Partner workshop opportunity: Stewardship in Action, Sept. 26-28, 2023

The Natural Areas Association (NAA) is hosting a Stewardship in Action Field Workshop in Espanola, New Mexico on the lands of the Santa Clara Pueblo, September 26 - 28, 2023. Rising from Ashes: A Tribe’s Nature-based Approach to Watershed Restoration will highlight an innovative and iconic case study in public and private collaboration on sovereign tribal lands following a series of catastrophic wildfires. By collaborating with federal agencies and other partners to incorporate indigenous knowledge and values into the recovery planning process, the Santa Clara Pueblo is working to achieve long-term, sustainable resiliency of the watershed. Learn more about the tribe’s journey. 

The purpose of this Stewardship in Action Field Workshop is to share what was learned by the Santa Clara Pueblo and their many partners and to engage land and water management practitioners from tribal nations, federal and state agencies, and nonprofit organizations from around the continent to exchange information and leverage success to benefit local communities. 

The agenda features both indoor presentations and field experiences. Sessions will explore:

• public and private collaboration on sovereign tribal lands,

• process-based restoration and watershed resilience,

• forestry and fire management,

• sediment stabilization,

• native plant restoration,

• indigenous knowledge,

• nature-based solutions, and

• preparing for future climate impacts by working together.

NAA’s field workshops are small by design to provide ample opportunity for peer-to-peer sharing. While the experience will be “priceless,” registration for this three-day workshop, including transportation to field sites, breakfast & lunch each day, a networking reception, and supplemental resources, is $329 per person. Visit the webpage to view the agenda and event details. Scholarships are available.

Participation is first come, first served - and capacity is limited. Interested participants should register or email mmcgintyklos@naturalareas.org to express interest and temporarily reserve a spot. 

Wildfire Wednesdays #115: Sources of up-to-date wildfire information

Howdy, Fireshed Folks:

The crackling of dry leaves underfoot echoes through the forest, accompanied by the distant rumble of thunder. The smell of smoke wafts on the breeze, a stark reminder of the potential danger lurking just beyond the trees…

In the face of wildfires, staying informed could mean the difference between escape and chaos. In this week’s Wildfire Wednesday, our newest blog contributor, Alyssa, will showcase how to stay up to date with the ever-changing wildfire landscape. From technology-driven solutions to the power of community engagement, we delve into the strategies and resources available to ensure that, in the face of uncertainty, we remain connected, informed, and prepared.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

•  Emergency Alerts

• NMFireInfo

• InciWeb

• Fire Restrictions map

---

Emergency Alerts

The Alert Santa Fe notification system is a comprehensive communication system implemented in the city of Santa Fe, designed to quickly and effectively deliver important information to residents and visitors. It aims to enhance public safety and provide critical updates during emergencies, severe weather conditions, and other significant events. The system utilizes various communication channels to reach a wide audience, including mobile devices, landlines, email, social media platforms, and outdoor warning sirens.

The Alert Santa Fe system allows users to register their contact information, preferences, and geographic locations to receive tailored notifications based on their specific needs and interests. This customization ensures that individuals only receive relevant alerts pertaining to their area of interest or potential hazards. The system can issue alerts related to emergencies such as wildfires, floods, hazardous material incidents, and public health emergencies. It can also provide information about traffic disruptions, utility outages, and community events.

Through the mobile application or web portal, users can receive real-time alerts, view interactive maps with incident locations, and access additional resources and instructions during emergencies. The system leverages the latest technology to deliver notifications rapidly, ensuring that residents stay informed and can take appropriate actions to protect themselves and their loved ones.

NMFireInfo

The NMFireInfo website is a dedicated online platform that provides information about wildfires and other fire-related incidents in the state of New Mexico. It serves as a central hub for sharing up-to-date information, news updates, and resources related to fire incidents and fire management efforts.

Managed by various agencies and organizations involved in fire management, including federal, state, and local entities, the NMFireInfo website offers a comprehensive overview of fire incidents occurring within New Mexico. The website provides detailed information on the location of fires, fire size, containment status, and any evacuation notices or road closures in effect.

