<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A wildlife surveyor for the Mescalero Apache Tribe pleaded innocent Friday to setting a fire on an arson-plagued reservation parched by drought and torn by political infighting.</p>
<p>Paul James Valdez, 27, of Tularosa, who worked for the tribe helping take the census of federally protected Mexican spotted owls, was arrested Wednesday on charges of setting the half-acre Lower Cooley Fire on June 2.</p>