Acres: 7,457 

Start Date: May 16, 2024 

Location: 8 miles North of Ruidoso, White Mountain Wilderness Area

Cause: Lightning

Personnel: 786 

Fuels: Timber/Grass/Brush

Containment: 54%     

Resources: 17 crews | 33 engines | 8 helicopters | 6 bulldozers | 10 Water Tenders

Highlights: Storms will continue in the surrounding areas, causing outflow winds up to 35 mph on the ridge tops to affect the fire area throughout the day. Firefighters are prepared for the weather to test the fire perimeter’s containment and remaining open line. Successful work on the ground has allowed the progression of increased containment.

Operations: Yesterday, Solider Mountain was fully contained, and firefighters will remain in the area to ensure that the fireline holds. Ground crews focused on mop-up efforts, using water and hand tools to be able to work on the uncontained line. Structure protection is ongoing, and pumps are continually tested to ensure that they are fully operational if needed. Heavy equipment is working on the completion of the contingency line towards Buck Mountain. The night shift will continue to patrol around communities and monitor for any new sources of heat. Today, ground crews will stay vigilant in anticipation of forecasted winds where hotspots or spotting could test the fire perimeter. Engines will be near Bonito Lake mopping up and providing structure protection to values at risk. Crews are removing slash from fire lines and heavy equipment is being used to the west of Angus and the Enchanted Forest communities to ensure that the lines hold.

Weather: Due to the thunderstorm formation in the surrounding areas, the fire area will experience winds that will test the fire perimeter with stronger winds coming from different directions than have been experienced during previous days. As the storms exit to the east, they will give way to dry and hot weather for the next several days. 

Smoke: As warm and dry conditions are experienced there is potential for more smoke. However, barring any significant fire growth, only periods of light smoke should be seen around Bonito and Capitan. View an interactive smoke map at fire.airnow.gov/

Closures: The Lincoln National Forest has issued an emergency area closure for the Blue 2 Fire. The closure order (No.03-08-24-0001) and map are available on Inciweb and the Lincoln National Forest website. 

Evacuations: Evacuation levels remain unchanged and weather will determine the status of evacuations as managers assess current conditions. For an interactive evacuation map go to tinyurl.com/Blue2Evacs

Safety: A Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is in place over the area, which includes uncrewed aircraft systems or drones. Find the TFR at tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/

The Center for Biological Diversity says that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not taking the steps necessary to protect an endangered mouse living in the Lincoln National Forest from cattle grazing. The wildlife advocacy group, along with the Maricopa Audubon Society, is pressuring the federal government to end cattle grazing in critical habitat […]

The Center for Biological Diversity says that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not taking the steps necessary to protect an endangered mouse living in the Lincoln National Forest from cattle grazing.

The wildlife advocacy group, along with the Maricopa Audubon Society, is pressuring the federal government to end cattle grazing in critical habitat and has filed a notice of intent to sue should the Fish and Wildlife Service fail to take steps to protect the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse within the next 60 days.

The mouse once ranged from southern Colorado into central New Mexico as well as eastern Arizona, but riparian habitat loss and degradation has caused a significant decrease in the areas where the rodent is found. 

Advocates say cattle grazing in the Sacramento Mountains in Lincoln National Forest is destroying riparian habitat that the mouse relies upon.

The Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat within the national forest in 2016, but the wildlife advocates say cattle grazing in that critical habitat continues to degrade the riparian areas.

Additionally, the habitat where the mouse occurs is also home to the Mexican spotted owl.

“The jumping mouse and these spotted owls will only survive if the meadows and streams they rely on in the Sacramento Mountains are healthy, but cattle are wreaking havoc here,” Robin Silver, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. “Federal officials have a years-long pattern of failing to control destructive cattle grazing. It’s immoral and illegal for the Forest Service to neglect its responsibility to protect this critical habitat, and that failure will cause a local extinction.”

The U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in a biological opinion that allowing cattle to graze in the area would not jeopardize habitat for either the owl or the mouse. That decision, according to the advocacy groups, leaves “42 percent of the designated critical habitat unprotected on the Sacramento Allotment and 74 percent unprotected on the adjoining Agua Chiquita Allotment.”

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