In addition to incident-specific updates, the website offers resources and educational materials to help residents and visitors understand fire prevention, preparedness, and safety. It provides guidelines on creating defensible space, fire restrictions, and other measures to mitigate the risk of wildfires.

The NMFireInfo website serves as an essential communication tool, allowing incident management teams to share information with the public, media outlets, and other stakeholders. By providing timely and accurate information, the website helps promote public safety and awareness during fire incidents.

InciWeb

InciWeb is an online incident information system that provides comprehensive and up-to-date information about wildfires, prescribed burns, and other incidents in the United States. It serves as a centralized platform for sharing incident-related data, including fire status, containment efforts, evacuation notices, and resource management.

Managed by the U.S. Forest Service, InciWeb offers a user-friendly interface where incident management teams, government agencies, and the public can access detailed information about ongoing incidents. The platform features incident-specific pages that contain maps, news updates, photos, videos, and other resources related to the incident.

InciWeb plays a vital role in facilitating communication and coordination among various agencies involved in incident response, including federal, state, tribal, and local organizations. It serves as a valuable tool for incident commanders to share situational awareness with stakeholders, media outlets, and the public, ensuring transparency and promoting safety.

By providing real-time information on fire behavior, containment strategies, road closures, and evacuations, InciWeb helps residents and visitors make informed decisions regarding their safety and well-being. It also serves as a repository of historical incident data, allowing researchers, analysts, and emergency management professionals to study and learn from past incidents.

Fire Restrictions map

The Southwest Area Fire Restrictions website is an online platform that provides information on fire restrictions and related regulations in the Southwest region of the United States. The website serves as a central resource for accessing up-to-date information about fire restrictions, closures, and other regulations implemented by federal, state, tribal, and local agencies.

Managed by fire management authorities in the Southwest Area, which includes states like Arizona, New Mexico, and portions of Texas and Oklahoma, the Fire Restrictions offers a user-friendly interface that allows visitors to access the latest information regarding fire restrictions in specific locations.

The website provides a comprehensive overview of current fire restrictions, including details about prohibited activities, such as campfires, outdoor burning, and the use of fireworks. It also highlights any specific regulations or closures in effect for national parks, forests, and other public lands.

Through interactive maps and search functionalities, users can navigate the website to find information relevant to their desired location. The dashboard includes additional resources, such as fire prevention tips, educational materials, and links to local fire management agencies for further guidance.

The Southwest Area Fire Restrictions website plays a crucial role in promoting fire safety and prevention by providing accurate and updated information to the public, recreational users, and land managers. It helps ensure compliance with fire restrictions, reduces the risk of human-caused wildfires, and supports the effective management of fire-prone areas in the Southwest.

Staying up to date on wildfire information empowers individuals and communities to take proactive measures, collaborate with authorities, and contribute to mitigating the devastating impacts of wildfires.

---

Upcoming Events and Learning Opportunities

Workshops

July 17 and 21, 2023: Community Wildfire Defense Grant Workshops

NM EMNRD - Forestry Division will hold two workshops to help potential CWDG grant applicants review the lessons learned from the first cycle of this program and learn about changes to current processes. This workshop is intended to help strengthen applications in real time, whether applications submitted in the first round did not get funded or individuals are still thinking about submitting an application. Participants should bring their latest revision of their application for review or their project ideas which have not yet been fleshed out into an application so Forestry Division can provide direction and helpful tips for success. 
If you are unable to attend either of the in-person meetings and would like to have your application reviewed, you can reach out to Abigail Plecki, Community Wildfire Defense Grant Coordinator, and set up a time to meet virtually (505-231-3086 | abigail.plecki@emnrd.nm.gov).   

To join online on the 17th, click here.

To join online on the 21st, click here.

Webinars

July 25, 2023, 12:00-1:00pm: Increasing Post-Wildfire Planted Seedling Survival
Join the Southwest Fire Science Consortium as Chris Marsh with UNM’s Earth Systems Ecology Lab discusses how consideration of climate trends, microclimatic conditions, topography, and local vegetation influence planted seedling survival and can be used to guide reforestation planning in the Southwest.

