 The far larger Rodeo-Chediski Fire in Arizona, as well as several other fires in the Western United States in 2002, completed the process of bringing forest fires into political focus, leading to the establishment of the Healthy Forests Initiative in 2003.This initiative remains controversial, and its applicability to the relatively sparse forests of the Jemez Mountains that were consumed in the Cerro Grande Fire is unclear.Clearly, though, significant thinning of the coniferous forest of the Jemez has occurred in the years following Cerro Grande.