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SFNF Releases Final EA for Santa Fe Mountains Project

By SFNF

The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) today released the final environmental assessment (EA) and draft decision notice on a proposed forest restoration project in the mountains near Santa Fe. The 45-day objection period on the final EA begins today with the publication of a legal notice in the Albuquerque Journal.

The proposed Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) is designed toimprove the health of a priority landscape and increase its resilience to future disturbances, including wildfire, climate change, and 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 final EA, finding of no significant impact and draft decision notice are posted on the SFMLRP project page. The documents are also available for review at the Española and Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District Offices.

The project area is on the Española and Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger Districts along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and is largely within the footprint of the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed, a 107-000-acre landscape in and around Santa Fe. The Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, a collaborative which includes federal, state, local, tribal and community partners, has identified this critical landscape as at risk for large, high-severity wildfire and the potentially devastating impacts of post-fire flooding and erosion.

Historically, low- to moderate-intensity wildfires burned through the ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer forests within the project area every seven to 15 years. The exclusion of fire from this landscape has created dense, overgrown forests with an unnaturally high build-up of fuel, which increases the risk of high-severity wildfire and insect and disease outbreaks. The SFMLRP will reestablish fire as a naturally occurring and desirable ecological process.

The proposed treatments will also:

 

  • Improve the condition of the forest vegetation by increasing vegetation species and structural diversity and restoring the forest to a more fire-adapted composition and structure
  • Maintain and expand old-growth habitat
  • Reduce fuel loads, wildfire behavior and potential damage to important values from high-intensity wildfire
  • Increase the forest’s resiliency to climate change
  • Improve the diversity, health and resilience of wildlife habitat, including habitat for the Mexican spotted owl
  • Protect water sources for the City of Santa and nearby communities from the impact of high-severity wildfire
  • Restore riparian areas and enhance watershed condition
  • Reduce air quality impacts from high-severity wildfire
  • Enhance views in the project area by creating forest openings

 

The final EA reflects public comments received during scoping and the formal comment period for the draft EA. The final EA is subject to the pre-decisional objection process. To be eligible to object, individuals or organizations must have submitted specific, substantive written comments on the SFMLRP during the previous scoping and comment periods. Objections must be submitted within 45 calendar days from today or by May 12, 2022.

Objections, including attachments, must be filed via mail to Regional Forester, 333 Broadway SE, Albuquerque, NM 87102; by fax to 505-842-3173; or by email to objections-southwestern-regional-office@usda.gov.

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