Parts of Lincoln forest reopen after historic closure

July 21, 2011

parts of the lincoln national forest are set to reopen after the longest closure in the forest's history. but the fire danger is still very high and there are still restrictions in place-- joe bartels has the story from ruidoso. storm clouds have brought enough rain to ease some of the fire danger-- allowing officials to open parts of the forest that have been closed since may 12th. "what that means is we'll have 2 ranger districts in the forest that will be open for public use. the smokey bear ranger district and areas around lincoln county and the sacramento district which area near cloudcroft." officials say despite the fire danger still being very high-- the weather has worked in their favor. "we have seen significant changes in relative humidities over the past few weeks. we've also seen a lowering of the energy release component index that we use to gauge the potential of a significant fire." starting tomorrow at 8 a-m-- trails, pinic areas and camp sites will all be open ... however camp fires, charcoal grills and smoking out in the open will still be banned. officials say it depends on the weather if they will have to close the forest again. "it's really had to predict, all i can say is these decisions are based on observations of weather and predicted fire behavior." extra patrols by the lincoln county sheriff's office along with ruidoso pd and forest rangers will be out looking for people not complying with the restrictions. in ruidoso joe bartels kob eyewitness news four. the guadalupe district that covers areas around carlsbad will remain closed due to extreme fire danger. you can get a complete list of all the restrictions in place by going to our website.... k- o-b dot com