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Thinning Cut Back In Cibola Forest

Date
September 15, 2005
Contact
Albuquerque Journal
In This Release
Public Lands  

Thursday, September 15, 2005
Thinning Cut Back In Cibola Forest

The real focus of these Forest Service projects should be fireproofing people’s homes and residential area, not fireproofing the forest because we can’t fireproof the forest.
Contact: Albuquerque Journal

The Cibola National Forest has scaled back a planned project to reduce fire danger and improve forest health by thinning thousands of acres west of Tajique in the mountains southeast of Albuquerque.

The changes will be the topic of a meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Torreon Community Center.

A proposal to build 28 miles of new roads was eliminated, and the project will be reduced from 17,000 to about 13,500 acres, said Mountainair District Ranger Vicky Estrada.

“We’re going to use existing roads only,” she said. “That’s a big change.”

The change was made partly in response to concerns raised by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians of Santa Fe and by some local residents.

In addition, the Forest Service now has more information about its road network and has determined it can get farther into the forest from existing roads, Estrada said.

“No new roads is definitely an improvement but as far as we’re concerned I think that’s only half the battle,” said John Horning, executive director of WildEarth Guardians.

“We still believe the real focus of all these projects should be a quarter mile at most around people’s homes and fireproofing people’s homes, not fireproofing the forest because we can’t fireproof the forest.”

Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal – Reprinted with permission

Other Contact
The changes will be the topic of a meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Torreon Community Center.