Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Forest Service must change its approach

This year, New Mexico had its largest fire on record, while last year Arizona saw its largest fire ever. Large fires have also ravished Colorado. The increasing number of large fires across New Mexico and the western United States is a trend that must be reversed. The Forest Service is reviewing the procedures it followed in the fighting of the Little Bear fire. This review is very important to those who lost homes and property. It is also important to those in Ruidoso and the surrounding area who face changes in property values and increased costs to protect their property from another fire. We can't allow countless restrictions, regulations and special interests to limit or impede the Forest Service's ability to properly manage our forests. Congressman Steve Pearce expresses the frustration many feel as he calls for change that will protect the forests, its watersheds, the firefighters and the people who live in and near the forests. The fires that narrowly missed destroying all of Ruidoso, Los Alamos, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Fort Collins, Colo., clearly show that change is imperative. We must act before the next fire destroys an entire community, much needed water supplies or really makes the Mexican spotted owl an endangered species. Otero County is leading the charge to bring control of forest management to the county governments. I don't know if or when they will ultimately be successful. I have, however, long advocated a different approach. That approach would require the Forest Service, BLM or any other government agency that controls property adjacent to a community to transfer a defined amount of that property to the community. The local government can then determine what use may occur on that property. Local planning and your direct input would take the place of Washington's failed policies...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The current FS is what you get when you populate it with tree-huggers and know-nothings who do not understand wildlands management or care to understand it. The current group of FS employees think forest management is 15 people all sitting around a picnic table, throwing their beer cans into a stream. They all come from the dream world of Unicorns and new age nonsense.