The June 2012 Little Bear Fire burned 44,330 acres of private and Lincoln National Forest land in southern New Mexico, the majority in a wedge of prime timberland surrounding Bonito Creek. Beautiful, clear Bonito Lake, water supply for the City of Alamogordo and for Holloman Air Force Base, was overrun by the flames, which also burned 242 homes and 12 additional structures on the checkerboard lands adjacent to the lake.