Resources in the News

Following the East Coast’s inundation of wildfire smoke from blazes burning in Canada, National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on lessons from the West for dealing with wildfire smoke. While this may be old news to many, the refresher is always worthwhile.
Read it here.

Wildfire Wednesdays #114: The Importance of Returning Fire to the Landscape

Happy Wednesday, and happy official start of summer, FAC NM community!

Our last Wildfire Wednesday issue, #113, introduced the idea of building landscape resilience (ability to maintain ecological function after a disturbance) through large-scale collaborative land management projects. A common theme was that land managers use forestry treatments such as thinning and prescribed fire to support landscape resilience by creating a diversity of forest structures on the landscape. Local research has shown, time and again, that using targeted forest thinning followed by the intentional return of fire to treat an overly thick and unhealthy forest is the most effective combination for establishing landscape resilience in fire adapted ecosystems. Prescribed burning is a key element in guiding watersheds and forests to be more diverse in species, age, and spacing, and better prepared for wildfire, pests, disease, and other disturbances.

Today’s Wildfire Wednesday features:

• A review of the use of intentional fire

• Success stories in your backyard

• Upcoming events and announcements

Take care,

Rachel

---

Use of Intentional Fire

A natural history

Many forests across North America but especially in the West “grew up” with fire. Over hundreds of thousands of years, as these landscapes formed, fire was present and endemic plants and animals evolved to be resilient to wildfire (or in some cases, to require it for their reproduction and survival). We refer to these ecotypes as fire adapted forests.

Communities of the Southwest have, in the past, been fire adapted as well. As we discussed in Wildfire Wednesdays #107, humans and our ancestors have been intentionally using fire for more than 400,000 years. Indigenous communities around the world have used fire in ceremony and management of hunting and plant cultivation, and Euro-American colonizer-settlers used fire to clear land around their communities. This use of fire, mimicking or working in tandem with naturally ignited wildfires, kept forests relatively thin and diverse with a mosaic of open meadows, thick groups of trees in drainages and other topographic features which acted as refugia, and less dense forest along slopes and ridgetops. Fire also maintained a diversity of tree ages and plants which grew under the forest canopy or along streams and rivers.

After a century of treating forests as a commodity which needed to be protected from “bad” fire, including demonizing and sometimes criminalizing indigenous and other traditional use of fire, folks across the West have begun to reevaluate this relationship. While farmers and ranchers more or less continually used fire to maintain their land, even when fire suppression was the national policy, it wasn’t until the late 1900s to early 2000s that we saw the reintroduction of fire to forested environments through prescribed and cultural burning. Ryan, Knapp, and Varner (2013) write:

“In North America, recognition of the ecological benefits of prescribed burning was slow in coming and varied geographically. Fuel accumulation and loss of upland game habitat occurred especially quickly in productive southern pine forests and woodlands and ecologists in the southeastern US promoted the use of fire in land management from early on. In spite of their convincing arguments, fire in the southeastern US (and elsewhere) was still frequently viewed as incompatible with timber production due to the potential for injury to mature trees and the inevitable loss of tree seedlings.”

Reclaiming our relationship to fire

Scientific, managerial, and, to an extent, public perception has shifted dramatically over the past 20+ years as we have come to understand what many before us inherently knew: that fire is an integral process for maintaining the integrity, stability and beauty of our biotic communities.

Figure adapted from Tenya et al., 2019

Burning small and burning often in a way which restores forest heterogeneity (diversity of species, age, and type) effectively reduces the density and connectivity of trees within forests and the prevalence of dense forests across landscape. This in turn reduces the severity of subsequent wildfires and makes them easier to manage.

An annual average of 6+ million acres are treated in the U.S. using prescribed fire. According to New Mexico’s 2020 Forest Action Plan, “nearly 5 million acres of forested land need treatment — thinning, prescribed burns or weed management — on a rotating cycle to create resilience to fire. That works out to 300,000 acres a year, a target that the state isn’t even close to reaching” (Searchlight NM, 2022). Despite the challenges and risks, prescribed fire and other means of reintroducing fire to the landscape will need to be part of the solution to this backlog.

---

Success Stories Close to Home

The Zuni Mountain Collaborative

This story comes to FAC NM from US Forest Service employee Shawn Martin, Silviculturist with the Cibola National Forest.

