WildEarth Guardians

Friday, November 18, 2005
Manzano Mountain Residents Object to Government Plan For Forests: Proposal Biased And Economically Unjustified

"The proposed Tajique Watershed Restoration project increases risk of fire, harms our watershed, and will destroy the scenic nature of the canyon for decades to come. Logging trucks will be coming up or down the July Canyon road 48 times a day..
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

A government proposal to log and burn nearly 17,000 acres for forest and watershed health while generating wood products, including biomass, was met with an official objection by a least 17 area residents. The residents, joined by WildEarth Guardians, contend the logging and thinning will only cause increased fire hazard and water quality problems and the likelihood of catastrophic fire burning down homes is statistically very low. The coalition’s official objection was filed before the Wednesday deadline.

“As some of the only residents that will be impacted by this project, we hope the government reconsiders the proposed logging of the 4th of July Canyon.” Said Paul Davis a thirty-year resident, “The proposed project increases risk of fire, harms our watershed, and will destroy the scenic nature of the canyon for decades to come. Logging trucks will be coming up or down the Canyon road 48 times a day, five days a week, for at least 10 years.”The Tajique project calls for 8,983 acres of logging for timber, biomass, and commercial firewood as well as 4,177 acres of thinning, 470 acres of clearcut, 1,100 acres of fuelbreaks constructed, 1,270 acres of prescribed burning all on National Forest lands The stated purpose of the fuels treatments is to “reduce fuel loads and restore structure and composition across the landscape.” The net taxpayer cost of the preferred alternative is $365 an acre or an estimated total cost of $5 million. “We hope to persuade the Forest Service to disclose the complete scope of the Tajique Watershed Project and analyze the impacts in an unbiased and scientific manner,” Said MJ Davis, a resident, “We would like the Forest Service to consider our Citizen's Alternative, which presented a more strategic thinning proposal with fewer environmental impacts.” In its earlier comments on the proposal, the coalition of residents and WildEarth Guardians presented a Citizen’s Alternative to the Forest Service, but this alternative was largely ignored. The citizen’s alternative called for greatly reduced thinning, 25 miles fewer fuel breaks (75% less), no new road construction, and local labor contracting only. Instead, the Forest Service presented a biased and irrationalproposal for the Tajique planning area.

The group points out in its November 15th objection that the proposal violates the new Healthy Forest Restoration Act in several ways; most notably the extremely low population numbers in the planning area cannot possibly justify the designation of Wildland-Urban Interface as required. Further, the environmental analysis assumes that not doing anything (no action) is equivalent to a catastrophic fire burning the entire forest and all the homes down at one time. The Resident’s objection statistically demonstrated how this scenario is extremely unlikely and spending close to $10 million of tax payer dollars to address this unlikely event is irrational at best. “The Forest Service should be spending our tax-dollars more strategically.” Said Bryan Bird. “These forests are already recovering and would benefit most from road removals and cattle reductions.” The Tajique Project is only the third time the Forest Service has used the new Healthy Forest Restoration Act in New Mexico and residents contend it is being driven more by economics rather than ecological conditions.

The Tajique Watershed Citizen’s Alternative includes the following:

1. No new road construction;

2. Close and decommission at least enough road miles to bring the planning area into compliance with the Cibola Management Plan;

3. Reduce fuel break construction by 75% (25 miles);

4. Fuel break and defensible spaces based on landscape features and weather patterns (e.g. location of past lightening strikes and natural movement of fires, past thinning, prevailing wind directions, and locations of private dwellings);

5. No landscape level logging or thinning;

6. 12” d.b.h. diameter cap in all vegetation treatments;

7. 9” diameter cap within Mexican spotted owl activity centers and northern goshawk territories;

8. Retire grazing allotments in the planning area (grazing reduces grasses which previously fueled frequent, low-intensity surface fires and normally compete with pine seedling establishment and the removal of livestock is necessary for a successful restoration of historic vegetation structure and natural processes);

9. Increase law enforcement presence, especially after business hours to prevent tree and animal poaching, human fire starts, and illegal OHV use;

10. Increase fire patrols and Capilla Peak Fire Tower observation days

11. Close this area during extreme fire danger periods;

12. Develop a pre and post-project monitoring plan for wildlife, soil impacts and water quality and other resource concerns;

13. Create a citizen oversight committee to work with the USFS in integrating monitoring information into an adaptive management plan;

14. Contour felling of all cut trees over 6” d.b.h (limbed trees be placed perpendicular to the slope, set into the soil, staked on the downhill side and arranged on a shingle pattern): trees under 6” d.b.h. will be piled and burned;

15. Limit fires to prescribed wildland fire use ('managed' naturally occurring wildfires); and

16. Separate funding and implementation of fuel break projects from habitat management projects.

WildEarth Guardians is a non-profit corporation with approximately 1400 members throughout the United States, including New Mexico. WildEarth Guardians’ mission is to protect and restore the natural biological diversity of forests in America’s southwest, including forests in the Cibola National Forest. Members of WildEarth Guardians engage in outdoor recreation, wildlife viewing and other activities in the Cibola National Forest.