Notes–

1) This table includes fires that either burned within the Santa Fe National Forest, or were ignited within the Santa Fe National Forest.

2) The source of most of the data in this table is the U.S. Forest Service “Wild Land Fire” data in the Fire_History.zip geodatabase file downloaded from the Region 3 geospatial data site on March 8, 2024. The data site designated the causes of a few of the wildfires with known causes as “cause undetermined,” so other information sources were utilized for those fires.

3) This table includes fires designated as “natural caused” fires, that were greatly expanded by the Forest Service. However, it is not known to what extent that occurred during most fires in which that strategy was employed. It is known that the 2024 Indios Fire and Tanques Fire were greatly expanded by USFS aerial and hand ignitions. For example, during the Tanques Fire, when the fire reached 13 acres, the Forest Service began expanding the fire for “resource management objectives.” So out of a total of 6,645 acres burned, only 13 acres actually burned due to the lightning strike ignition, and 6,632 acres were primarily ignited by the USFS.

4) This table only considers actual number of acres burned. It does not take into account any differences in the time required for the Forest Service to suppress fires with differing ignition types, which could affect the number of acres burned. For example, it’s possible that a lightning strike fire could be suppressed more quickly than a fire ignited by an escaped broadcast prescribed burn, and quicker fire suppression generally reduces the number of acres burned.