30-Day Public Comment Period for Santa Fe Mountains Project Opens Thursday, Sept. 30

By SFNF

The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) will begin accepting public comments on a proposed forest restoration project in the mountains near Santa Fe on Thursday, Sept. 30, the day after the expected publication of a legal notice in the Albuquerque Journal this Wednesday.

The SFNF posted the draft environmental assessment (EA) for the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) on the project webpage on Sept. 13 to give members of the public an early opportunity to review the analysis prior to the onset of the formal comment period. The draft EA discloses the expected environmental impacts of the proposed project.

The proposed project is designed to improve the health of a priority landscape and increase its resilience to future disturbances, including wildfire, climate change, insects and disease, by using prescribed fire and small-tree thinning on up to 38,680 acres across a 50,566-acre project area over the next 10 to 15 years. The SFMLRP was developed by a multi-partner collaborative, the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, that came together to proactively address the risk of high-severity wildfire and post-fire flooding and debris flow near the city of Santa Fe.

The public comment period provides stakeholders an opportunity to make substantive comments about the analysis in the EA. Comments received by Oct. 29, 2021, will be analyzed and responded to prior to a decision on the SFMLRP.  Substantive comments received during this period will also establish standing to raise an administrative objection later in the decision-making process.

Comments on the SFMLRP can be submitted by one of the following methods:

• CARA (Comment and Analysis Response Application) web form which will be accessible from theproject webpage by clicking “Comment on Project”
• Email to comments-southwestern-santafe@fs.fed.us
• Regular postal mail to Española District Office, 18537 US 84/285, Suite B, Española, NM 87532

The SFNF is planning two facilitated virtual public meetings during the comment period to provide an overview of the project, summarize the findings of the EA and give the public an opportunity to ask questions. Tentative dates for the virtual meetings are Wednesday, Oct. 6, from 6-7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Oct. 14, from 12-1:30 p.m. The SFNF will share additional information, including how to join the virtual meetings, once the schedule for the public meetings is confirmed.