The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has planned prescribed pile burns at 10 locations from December to April depending on weather and fuel moisture conditions, according to a news release by the agency on Wednesday.

The total acreage of the burns is around 576 acres, mostly occurring across two locations managed by the agency’s Royal Gorge Field Office.

The fires will remove accumulating natural fuels to aid the forest ecosystem and reduce the potential of a catastrophic wildfire, according to the release.

At the Soapy Hill piles 11 miles south of Guffey, 265 acres of 2,000 hand piles of Ponderosa pine, piñon, juniper and mixed conifer will be burned. The other location at Mount Shavano three miles northwest of Poncha Springs will burn 182 acres of 3,000 hand piles of the same vegetation except mixed conifer, according to the release.

The other locations involved are burning:

• 85 acres of 32 machine piles of Lodgepole pine seven miles north of Buena Vista at Frenchman Creek
• Two acres of three machine piles of Engelmann spruce 17 miles north of Cotopaxi at North Stoney Face
• 35 machine piles of Ponderosa pine, piñon, juniper and mixed conifer 13 miles northwest of Cañon City at Thompson Mountain
• 42 acres of 1,000 hand piles of Ponderosa pine, piñon and juniper 15 miles northwest of Westcliffe at Turkey Gulch
• 500 piles of Ponderosa pine, Doulas Fir, Aspen and grass eight miles north-northwest of LaGarita at Biedell
• 30 large machine and hand piles of Aspen, Douglas fir slash and non-merchantable logs 6.5 miles south of Poncha Springs at Poncha Pass
• Two machine-built piles of cottonwood four miles east-northeast of Sanford at Macintire Mansion piles
• 20 piles of invasive Russian Olive slash 11 miles northeast of Alamosa at the Blanca Wetlands piles

On the day of the fire, smoke will be visible throughout the day and may accumulate in low-lying areas in the evening. Resources on how prescribed fire smoke can affect individuals are available on the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division’s website.

The Bureau of Land Management announced an additional prescribed fire on Tuesday for the Blanca Wetlands, managed by the San Luis Valley Field Office, of 341 acres from November through April, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

Updates on all of the fires managed by the Bureau of Land Management will be posted on its Colorado Fire Facebook page.