Map of the Zuni Mountains Landscape with US Forest Service managed lands highlighted in green.

Where it began
Toward the end of the 1990’s, the Cibola National Forest (CNF) and its partners began to take more interest in managing the Zuni Mountains area as a cohesive landscape. Beginning in 1999, the Forest implemented several projects clocking in at a few hundred acres - the Bluewater Creek Improvement Project, followed by the Bluewater Creek Restoration Project and Bluewater Road Realignment in 2002. Between 2001 and 2003, CNF and Pueblos of Acoma and Zuni applied for and received three Collaborative Forest Restoration Project (CFRP) grants; the Forest Stewards Guild and Mt. Taylor Manufacturing received two more CFRP grants in 2009 and 2010 focused on capacity building, increased forest restoration, and wood utilization.

An integral requirement of these federal grants is collaborating with external partners - with members of nearby communities, local nonprofits and businesses, and various landowners or managers in the area - while planning and implementing the funded forest restoration project. Years later, in 2011, when the landscape applied for a long-term Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) grant for the Zuni Mountains, these same concepts necessitating collaboration and cooperation would apply.

Scaling up
Over the next few years, wildfires across the Southwest and in the landscape, such as the 2004 Sedgwick Fire, began burning hotter, longer, and more acres. These events reinforced the need to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration treatments, invest in ways to utilize wood and establish a forest restoration economy, and create fuelbreaks to protect nearby communities from wildfire. The CNF began surveying larger and larger chunks of land to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and funding through the American Restoration and Recovery Act created a new instrument to implement forest restoration activities. Following receipt of 10-year CFLRP funding in 2012, low-intensity prescribed fire was reintroduced with the implementation of the Carbon, Fossil, and Copperton burns.

Map showing the landscape approach to mechanical thinning in the Zuni Mountains. Thinning began in the southeast portion of the CFLRP boundary (in red), chosen due to ease of access and proximity to the communities of Grants, Thorough, and more.

Map showing the landscape approach to prescribed burning in the Zuni Mountains. Prescribed fire generally followed mechanical thinning by a few years, reducing the amount of dead woody material on the ground which is generated by this thinning. In the mid 2010s, firelighters began to increase the size of their burn blocks to treat larger areas.

Prioritizing fire
The 2020 Puerco NEPA decision expanded restoration opportunities beyond just thinning burning to include watershed, wildlife, and range improvements.  Treatments have always been prioritized around building and maintaining a restoration economy, so most thinning has been centered around treating overstocked and even-aged stands that were easily accessible and economically feasible for the MTM mill.  Prescribed fire has generally followed behind forest thinning, but large areas which are either inaccessible for mechanical thinning (wilderness, far from a road, thinning would be too expensive) or are already prepared for the reintroduction of fire (previously thinned or burned, did not experience the same level of historic fire exclusion) have been identified as “burn only”. 

In prioritizing which areas to treat with prescribed fire, managers first considered existing mechanical thinning project plans which they could follow with fire as a secondary treatment. The next logical step in prioritizing prescribed fire treatments was to work out from or expand on that foothold of initial burns. Land managers knew that, in this part of the Southwest, the dominant wind (direction in which the wind blows the majority of the time, having to do with larger atmospheric patterns) came out of the southwest and blew to the northeast. The CNF designed the next decade of treatments, therefore, to a) follow existing road systems for ease of access and b) create a “catcher’s mitt” of restored forest which was treated by thinning and/or prescribed fire and could intercept a wildfire, stopping its forward progress or reducing its severity before it burns into nearby communities to the northeast. Such treatments have proven efficacy, such as the 2013 Rim Fire on the Stanislaus National Forest, just east of California’s Yosemite National Park.

“Even if a previous fire doesn’t stop the subsequent fire, [research] shows that areas recently burned by low to moderate severity fire re-burned at similarly low to moderate severity… In this way, each new reduced severity fire becomes a potential anchor that could be used to limit the spread, moderate severity, and potentially lower the daily smoke emissions of a subsequent fire.”

