For 11 years, Santa Fe’s Forest Guardians have been
unflinching in their opposition to logging on the Southwest’s
national forests. But this June, they blinked. Following the Cerro
Grande fire that swept through Los Alamos, Forest Guardians
released its first-ever proposal for cutting
trees.
The proposal calls for thinning and
prescribed burning in Santa Fe’s 17,000-acre watershed, patches of
which are blanketed by a dense ponderosa pine forest, similar to
the one that burned around Los Alamos. The plan calls for mulching
flammable brush and branches and cutting some trees, but it would
prohibit the Forest Service from selling any of the
wood.
“We’re taking a huge chance. We don’t know
if what we’re proposing will work,” says Forest Guardians founder
Sam Hitt. “But we’re trying to get out in front on ecological
restoration.”
The Guardians first have some
catching up to do, according to conservationists and Forest Service
staffers who have been planning for over a year to thin the
watershed. “I got a copy of their report in the mail yesterday and
I said, ‘This sounds just like our proposal,’ ” says Santa Fe
National Forest Planner Susan Bruin.
The upper
Santa Fe watershed has been closed to the public since 1932,
because heavy grazing, logging and recreation had denuded the steep
slopes, allowing soil to wash into the town’s drinking water.
The watershed’s forest has seen a dramatic
comeback over the last century, says Paige Grant, coordinator of
the Santa Fe Watershed Association, but it is now susceptible to
searing crown fires that could once again expose the land to
erosion (HCN, 6/5/00: More trouble waits in the
wings).
The Forest Service expects to finish a
draft environmental impact statement on its thinning proposal this
fall.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline In New Mexico, a surprising proposal rises from the flames.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
