Manzano Forests Spared Chain Saws For Now: Residents Stop 17,000 Acre 'Healthy Forest' Logging Proposal

President Bush's so-called 'Healthy Forest' policy has been dealt another major setback in New Mexico

President Bush’s so-called "Healthy Forest" policy has been dealt another major setback in New Mexico, this time by the very people it would purportedly benefit. The Deputy Regional Forester in Albuquerque sent the environmental documentation for the Tajique Watershed Restoration Project back to Cibola forest managers to fix defects. In November, residents of the Manzano Mountains southeast of Albuquerque filed an official "objection" to a government proposal to log and burn nearly 17,000 acres of public forests supposedly for watershed health. Joined by WildEarth Guardians, the residents contend the logging would only cause increased fire hazard and water quality problems. Furthermore, the likelihood of catastrophic fire burning down homes is statistically very low.

"It is reassuring that the Forest Service has acknowledged serious flaws in their analysis and that they will correct the mistakes raised in our objection." Said Paul Davis, a 30-year resident. "Now we hope the government will work with us this time around on developing a project that meets the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and addresses our concerns in a meaningful manner."

The Tajique project calls for logging 8,983 acres as well as 4,177 acres of thinning, 470 acres of clearcut, 1,100 acres of fuelbreaks, and 1,270 acres of prescribed burning 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.

Residents, along with WildEarth Guardians, have presented the Forest Service a compromise, a Citizen’s Alternative, but this alternative has been largely ignored by the government. The Citizen’s Alternative called for greatly reduced thinning, 25 miles fewer fuel breaks (75% less), no new road construction, andlocal labor contracting only. Instead, the Forest Service presented a biased and irrational proposal 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 residents’ 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.

"These forests don’t need ten more years of logging and heavy-handed management," said Bryan Bird. "They are recovering on their own and would benefit most from road removals and cattle reductions. The Forest Service should now sit down with the community and develop a collaborative wildfire protection plan."

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 than ecological conditions.

The Tajique Watershed Citizen’s Alternative includes the following:

  1. No new road construction;

  2. Closing and decommissioning 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, 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 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.

Additional Contacts: Paul Davis, Project Area Resident, (505) 286-9096 Bud Latven, Project Area Resident, (505) 384-2208


 

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