- Dr. Leland Tarnay, FAC Learning Network, 2018

Medio Fire, 2020

In late August 2020, treatments associated with the Pacheco Canyon Forest Resiliency Project played a consequential role in mitigating the forward progress of the Medio Wildfire burning in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 11 miles northeast of Santa Fe, NM. These treatments, especially prescribed burns adjacent to a historic fire scar, contained the wildfire and prevented it from burning into and devastating the Santa Fe Municipal Watershed (the source of up to 40% of Santa Fe’s drinking water). Visit the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition webpage or click on the factsheet or video below to learn more about this success story.

Midnight Fire, 2022

The Midnight Fire burned through a section of the Carson National Forest near El Rito in June, 2022. Fire crews and incident commanders feared that the blaze could grow as big or fast as nearby fires (this was burning at the same time as the Hermit’s Peak - Calf Canyon Complex), but previous prescribed burn projects and managed fires helped stymy its forward progress and reduce the burn severity. The region's previous fire and forest thinning acted as "building blocks" to slow the Midnight Fire. Click the image to the right to read more about this success story in a September article by the Albuquerque Journal.

---

Upcoming Events and Learning Opportunities

Workshops

July 21 and 27, 2023: Community Wildfire Defense Grant Workshops

NM EMNRD - Forestry Division will hold two workshops to help potential CWDG grant applicants review the lessons learned from the first cycle of this program and learn about changes to current processes. This workshop is intended to help strengthen applications in real time, whether applications submitted in the first round did not get funded or individuals are still thinking about submitting an application. Participants should bring their latest revision of their application for review or their project ideas which have not yet been fleshed out into an application so Forestry Division can provide direction and helpful tips for success. 
If you are unable to attend either of the in-person meetings and would like to have your application reviewed, you can reach out to Abigail Plecki, Community Wildfire Defense Grant Coordinator, and set up a time to meet virtually (505-231-3086 | abigail.plecki@emnrd.nm.gov).   

Webinars

July 25, 2023, 12:00-1:00pm: Increasing Post-Wildfire Planted Seedling Survival
Join the Southwest Fire Science Consortium as Chris Marsh with UNM’s Earth Systems Ecology Lab discusses how consideration of climate trends, microclimatic conditions, topography, and local vegetation influence planted seedling survival and can be used to guide reforestation planning in the Southwest.

Resources in the News

Following the East Coast’s inundation of wildfire smoke from blazes burning in Canada, National Public Radio (NPR) published an article on lessons from the West for dealing with wildfire smoke. While this may be old news to many, the refresher is always worthwhile.
Read it here.

Wildfire Wednesdays #113: Landscape Resilience

Hi Fireshed community,

The mix of fire effects that we see on the landscape contribute to it’s overall resilience - the ability of the forest to “bounce back,” or sustain ecological functions, despite a disturbance. For example, when we see large areas that burn at high severity (high mortality of trees), natural regeneration of the forest becomes challenging, we have to consider more expensive replanting efforts, and we may lose the forested headwaters that provide water to our arid landscape.

To support landscape resilience. land managers use forestry treatments like thinning and prescribed fire to create a diversity of forest structures on the landscape. This diversity of forest structures contributes to a mixed pattern of fire effects when we do see wildfire. Through this variation in forest structures across the landscape, we begin to see a “mosaic” of treated and un-treated areas that can help protect our forests from widespread mortality when we have natural or human-ignited wildfires.

There are many landscape resilience projects happening across the state. This Wildfire Wednesday will feature some (but not all) of the important landscape-scale projects that are helping to protect the future of our forests and watersheds, including:

• The Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project

• The Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project (CFLRP)

Best,
Gabe

Landscape Resilience Projects

What are they?

A map from the 2020 NM Forest Action Plan showing 250 of the highest priority watersheds for landscape resilience projects. These watersheds are at the HUC 12 scale (~10,000 - 40,000 acres).

Landscape Scale Restoration projects cross multiple jurisdictions, including Tribal, state and local government, and private forest land, to address large-scale issues such as wildfire risk reduction, watershed protection and restoration, and the spread of invasive species, insect infestation and disease. Projects are developed in partnership with diverse stakeholders and effectively leverage local knowledge, expertise, and resources which results in measurable on-the-ground impacts.

