Forest Service sues state, Otero Co.

In 2001 New Mexico passed Senate Bill 1 to allow counties to manage national forest lands under certain circumstances that U.S. Forest Service personnel couldn't handle. Now that Otero County passed a resolution in 2011 to do just that, the Forest Service has filed a lawsuit to stop the action. Peg Crim, of the Lincoln National Forest, has confirmed the action by the Department of Justice. But, she said, she is not at liberty to talk about the suit. "It's not going to change anything we have now," she said. "We are going to continue working with the county and state." According to a statement from U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales, on Feb. 7, the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of New Mexico, on behalf of the USDA Forest Service, filed a complaint asking for a declaration from the court on whether Senate Bill 1 and an Otero County resolution are pre-empted by federal law and, therefore, unconstitutional. The statement says the legal action follows efforts by the Forest Service and U.S. Attorney's office to find a way to legally satisfy the concerns of Otero County commissioners and collaborate with federal agencies to mitigate fire risk due to extreme drought conditions in the forest. "However," the statement says, "the United States Constitution forbids New Mexico and Otero County from supplanting the federal government's land and fire management regime with its own state- and county-specific policies that disrupt the numerous interests the federal government must balance when developing and implementing fire management plans." The bill allows the county to take measures to protect people when fire danger is extreme, an emergency has been declared and the Forest Service has not moved to alleviate the danger. "We followed all the rules and regulations," Rardin said. "We told them what we were doing and they didn't like it."...more

To see Senate Bill 1 go here.