural severe wildfire and potential negative consequences to the community, improving forest health, and reintroducing fire to an ecosystem that relies on frequent fire to maintain resilience. Prescribed fires help reduce hazardous fuels that have accumulated due to drought, climate change, insects and disease, and decades of fire suppression. Fire also recycles nutrients back to the soil, promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants, and improves habitat for threatened and endangered species. Our land management strategy is centered on long-term forest health, including reducing forest fuels and using prescribed fire on the landscape. These efforts align with the Forest Service’s 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy which aims to increase prescribed fire and other treatments to improve forest resiliency for generations to come.

All prescribed fires are subject to approval by an agency administrator and by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The department’s Air Quality Division: Smoke Management webpage provides details about its air quality program.