County measure opposes Gila road plan

After hearing two related presentations and comments that ran the gamut from several residents, the Grant County Commission passed a resolution calling for the U.S. Forest Service to leave trails and roads in the Gila Forest alone until the department does its homework. The resolution addresses concerns commissioners have and have heard from residents regarding the proposed Travel Management Plan the Forest Service is developing for the Gila National Forest. County Commission Chairman Brett Kasten, at a meeting Thursday night, said the resolution passed at the meeting is calling for the status quo to be kept until the concerns of the commission and area residents are addressed. "The Draft Environmental Impact Statement before us today is a flawed and incomplete document," Kasten said. "It fails to adequately address the historical cultural needs for camping and recreation for the people in southwest New Mexico. The inventory of roads is incomplete and the document should, at a minimum, start with the roads that are currently on the ground." Commissioner Gabriel Ramos, who pushed for the resolution at a work session earlier this week, waved a stack of 24 pages of roads the U.S. Forest has acknowledged are not on the Environmental Impact Statement maps...more