Fire officials hope the weather holds over the next few weeks so they can light five controlled burns, including on 1,200 acres on the Roan Plateau northwest of Rifle and on 1,200 acres north of El Jebel up Cattle Creek.
Fire managers will only light fires if the conditions are right.
"Is it dry enough to carry the fire, but not so dry that we’re going to get extreme fire conditions that are hard to control?" said David Boyd, public information officer of Colorado River Interagency Fire, as an example.
Prescribed burns, Boyd said, are used to cut down on the flammable foliage that could really do some damage in the dry, summer months and to regenerate wildlife habitat.
