Losing almost a quarter of the green forest of the Manzano Mountains to fires over the last year was difficult for many people who call the valley home.

"It was like losing an old friend," Felipe Lovato, Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, told about 100 people who came to the annual district meeting on Oct. 3.

The meeting was held at the Manzano Mountain Retreat and afterward the public toured some areas that had withstood the Trigo Fire that began on April 15 on the west side of the Manzanos. Five days later it doubled in size and firefighters called it 95 percent contained. But by April 30 wind gusts had once again doubled the size of the blaze. Although isolated pockets continued to burn, the Trigo Fire was deemed 100 percent contained by May 11. The fire destroyed 59 homes in the communities of Sherwood Forest and New Canyon.

On the tour, Natural Resources Conservation Service Don Ashby, Jr., area range management specialist, and New Mexico State Forestry, Timber Management Officer Lawrence Crane stopped and spoke at several places around the retreat.

Dierdre Tarr, district manager, called the first spot a "high intensity burn" because retreat personnel had not had the time to thin the trees and underbrush as had been done to other areas of the retreat.

Workers from Forest Fitness, a company from the East Mountains, were cutting down dead trees or trees that had a less than a 10 percent green crown.

"He's decking the trees," Tarr said, meaning the workers were stacking the logs in piles to prevent them from washing down the arroyo.

"We're going to err on the side of caution and leave a few more trees than we normally would," Crane said.

Ashby spoke at the next site and asked Mountainair District Fire Information Officer Arlene Perea, who is slightly over 5 feet tall, to stand in a channel that had been cleared by workers in May. Then just two weeks ago it was cleared for a second time. Soon after that there was a heavy rain that Ashby claimed would have flowed over Perea's head.

The last stop in the tour had been thinned by workers at the retreat two years ago. Although Crane said the Trigo Fire had burned in that spot, many trees were still standing and some vegetation had returned.

"Thinning is about forest health," Crane said.

Forest personnel who are planning a prescribed burn in two areas of the forest near the end of the month say it also is about forest health among other things, said Lance Elmore, forest fire management officer since 2006, during a phone interview.

"The biggest reason that we're doing this is that the fuels that we're burning didn't burn. But they're at risk of burning just like in Ojo Peak, Trigo and Big Spring. Those three fires combined were approximately 25,000 acres. There are still 75,000 acres left in the Manzanos that are just as bad as the areas that burned. The fire danger is just as high," Elmore said.

The Forest Service classifies the fire risk that different areas of the forest has to burn on a scale of one to three, three being the most likely to burn in a forest fire.

"Basically most of the forest here is in the third category," Elmore said.

The first prescribed burn is planned south of Red Canyon Campground and the second burn, which forest personnel are calling the Ultima burn, is off Forest Road 275. Both areas are about 300 acres in size.

Fire personnel will be burning in the Red Canyon area for about two days, but the smoke will last longer than that, they promise.

For the Ultima burn, forest personnel will be lighting controlled burns for up to four days. For each prescribed burn there will be forest crews "patrolling and mopping up to make the area secure" after the burn, Elmore said.

Elmore uses a computer-based model to control burns.

"Using the computer-based model, we find parameters to help us meet the objectives that we want," Elmore said. The parameters include temperature and humidity.

Elmore said forest personnel have waited for optimal conditions for these proposed burns.

"We have higher temperatures and high humidities. We've had more moisture this year than last year," Elmore said.

All local fire departments, along with other emergency personnel, have been made aware of the proposed burns, Perea said.

"We'll have engines on standby while they're doing the actual ignition," Perea said.