Pile burning to occur in RMNP today and tomorrow

RMNP Pile Burning in October, 2021; Rocky Mountain National Park photo

RMNP UPDATE - January 6, 2022

Conditions are favorable today and tomorrow for Rocky Mountain National Park Fire Management staff to burn piles in the Moraine Park Campground and Lily Lake area. Smoke may be visible from multiple locations on the east side of the park and flames will likely be visible from the Lily Lake and Highway 7 near Lily Lake.  Pile burning operations only begin when conditions allow. Safety factors, weather conditions, air quality and other environmental regulations are continually monitored as a part of any fire management operation.


Why is this important?

When fighting the East Troublesome Fire in 2020, firefighters were able to take advantage of previous and existing prescribed fire and hazardous fuels treatment areas that provided a buffer between the fire and the town of Estes Park. Prior hazard fuels projects aided considerably in stopping the fire from jumping Bear Lake Road and Trail Ridge Road. Years of hazardous fuels reduction projects and bark beetle tree removal on the west side were instrumental in the successful burnout operations around the town of Grand Lake and helped minimize structure loss in the main park housing area.  


Piles of slash in the park are from several fuels reduction projects and hazard tree removals. Slash from these projects has been cut and piled by park fire crews and contractors over the last two years and are now dry enough to burn.  They are designed to reduce significant accumulations of forest fuels that can generate extreme or problematic fire behavior adjacent to wildland urban interface.  By reducing the potential fire behavior the wildland fire risk to firefighters and the public is significantly reduced.  However, these projects are not designed as a stand-alone defense against wildfires nor are they guaranteed to hold a wildfire in the worst conditions.  To learn more about wildfire mitigation around homes visit www.firewise.org

Prescribed fire smoke may affect your health.  For more information see https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/wood-smoke-and-health.