"Landscape scale" does not merely mean acting at a bigger scale: it means conservation is carried out at the correct scale and that it takes into account the human elements of the landscape, both past and present. For many of the projects in New Mexico, our definitions of landscape-scale are closely linked to water - often using watersheds of various sizes or larger river drainage basins.

The Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resilience Project

Project Status

Signing of the SFMLRP environmental assessment - May 18th, 2023

Surrounded by State, Tribal, and Local partners Thursday, Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) Supervisor Shaun Sanchez and Acting Deputy Forest Supervisor Jeremy Marshall finalized and signed the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) environmental assessment on Thursday, May 18th, 2023.

Context

The SFMLRP is a 10-year restoration project with actions focused on helping the ponderosa pine and frequent-fire mixed conifer landscapes near New Mexico’s capital city increase resiliency to threats like high-severity wildfire, insects and disease infestation, and climate change. The SFMLRP spans approximately 50,000 acre area, although not all of the area within the project boundary will receive treatment.

Goals

A map of the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP)

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 Santa Fe Fireshed, The SFMLRP will:

• 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.

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

The Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project (CFLRP)

Project Status

A map of the Rio Chama CFLRP landscape

Throughout the summer and fall of 2022, forests and meeting spaces throughout northern New Mexico and southern Colorado were filled with discussion surrounding the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP). Funding for the Rio Chama CFLRP was announced in April of 2022 and the project is underway.

Context

The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), enabled by Congress, is designed to increase the resiliency of forests and watersheds in priority forests across the U.S.

The Rio Chama CFLRP provides $30 million in funding over ten years. While the funds from the Forest Service are reserved for federal land, the project is intended to address all lands; private, state, and federal. The federal dollars are leveraged to secure funding for cross-boundary work which is facilitated by a local collaborative group, called the 2-3-2 partnership.

The project covers 3.77 million acres across the region and will provide funding over a 10-year period. The project aims to reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire, restore natural fire patterns, improve watershed resilience and health, and enhance the economic sustainability of industries in the region.

Goals

A bend in the Rio Chama river in the Fall.

The project aims to reduce uncharacteristic wildfire risk by decreasing tree densities and restoring fire regimes to fire-adapted landscapes where low-intensity and mixed-severity fire were prevalent prior fire suppression policy. The suppression and absence of fire in forests of the American Southwest since approximately the 1880s has allowed our forests to become unnaturally dense, which often leads to uncharacteristically intense fire. This wildfire risk has become amplified by climate change. The CFLRP investment is focused on this landscape due to its high priority for water, wildlife, streams and community values.

• Increase the forest resilience to disturbances like wildfire, insects, disease, and climate change

• Restore watershed and riparian areas to improve water quality and watershed function

• Improve range conditions and wildlife habitat and connectivity

• Support local rural economies and create jobs by utilizing restoration byproducts

• Connect with tribal, land grant and acequia communities, and engaging youth in public land management

Save-the-date: June 8th Town Hall for Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project

What: Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project Town Hall
Who: Open to the public; hosted by the Santa Fe National Forest and Anna Hansen, Chairwoman of the SFC Board of County Commissioners
When: Thursday, June 8, 2023, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: Santa Fe Community College – Jemez Meeting Rooms
6401 Richards Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87508

Click to view the full announcement of the town hall from Santa Fe National Forest.

Click to view a map of Santa Fe Community College

This Town Hall will provide information on the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) and give the public an opportunity to ask Santa Fe National Forest leadership, program managers, and resource specialists about upcoming project actions.

The SFMLRP is a 10-year restoration project with actions focused on helping the ponderosa pine and frequent-fire mixed conifer landscapes near New Mexico’s capital city increase resiliency to threats like high-severity wildfire, insects and disease infestation, and climate change.

The Town Hall agenda includes a short presentation followed by an opportunity for the public to ask Forest Service staff questions about the project. “We would like to gather input from the community on how to best communicate on project actions over the next 10 years,” stated Forest Supervisor Shaun Sanchez. For more information, please visit the Santa Fe National Forest website or contact USFS Public Affairs staffer Claudia Brookshire at claudia.brookshire@usda.gov.