CROWNING FURY (NM wildfire reignites long-standing tensions between locals, USDA Forest Service)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | June 9, 2022 | Alicia Inez Guzmán / Searchlight New Mexico

[CedarDave]

TIERRA MONTE – The air smells of ash and the landscape is leached of color. Spots of green punctuate the valley floor in places. But along the ridges, the powdery residue of charred trees has fallen like snow, accumulating up to 4 inches deep. These are the slices of forest where the fire burned the hottest, scorching ponderosa pines from crown to root. Once titans, they are now matchsticks.

Pola Lopez gestures their way, southward toward Hermits Peak. Before a tsunami of flames ripped through this canyon in Tierra Monte, the canopy was so thick it was impossible to see the nearby mountain. But two prescribed burns set by the U.S. Forest Service – one on Hermits Peak, the other in Calf Canyon to the southwest – changed all that.

When the blazes merged to form the biggest wildfire in state history, flames engulfed nearly 160 acres of riparian forest that once belonged to her father. “It wiped us out,” Lopez says.

Like so many in the devastation zone, she squarely places the blame on the USFS, not only for starting a prescribed burn in the windy month of April – when gusts reached 70 miles per hour – but for a century of conflict with rural communities. Known locally as La Floresta, the USFS is often seen as a feudal lord, a faraway government entity that has accumulated vast holdings with little idea of how to properly steward them or enough funds to do the job.

The community’s fury runs almost too deep for words, says Antonia Roybal-Mack, a Mora native whose family lost hundreds of acres to the fire.

“The prescribed burn was the match,” says Roybal-Mack. “But the fuel was there for decades when they wouldn’t let people into the forest to collect vigas or firewood.”

[CedarDave]

This story is from "Searchlight New Mexico." A link to that article is provided below where it is available to view free of charge together with photos.

Crowning fury. Anger toward the Forest Service has been smoldering for a century. Raging wildfires brought it roaring to life.

However, what is not discussed in the full story is that the Forest Service was prohibited from taking actions like thinning and logging due to endless lawsuits from environmental groups claiming endangered species protections were needed for the northern spotted owl, a field mouse and various other flora and fauna. The anger of the affected residents should also be directed at those groups who continually shrill for money while making little progress in their goals but end up displacing jobs and people from making a living.

[CedarDave]

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[CedarDave]

Also from the story:

In nearly two dozen Searchlight New Mexico interviews with people affected by the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire, the same sentiments emerge: The USFS has a history, locals argue, of mismanaging the forest. In particular, they say the agency has limited or prohibited people from the long-held tradition of collecting firewood and other timber, the kind of maintenance the forest needed. If they had been able to tend to it the way they had for generations, they believe the conflagration would have been far less devastating.

[CopperTop]

They ruin everything they touch..

[Gen.Blather]

“However, what is not discussed in the full story is that the Forest Service was prohibited from taking actions like thinning and logging due to endless lawsuits from environmental groups claiming endangered species protections were needed for the northern spotted owl, a field mouse and various other flora and fauna. The anger of the affected residents should also be directed at those groups who continually shrill for money while making little progress in their goals but end up displacing jobs and people from making a living.”

Several years ago, out west the Forest Service had been tied up in court for years trying to get a burn permit. This allowed excess fuel to accumulate on the forest floor. They finally got a burn permit but the weather for the entire time was too windy to use it. Finally, it was down to a day or so left on the permit and then it would have been back to court for the next five years. The weather that day was marginal but because of how the fuel accumulation might look in another five years when they next got a permit, they decided to risk it and start the burn. The weather changed back to windy, and it was the worst fire in decades. All blamed on the Forest Service, of course.

[pas]

Exactly environmental groups and the courts allow these things to happen.

[ptsal]

Bkmk

[crz]

Someone tell me again why the management of that trust should not be taken away from the federal government and turned back to the local counties or states..

Come on, explain to me that the local communities should not be the sole administrator of that trust of those lands.

NATIONWIDE!!!

[cpdiii]

All Federal land that is not needed for National Defense and present National Parks should be turned over to the states.

[logi_cal869]

Related:

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/05/28/review-traces-largest-wildfire-new-mexico-history-prescribed-burn/9977519002/

I have nothing good to say about government, especially in regard to forest ‘management’.

[DesertRhino]

“The weather that day was marginal but because of how the fuel accumulation might look in another five years”

No, the forecast wind THAT DAY was TRIPLE the maximum speeds a prescribed burn may be conducted in. Additionally it was unusually dry and humidity was extremely low. Someone should go to prison for this.

This was reckless to the point of criminal.

[Liberty Valance]

bttt

[Roccus]

Learned a new (to me) term today that fits this problem to a T

“REGULATORY TUNNEL VISION”

[crz]

Oh ya..they always got an excuse.

I have dealt with the USFS for years and since old man Bushes term, they have got way out of hand.

You do know that any machine they call in for that fire gets over 2500 bucks a day whether they use it or not, and that they get a good bunch of money to transport those machines to and from the fires.

There is one outfit from Ore..that is all they do is put machines on USFS fires.

BIG MONEY.