Photo: Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux discusses the County’s emergency planning process related to potential wildfires, with the Board of County Commissioners and staff, January 21, 2025.
The first and third Tuesdays of each month are typically busy days for this Daily Post editor.
Tuesdays typically begin with a morning work session of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, followed by a regular BOCC meeting in the afternoon. The Pagosa Springs Town Council meets at 5pm, and then, often moves into a second meeting, acting as the Pagosa Springs Sanitation General Improvement District board.
If possible, I try to also fit in a Tuesday workout at CrossFit Pagosa.
On January 21, the Tuesday morning BOCC work session ran long… and I missed my workout. Sometimes, being a journalist is inconvenient.
The work session began with a discussion about the deed restrictions that will be applied to ‘workforce housing’ coordinated by the non-profit Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) in cooperation with Archuleta County and the Archuleta County Housing Authority. The project has completed 10 new homes this past year, with plans to build another 25 over the next two years. The project was also supported by Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) through fee waivers.
In terms of finding housing they can afford, the future looks increasingly precarious for working families and individuals, even with efforts by organizations like PSCDC, attempting to address the problem.
The next discussion was led by Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux, in response to a request by newly-seated commissioner, John Ranson, who sought information about how Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) would tackle a wildfire emergency — a subject on everyone’s mind, no doubt, as we watched (or read about) the wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in Los Angeles County this month.
Here’s where we begin to discuss a different type of precarious future.
Wildfire… in a somewhat isolated community. 1,356 square miles of mostly flammable landscape, interspersed with mostly wooden structures.
Sheriff Le Roux rolled out a series of maps to share with the commissioners, and began by mentioning the state statutes that define a County Sheriff’s responsibilities in case of wildfire.
“Basically, in a nutshell, what those refer to, is the Sheriff’s responsibility for suppression for wildland fires, but also the conduit to the state to leverage resources in the event we have a significant event.” He said the statutes describe the Sheriff’s responsibility to act as “a coordination piece for those resources.”
“The majority of the counties throughout the state — most of the 64 counties — all of their private, unincorporated land within the county is [typically] covered by a fire protection district. Here in Archuleta, we’re unlucky enough that we’re not, and rest of that area, that’s not covered by our fire district, falls to the ACSO for the initial attack.”
Let’s put Sheriff Le Roux’s statement into perspective. Below is a map provided by the Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD) showing the eastern part of Archuleta County.
Sheriff Le Roux was discussing the “private, unincorporated land” within Archuleta County. Our only “incorporated land” is within the Town of Pagosa Springs; the Town is also served by the Fire District.
But about 49% of the land in Archuleta County is publicly-administered National Forest or BLM land. As I understood the BOCC discussion, the Sheriff is not responsible for the “initial attack” when a fire starts on public land.
Another 14% of Archuleta County is within the Southern Ute Reservation. I’m not clear how much of the Reservation the Sheriff might be responsible for? I assume the Tribe would be responsible for the “initial attack” within its Reservation.
A small part of Archuleta County is within the Los Pinos Fire Protection District, and another small portion is within the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.
In any wildfire situation, the Sheriff’s Office, the Pagosa Fire Protection District, the Southern Utes, the Los Pinos and Upper Pine fire districts, and the federal agencies would provide whatever assistance they could. It’s in everyone’s interest to have control of a fire, if it threatens homes or businesses.
A fire that does not threaten homes or businesses, on the other hand? The best approach might be to allow it to burn itself out naturally. But that’s a fairly new idea, and runs counter to 100 years of fire suppression philosophy.
Still, I’m curious… How much of our “private, unincorporated land” lies outside the Fire District? That might be useful information for the public.
Here’s a Daily Post map created by overlaying the Fire District — in pink — over a map showing private lands in green… federal lands in brown… and Southern Ute lands in cream.
You can click the map to view an enlarged version.
Readers who are familiar with the Archuleta County landscape will be able to perceive that the Pagosa Fire Protection District includes mainly the urban and suburban residential and business districts… where, generally speaking, streets and roads provide access for firefighting equipment in a wildfire situation.
The vast areas outside the PFPD are mainly larger ranches, and the (overgrown?) National Forest, where access may be limited.
The Southern Ute Reservation is less forested; much of it is dry chaparral. The wildfires that commonly occur in this type of terrain during the summer are necessary for the germination of many shrub seeds and also serve to clear away dense ground cover, thus maintaining the shrubby growth form of the vegetation.
In other words, the areas most likely to experience an uncontrollable wildfire are outside the area protected by, and accessible to, the Pagosa Fire Protection District. These are the areas where the U.S. Forest Service or the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office or the Tribe are responsible for the “initial attack”.
During the BOCC discussion, Sheriff Le Roux referred to a map of fire protection in Archuleta County as “a pretty crazy patchwork of jurisdictional complexities”, and noted that the ACSO is under a five-year operating agreement plan that has a total of 14 signatories, including neighboring counties and fire resource agencies. That plan addresses how area fire agencies will respond in the various jurisdictions, and said there’s a “mandatory mutual aid component” that the agencies have agreed to.
So, then… how safe are we?