Metro bosque to reopen Friday morning

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The city of Albuquerque has announced the Rio Grande Bosque will completely reopen effective Friday at 8 a.m.

High fire danger prompted closures along the Bosque in late June . On Thursday the city downgraded fire restrictions to a State I and announced that be Bosque would reopen for public use.

The rain is responsible, but the area is not out of the woods just yet.

This year is a lot wetter than last year. The metro area has had 2.65 inches through mid-July compared to 0.19 inches for the same period in 2011.

The rain was spotty, so the bosque in Sandoval, Valencia and Socorro counties will remain closed because those areas didn't receive as much rain.

While the Albuquerque area is back open officials emphasize that wildland fires do remain a threat and therefore will be enforcing those restrictions aimed at preventing the start of wildfire based on high risk human activities

”This is the most appropriate time to open up the Bosque,” Chief James Breen said. “To do it last week would've been premature especially given that the human impact to the Bosque was fairly high, we're also in the fireworks season, that has passed as well.”

Cibola National Forest has also lifted it's restrictions.

The Bosque in Sandoval, Valencia and Socorro counties is still closed.

Those State I Fire restrictions prohibit the following activities in Open Space Areas:

1. Building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, open flame, campfire or stove fire 
2. Smoking, except in enclosed vehicles
3. Possessing, discharging or using any kind of fireworks or other pyrotechnic device
4. Possessing or using a motor vehicle off any publicly designated roadways, except when parking in developed parking lots or at developed trailheads
5. Operating a chainsaw or other equipment powered by an internal combustion engine
6. Operating any piece of spark-emitting equipment
7. Operating any internal or external combustion engine 
8. Welding, or operating an acetylene or other torch with an open flame
9. Camping or overnight stay

Open Space areas include those lands zoned or designated as open space in the City’s adopted Plan for Major Public Open Space and acquired by the City; Bosque or Bosque Areas; the Rio Grande State Park; wildlands areas and wildlands/urban interface areas; major named arroyos; lined or unlined drain-ways; retention dams and retention pond areas and abutting rights-of-way or easements which have been publicly acquired; and any open lands for which the City has assumed control or management responsibility by lease, easement, or legal agreement.

Penalties and Enforcement Any person found violating the fire restrictions ordinance shall be charged with a petty misdemeanor. Upon conviction, each violation shall be punishable by a fine up to five hundred dollars ($500) and/or by imprisonment for up to ninety (90) days. The Fire Marshal’s Office and the Albuquerque Police Department’s Open Space Officers are responsible for enforcing the Albuquerque Fire Restriction Ordinance.