All of the land burned by the Pine Ridge Wildfire--just outside of De Beque--is now closed by the BLM and will not open until next July at the earliest.

Officials say the land is unstable and they do not want to take the risk of having people on it if a mud or rock slide happens.

The BLM says it knows closing this land for a year is going to cut back on recreation in the area, but they say if they need to do it now before something worse happens.

"It's a very serious situation that we can't allow to be disturbed any further," public information specialist for the BLM Christopher Joyner said.

The BLM has closed all the land burned by the Pine Ridge Wildfire. It destroyed nearly 14,000 acres that officials say can't be used for at lease a year.

"After a fire you lose a lot of the soil stability. The roots, the plants those things hold the soil together and when a fire goes through they're essentially destroyed," Joyner said. "And it makes the soil very susceptible to erosion and that's something we're very concerned with."

Another concern for the BLM is the steep terrain in the burned area.

"Some of the potential hazards are for mud slides rock slides associated with the area that was burned. Those things are common after a fire and specifically the area that was burned is such a steep terrain that vegetation is critical in that terrain staying put," Joyner said. "Right now we're doing some efforts to mitigate that."

Joyner says if the land continues to be disturbed, it will cause bigger problems. It could possibly shut the Western Slope off from the rest of the state by closing the railroad and I-70.

"Those are very important avenues for commerce in this area and if those are affected it could have far reaching implications throughout the west," he said.

The BLM says it's hard for them to close public lands. They want people to understand it would not be closed if it were not absolutely necessary.

"People use it to recreate, some of it was under permittee land, there's oil and gas in that area," Joyner said. "Just like everything with Bureau of Land Management we manage for multi-use resources."

The BLM says anyone who violates the land closure may be fined up to $1,000, face jail time, or both.