Large bosque fire going in Albuquerque

Author-published | June 24, 2003 | Muleteam1

[jrawk]

Absolutely. First I am not a scientist, I don't have a degree in Forestry (although I do have my Forestry Merit Badge ;) So this falls into the category of opinion, not fact and contains my biases.

You can drive a circle and go through a checkerboard Bureau of Land Management Land, Privately Owned Land, Indian Owned Reservation Land, and the Santa Fe National Forest.

Predominantly coniferous/temperate forested lands with many use desginations from Wilderness to Grazing by Permit to Private Use. Each follows the philosophy of the steward. Much of the private & BLM land is logged by permit and/or grazed. The National Forest is what it has become.

You can literally see as you travel from land controlled by one steward to the next the differences in philosophy, and health of the forest.

From Santa Fe you take 84 north, take 4 west, just before Jemez Springs take 126 to Cuba. This is a dirt road passable by cars when dry, else you better have a 4 wheel drive. Once in Cuba take 44 west for a short while and circle back to 84 on 96 through Gallina. It would take a full day.

Made the drive last summer. Beautiful drive. You will see junipers and scrubland to tall massive Ponderosa Pines.

Unfortunately you will also see massive burn areas from the past summer, where the fire was fully involved and the earth scorched to the ground. As you pass from those barren, eroding areas into back into the forest you ask yourself why? We might as well clear cut it. Likely if we had it would recover more quickly in some areas and we would have had the use of the trees. At the very least why did we not go in and take out deadfall for paper production, or selectively logged to thin, or checkerboard clear cut to create meadows and fire breaks.

On the drive you can pretty much tell where you are by the activities and amount of deadfall. In many parts of the National Forest you have tangled messes of dead pines, clogged with aspens. It is a powder keg waiting for the next wet spring to grow the grasses, and dry summer to make them into tinder for lightning.

Why it is we think we need to manage water flows to save minnows in the Rio Grande, by not manage forest growth to save the forest is beyond me! Completely illogical. If it were up to me I would hand it all over to the BLM.

Sorry for the spastic writing style, I just got back from starbucks...

-- lates
-- jrawk

[wjcsux]

Jackrabbits also. Seriously, many of these areas were purchased with Pittman-Robertson funds available for wildlife habitat. There are several of these areas along the Rio Grande. The biggest is Bosque Del Apache which is off of I-25 approximately 60 miles south of here. The state of NM manages these areas. The big problem we have here in NM is extreme drought conditions. The Rio Grande is currently at record low water level. The area off of I-70 is very densely wooded with Salt Cedars and high grass. Ripe for a wildfire.

[OldFriend]

I'll not forget the terrible fires that came so very close to Los Alamos.....thanks to some idiot who thought it would be a good day to have a controlled burn.

[Doctor Stochastic]

It was a bad fire. (I was luck, only evacuated for a week, due to smoke.)

The later fires in Arizona have been much worse. Of course, these were not set intentionally by some Government Agency.

[cogitator]

The big problem we have here in NM is extreme drought conditions. The Rio Grande is currently at record low water level.

I was in Santa Fe last November and saw a sign that the main reservoir was at 30% of capacity, so there were a number of water use restrictions in place. The area had a little snow over the river, but I don't think it was enough to do much about the amount of water in the reservoir.

We were worried about running out of water in the Frederick (MD) municipal reservoirs until nature took a hand here out east and provided a lot MORE rain than necessary.

[OldFriend]

The biggest problem we face is the enviro crazies thwarting proper land management. Thankfully, President Bush has pretty much been willing to take the heat and stick to his guns on this issue. Even tho Christie Whitman stumbled at first, she did her best against the enviro buried in the EPA.....that want only to harm our country.

[OldFriend]

Daughter lives in Denver..........the fires in Colorado was so devestating........

We were watching a ballgame from Coors Field one night and it appeared to be snowing....it was ash falling. Luckily they have had a lot of snow and a lot of rain this spring.

[Muleteam1]

>>I was down by Coors and Montano when the fire broke out. It was a mess. The smoke got so bad they closed I-40 both ways for about 2 hours.<<

A friend tried to drive from the University area to my house on the west side last evening and found that north-bound Coors was even closed for a while. It was indeed a mess but when I saw the smoke clouds shift to the NE, I was somewhat relieved because my home was NW of the fires, i.e., Montano and Golf Course.

Muleteam1

[Muleteam1]

>>The area off of I-70 is very densely wooded with Salt Cedars and high grass.<<

The USDA has had a plan for years to import several natural biological controls for Tamarisk (salt cedar) but the USFWS at Albuquerque has had a folded-arm strategy to stand in the way of these biologicals. The middle Rio Grande bosque undergrowth is now dense with salt cedar and, when dry, it burns like a kerosene-soaked rag.

Muleteam1

[Doctor Stochastic]

We had rain in 1999.

[wjcsux]

The Tamarisk trees were imported in the 1800's from the Middle East. They were brought in for wind blocks and planted all over AZ, CO, UT and NM. They soak up water like a sponge. I have heard that these trees use up almost 1/4 of the water in the Rio Grande. As you stated, the state has tried to get rid of them but the USFWS stands in the way. Remember the USFS bonehead who tried to conduct a controlled burn in the middle of our windy season?

[wjcsux]

We are at about a 40 year low in the river here.

[Muleteam1]

>>As you stated, the state has tried to get rid of them but the USFWS stands in the way. <<

The primary concern expressed for getting rid of the salt cedar underbrush is the loss of possible habitat for the Southwestern willow flycatcher which is known to use these habitats. However, it seems pretty short-sighted to simply overlook the millions of gallons of water needed to support these exotic plants in a desert climate.

>>Remember the USFS bonehead who tried to conduct a controlled burn in the middle of our windy season?<<

Ha! Indeed I do. The conversion of the Forest Service to a Park Service is slowly, but surely occuring. Most people do not realize that, although the Forest Service is still an agency of the US Department of Agriculture, it's annual budgets are now dissiminated through the Department of the Interior.

Muleteam1

[Muleteam1]

More bosque fires tonight around Montano and Coors.

Muleteam1

[NRA2BFree]

A friend tried to drive from the University area to my house on the west side last evening and found that north-bound Coors was even closed for a while. It was indeed a mess but when I saw the smoke clouds shift to the NE, I was somewhat relieved because my home was NW of the fires, i.e., Montano and Golf Course.

Wow, it's a mess down there tonight. My friend's shop is right past Railey's grocery store in the same strip mall at the corner of Montano and Coors. I'm up close to San Mateo and Candelaria now and I can see the flames from here. :( I heard the mayor say they believe it's arson because there are so many fires burning. I pray you will be safe. Kristy

[Muleteam1]

Thanks for the prayers. I think the mayor is fairly well fed up with this since he had to vacate his own home yesterday.

Muleteam1

[NRA2BFree]

Thanks for the prayers. I think the mayor is fairly well fed up with this since he had to vacate his own home yesterday.

You're welcome. :) Yes, the mayor is obviously upset. You can hear it in his voice. I'm pretty upset about it too. The bosque is so pretty and I hate to see it destroyed.