Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project

Purpose and Need Statement

The Santa Fe National Forest is developing a proposal for an approximately 50,000 acre area called the Santa Fe Mountains Forest Resiliency Project.

The purpose of the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project is to increase the resilience of a priority landscape to future disturbances such as high-severity wildfire, drought, and insect and disease outbreaks. Resilience is the “ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbance while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organization, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change” (Forest Service Manual 2020.5). This purpose would primarily be accomplished by restoring characteristic structure, function, composition, and spatial pattern to the ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer forests that comprise much of this landscape. A critical component of improving resilience in the Project Area is creating conditions that facilitate the safe reintroduction of fire, a keystone ecological process, across this landscape.

To increase the resilience of the forests, watersheds, and communities of the Fireshed, there is a need to:

  •   Move forests and woodlands (including ponderosa pine, dry mixed conifer, aspen, and piñon-juniper) in the Project Area towards their characteristic species composition, structure and spatial patterns in order to improve ecological function;

  •   reduce the risk for high-severity wildfire, create safe, defensible zones for firefighters in areas of continuous fuels and near valued resources that are at risk, and avoid negative post-fire impacts;

  •   improve the diversity and quality of habitat for wildlife; and

  •   improve soil and watershed conditions.

Project Status

We are currently in the process of developing a proposed action for this project. The final proposed action will include details about treatment types, acreages, and locations. Once the proposal is finalized, we will notify the public and interested stakeholders by issuing a scoping letter.

To stay informed about the status of this project, you can visit the Project website.

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The GSFFC is a coalition of public and private organizations. The GSFFC is not a subdivision of the State of New Mexico, as defined in the state’s Open Meetings Act, §§ 10-15-1 to 10-15-4 NMSA 1978. Although federal agencies participate in the GSFFC, the Coalition is not a federal advisory board and was not created by a federal agency, as defined by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5.U.S.C. app. 2, §§ 1 to 16 (2012). The GSFFC operates informally to support its partners, and is not incorporated as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), partnership, or other legal status.