We’re here to provide you professional, effective, and safe fire suppression, and fuels management services to help the BLM and interagency partners meet their objectives. We ensure the success of the program, by employing five guiding principles that are emphasized throughout all levels of our organization. In addition to the BLM State Fire and Aviation Management office in Santa Fe, there are three District Fire Programs located in Albuquerque, Farmington, and Las Cruces and two Field Office Programs in Roswell and Carlsbad.
BLM has fire management responsibility on 13.4 million acres of public land in New Mexico. With a fleet of 13 engines, we respond to an average of 300 wildfires per year that occur on both public, state and private lands as a result of our mutual aid agreements with other agencies. We also manage the Roswell Air Tanker Base, a reload base for large air tankers and host to single engine air tankers (SEAT’s) during periods of peak fire activity. Implementing fire prevention activities to reduce the number of human-caused fires is also a program priority.
The NM BLM Fuels and Prescribed Fire program has successfully reduced hazardous fuels on over 250,000 acres in the past five years to reduce the risk of wildland fire to communities and improve ecosystem health. In addition, BLM’s assistance to communities-at-risk in New Mexico’s wildland-urban interface has exceeded $3 million to date.