New Mexico-based conservation organizations are challenging the Taos Canyon Forest and Watershed Restoration Project proposed for the Carson National Forest, which includes 54,731 acres of commercial logging and other tree cutting, and 83,265 acres of prescribed burns.
Citing the need to reduce wildfire risks, the U.S. Forest Service proposes to approve the project under “emergency action” authority, which the agency has been aggressively using throughout the West. Conservation groups recognize there is a need to better protect homes and communities from fast-moving, dangerous wildfires, and have called on government officials to help people make their property safer by implementing “Firewise” practices that are proven to save lives. At the same time, groups explain that logging far from communities and burning may actually increase fire risks and ecological damage.
“As fires continue to burn, people understandably want action to keep their homes and loved ones safe, but the Forest Service is using wildfire fears to push massive timber projects,” said Adam Rissien, ReWilding Manager with WildEarth Guardians. “The Forest Service and Congress must recognize high winds, extended droughts and extreme temperatures drive wildfires, and that we cannot log our way out of the climate-crisis.”
Comments to the Forest Service from WildEarth Guardians and The Forest Advocate, as well as from the Santa Fe Forest Coalition, list numerous ecological, wildlife, climate, and watershed impacts that would result from the project. At the same time, the groups explain how commercial logging and burning can actually increase fire-risks.
“We know from the three Santa Fe National Forest wildfires of 2022, caused by escaped prescribed burns, that prescribed burning treatments in our forests require comprehensive analysis, and all logging requires subsequent burning,” said Sarah Hyden of The Forest Advocate. “It would be outrageous and gross negligence if the Forest Service does not disclose and analyze the risk and potential for escaped prescribed burns and provide mitigations specific to the Taos Canyon Project. Prescribed burns clearly have the possibility of placing human lives, homes, and livelihoods in imminent danger.”
The U.S. Forest Service intends to utilize Section 40807 of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021, along with the Forest Service’s “Wildfire Crisis Strategy,” to designate the project an “authorized emergency action.” This designation skirts the objection period, or what’s known as the “predecisional administrative review process,” a legal challenge used by environmental advocates to pause or stop destructive projects, while bypassing alternative actions required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).The Infrastructure Act gives the agency extra authority for emergency situations that require immediate action, yet the Taos Canyon Project will take place over 10 years or more, and therefore would not be an “immediate action.”
“Logging releases stored carbon into the atmosphere and accelerates climate disruption,” said Sam Hitt of the Santa Fe Forest Coalition. “Instead of trying to sell its medicalized fire narrative, the Forest Service should be taking a hard look at the climate impacts of clearing vast areas of intact forests.”
WildEarth Guardians, The Forest Advocate, and the Santa Fe Forest Coalition all urge the Forest Service to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Project, as well as for the larger “Wildfire Crisis Strategy” guiding the federal agency in its management.
The Forest Service has never taken a hard look at its wildfire strategy, even as it aggressively implements it across the West. Sarah Hyden stated, “for the Taos Canyon project the agency has not provided any size limits for trees to be logged or cut, no indication of the amount of trees that will be removed, even as it proposes to use heavy equipment on super steep slopes, up to 75% grade.”
“What the Forest Service is proposing can actually increase wildfire risks, particularly with a massive expansion of forest roads that lead to human-caused fire ignitions,” said Rissien. “The agency proposes constructing or reconstructing over 112 miles of roads, even as studies show a majority of wildfires are started by people.”
Background
The Infrastructure Act, which is being implemented by the Forest Service through their Wildfire Crisis Strategy, currently targets up to 45 million acres of National Forests across the western U.S for “authorized emergency action” logging and burning. As of July 15, 2024, 900,368 acres of “emergency action” logging and burning has been approved or proposed across fifteen western National Forests in six western states.
On the Carson National Forest, the agency identified what it calls the “Enchanted Circle Landscape” where it can propose to authorize projects as “emergency actions.” It covers 1.5 million acres in and around the Carson National Forest’s Camino Real and Questa ranger districts within Taos and Colfax counties. But most of the area is on private land, and only 35% is part of the national forest.
Eco-Integrity Alliance 