Bluewater Showcase

The Bluewater Showcase study area is located six miles south of Bluewater Lake State Park in western New Mexico. The monitoring area covers 265 acres within the Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest. Pre-treatment monitoring was done by NMFWRI in 2010 and by the Forest Stewards Guild in 2012, 2013, and 2015. Post-treatment monitoring was completed by NMFWRI in 2017 and 2022.

The forest at Bluewater Showcase is uneven-aged ponderosa pine with a multi-storied structure. The habitat type is ponderosa pine/Arizona fescue. Vegetative structural stage (VSS) mid-age forest (VSS4) and mature forest (VSS5) are most abundant.  This area is an important habitat for the Northern Goshawk, Tassel-eared Squirrel, and Merriam’s Turkey. Understory flora includes rabbitbrush/chamisa, woolly mullein, blue grama, Western wheatgrass, and sagebrush.

Recent use of this area began in the late 1800s when it was used to harvest timber, fuel wood, and railroad ties, as was common in most of the forests in and around the Zuni Mountains during this time. Harvesting was unregulated and there is no evidence of any type of forest management.

As the local lumber markets dried up in the early 1900s, the rails that were built to transport the timber were removed and the forests were left to regrow. The site did not experienced fire until the mid-1980s when piled slash burns were used as part of a sanitation and improvement harvest to remove diseased, dying, and poorly formed trees.

Prior to human-influenced changes, ponderosa pine forests had widely spaced, large trees, typically occurring in small groups with scattered single trees, and open forest conditions with a productive grass-forb-shrub understory. Groups/patches are both even and uneven-aged, but larger-scale stands/landscapes are uneven-aged. These forests have self-regulatory mechanisms such as frequent low-intensity surface fires that ponderosa pines have adapted to withstand through thick bark, fast seedling growth, open crowns and highly flammable needles. Unfortunately, many of these forests in New Mexico have moved away from natural conditions due to:

• Overgrazing and predator control
• Fire exclusion
• Unregulated timber harvesting
• Failure to control density of young trees
• Introduction of invasive exotic species

These practices have altered the fire regime, hydraulic function, and wildlife and fish habitats, as well as the long-term sustainability of the ponderosa pine forest ecosystem.

Before the first treatments in 2010, the Bluewater Showcase monitoring areas were an uneven aged ponderosa pine cover type with a multi-storied structure and stand density averaged 216 trees and 125 square feet of basal area per acre. The stand was uneven-aged but had a predominance of mid-aged trees.

The goal of this treatment was to move towards a balanced uneven-aged, clumpy stand structure by adjusting stocking and spatial arrangement of leave trees. Achieving this required a reduction of uncharacteristic crown fire risk, protection of old and large trees, removal of small trees, and a return of fire to the ecosystem at ecologically appropriate intervals.

The treatment was done using mechanical forest thinning and prescribed fires that were strategically spread across the treatment area and was guided by a science-based framework for improving ecosystem resiliency developed by Reynolds et al. (2013).

The framework identifies the following desired conditions for ponderosa pine forests: 

1)   Groups vary in area between 0.1 and 0.75 acres. 2)  Openings between groups ideally are the same distance as the diameter of the group, but this can vary depending on pre-treatment stand conditions.  3)  The largest trees and the smallest trees in the stand should be retained.  4) Within a group, the trees ideally will be about the same diameter and height, to avoid the presence of ladder fuels that can carry fire into mature canopies. 

The framework also gives special consideration to the habitats of plants and animals in the northern goshawk’s food web including older tree groups with interlocking crowns for tassel-eared squirrels and high interspersion of grass-forb-shrub interspaces (foraging and brood habitat), closed-canopied tree groups (nesting and hiding cover), and large, old trees (roosting habitat) for Merriam’s turkey.

It is estimated that 200 to 300 cubic feet of sawlog was removed per acre of the treatment area, and 300 to 400 cubic feet of roundwood was removed per acre.

Thinning treatments reduced the number of trees per acre, lowering the canopy bulk density and subsequently the hazard of crown fire. The treatments also removed the overabundant small and young trees which increased the average size of the trees on the landscape. Larger diameter ponderosa pine are more likely to survive forest fires and have a greater ability to re-colonize post-fire stands which increases the overall resilience of the forest to wildfire, beetle attacks and drought. Removing the overabundant small and young trees was also necessary to reintroduce fire through prescribed fire and managed wildland fire.

This restoration treatment succeeded in creating the key compositional and structural elements identified in the framework. The treatment retained the uneven-aged structure in the stand, increased the degree of interspersion of age classes, and is on a trajectory toward an approximate balance of age classes.

Use the swiper tool below to see the how the Bluewater Showcase monitoring area changed from before treatment (June 2009) and after treatment (June 2020). Imagery is from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP).

The impacts of the thinning treatments are also seen in the photographs below taken during pre-treatment (2010) and post-treatment (2022) monitoring by NMFWRI. Use the swiper to see how these restoration treatments changed the forest landscape near Plot 18 in the FR-180 monitoring block.

In addition to walkthroughs, NMFWRI staff also collected drone imagery and videos of the forest and it's surrounding area.

Three virtual forest tours were walked at Bluewater Showcase in September of 2022: plots 13 and 20 in FR-180 and plot 08 in Andrews.

Collection was done using a GoPro Max to collect 360 photos as the collector walked through the forest. The photos are then stitched together to create the walkthroughs, allowing the viewer to move through the forest virtually.

Start at Plot 13 and walk North through the Bluewater Showcase forest stand by clicking on the image below. Click on the arrows to advance through the image.

Start at Plot 08 and walk West through the Bluewater Showcase forest stand by clicking on the image below. Click on the arrows to advance through the image.

Start at Plot 20 and walk Northeast through the Bluewater Showcase forest stand by clicking on the image below. Click on the arrows to advance through the image.

The Bluewater Showcase restoration treatments highlight the capacity for restoration efforts to reflect unique management goals and desired forest conditions that can help to improve forest function and reduce the threat of catastrophic fire. In partnership with post treatment monitoring, forest restoration can contribute to an adaptive ecosystem management framework in which the resilience of both ecosystems and communities are strengthened.

Follow NMFWRI’s  series of StoryMaps  that highlight further forest restoration efforts across New Mexico. 

Reynolds, Richard T.; Sánchez Meador, Andrew J.; Youtz, James A.; Nicolet, Tessa; Matonis, Megan S.; Jackson, Patrick L.; DeLorenzo, Donald G.; Graves, Andrew D. 2013. Restoring composition and structure in Southwestern frequent-fire forests: A science-based framework for improving ecosystem resiliency. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-310. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 76 p.

Reynolds, Richard T.; Graham, Russell T.; Reiser, M. Hildegard. 1992. Management recommendations for the northern goshawk in the southwestern United States. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-GTR-217. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. 90 p.

Guiterman, C. 2019. Restoration Objectives in the Zuni Mountains CFLR Landscape [briefing paper]. Three Pines Forest Research. LLC. 

Bryant, Timothy; Waring, Kristen; Sánchez Meador, Andrew; Bradford, John B. 2019. A Framework for Quantifying Resilience to Forest Disturbance. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Vol 2. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00056.