By Andrew Hay

TAOS (N.M.) – Friday’s temporary nationwide halt was called by the U.S. Forest Service. This is after an agency employee accidentally set off part of New Mexico’s biggest wildfire ever.

Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire has ravaged more than 300,000. It destroyed over 1,500 homes and forced thousands to flee.

Randy Moore, Forest Service Chief, said that the fire danger levels are too high for prescribed burning and ordered a review within 90 days of any policies being implemented before this fall’s operations.

Moore stated in a statement that “Lessons Learned” and program enhancements will be implemented before prescribed burning resumes.

This is a major step in stopping a practice that forest biologists consider crucial in reducing fuel levels in national forests. It comes after decades of fire suppression, and decades of bans on logging in New Mexico.

They are concerned, however, about the potential for devastating consequences of prescribed fire misuse.

A USFS-managed fire near Las Vegas, New Mexico was allowed to go ahead despite high wind forecasts and the New Mexico State Fire Administration declared it a blaze. It went unattended on April 6th.

Joshua Sloan is a New Mexico Highlands University forest biologist who is an advocate for controlled burning and has conducted controlled burns.

Later, the fire merged with another wind-driven fire, which is currently under investigation. This created the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon Fire.

The blaze has also torched forests and watersheds used for centuries by Indo-Hispano farming villages and Native American communities, and now threatens villages in the Peñasco Valley as well as the resort towns of Taos and Angel Fire.

Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico Governor, stated that she had met Moore Friday to discuss the need for “more local consultation” and more consideration before managing federal lands in controlled burns during windy seasons.