WildEarth Guardians

Friday, June 2, 2006
Santa Fe National Forest: Hyde Park Forest Thinning Delayed

Santa Fe Forest Watch, Wild Watershed and four individuals joined WildEarth Guardians in the appeal
Contact: John Arnold Albuquerque Journal

A group of environmentalists and residents who live near the Santa Fe National Forest have won an appeal that will delay plans to thin more than 1,800 acres near the Santa Fe Watershed.

Project planners with the forest's Española Ranger District did not adequately collaborate with landowners, community groups and other stakeholders, according to U.S. Forest Service officials who reviewed the appeal.

"Local collaboration may have resolved some of the public concerns, issues, and alternatives to the project that surfaced during the public involvement process," Santa Fe National Forest supervisor Gilbert Zepeda wrote in his May 25 decision.

The Forest Service wants to use machines and prescribed fires to thin 1,825 acres immediately southeast of Hyde Park Road. The overgrown forests- parts of which contain more than 1,000 trees per acre- represent a significant fire risk to the adjacent Santa Fe Watershed and nearby communities, according to forest officials.

But some residents in Hyde Park Estates worry that prescribed fires- which the Forest Service wants to use to thin 1,000 acres on steeper slopes in the area- might get out of hand and threaten their subdivision.

Others who appealed the plan were concerned with the project's environmental impacts, including how it might affect air quality and wildlife habitats.

"The coalition that challenged the project does not oppose some thinning and burning to accomplish restoration or community protection, but does believe that the public deserves a fair chance to shape any future proposals," states a news release distributed by WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that appealed the plan.

Santa Fe Forest Watch, Wild Watershed and four individuals joined WildEarth Guardians in the appeal.

Melinda Roth, a Forest Service official in Arizona, who reviewed the appeal, wrote in her recommendations to Zepeda that the thinning project is consistent with Santa Fe National Forest's overall plans to treat forest fuels.

But she added that the Española Ranger District "did not provide ample information for public comment during the analysis and decision making process."

Specifically, the district's plans did not adequately share implementation details and information on how the project might affect roadless areas of the forest and plots of land used to study wildlife in the Santa Fe Watershed, Roth wrote.

Acting Española District Ranger Sandy Hurlocker called the appeal decision disappointing.

"But obviously the review team saw some things we needed to fix, and better to fix them now than later," he said in a phone interview.

The district is now reviewing collaboration options and how to more thoroughly document environmental impacts, according to Hurlocker.

"And so even though the decision (to thin the area) has been reversed, and we have to go back to some of the process questions, we're still pursuing it as an important project," he said.

Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission