A restoration plan for more than 200,000 acres in the southwestern Jemez Mountains will receive up to $40 million in federal funds over the next 10 years, Santa Fe National Forest officials announced this week. The Southwest Jemez Collaborative Restoration Program was among 10 projects around the country selected by Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack under a federal grant program called the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, created last year by legislation sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. U.S. Forest Service spokesman Lawrence Lujan said the selected area, which includes the Valles Caldera National Preserve, is fire-prone, and much of the money will go toward addressing that issue through thinning on 90,000 acres and prescribed burns on 76,000 acres. Bruin said she collaborated with 30 different organizations — including Santa Clara and Jemez Pueblo leaders, state and federal officials, and nongovernment environmental activist groups — to form the grant-winning pitch...more
$200 an acre to thin it or burn it...those enviros don't work cheap.
1 comment:
Sorry, but I don't think $200 per acre will even come close paying for thinning. It might cover the fire costs, a hit or miss application. If the greens and the Feds were smart they would use logging to open the canopy and then use the receipts and the federal grant dollars to do the thinning and burning. But heaven forbid we log anything.
Think about the slash created by 90,000 acres of thinning! One bug infestation followed by another if it is not cleaned up, to say nothing about the sacred Jemez Salamander.
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