Compromise on forest use will benefit everyone

I have lived and worked as a builder, land developer and real estate broker in the Sacramento Mountains for about 30 years. I have had the opportunity to view the conditions of the forest in this area daily. When we first moved here in 1982, there were multiple family-run logging enterprises on the mountain and a large mill in Alamogordo. There was harmony between recreational use and the logging industry. The Forest Service was viewed in a more positive light as an asset in protecting a public treasure -- the Lincoln National Forest. The public was being served, ranchers grazed their cattle and loggers were consistently working, harvesting valuable timber and reducing the threat of fire. Recreational users enjoyed a road system paid for at the loggers' expense. There was room for all these diverse uses of the public treasure. The current situation in the Lincoln has made large scale, profitable logging very difficult to achieve. It has resulted in small single-use logging areas, interrupted for weeks and months for endangered species. The logging operators are nervous, small and have uncertain futures. The areas thinned are inconsequential in preserving the safety of the forest. The reduced size of available areas and increased stop work conditions have squeezed sawmills out of Otero County. This is a complex issue, but the facts support our forest is very thick and overgrown. A catastrophic fire is imminent...more