The Bureau of Land Management’s Tucson field office will seek to conduct a prescribed fire on the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.
BLM will be joined by the Gila District Fire Management Office in the effort in hopes of improving grasslands in the Sonoita Valley, according to a March 27 BLM news release. The multiple-day exercise was expected to start March 28, weather conditions permitting.
“The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area has some impressive natural values, and these fire treatments are part of a long-term collaborative conservation stewardship effort to conserve the natural values of the area,” Tucson Field Manager Colleen Dingman said in the release.
LNCA will close a number of roads and areas 6 p.m.-6 a.m. on the burn days, including the Airstrip Group Site, Airstrip Day Use Area and Empire Gulch Day Use Site, according to the release. LC-6901 will be closed from the junction with the LC-6900 road to the junction of the LC-6905 road; LC-6902 will closed from the junction with the LC-6901 road to the junction of the LC-6905 road; and LC-6903 will be inoperable during the prescribed fire operations.
Fire crews will monitor the burn area during and after all prescribed fire operations, the release reported.
The year-round flow of Cienega Creek is critical to Arizona because much of the state receives very little rain, according to the BLM website. Cienegas, or marshes, found along the stream give the creek its name. A working cattle ranch can be found in the national conservation area.
"The approximately 42,000-acre Las Cienegas National Conservation Area was designated by Congress in 2000," according to the Cienega Watershed Partnership. "It is located about 50 miles southeast of Tucson. There are two main access points to the NCA. The first is located off State Road 83 about seven miles north of Sonoita, and a less developed entrance located five miles east of Sonoita off State Road 82.”
