Integrity NM News:
SANTA FE — Integrity New Mexico (Integrity NM) has filed a request with the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for an investigation into whether there was undue political pressure to get the Hermits Peak prescribed burn done.
The Forest Service is responsible for the largest forest fire disaster in the state’s history. Numerous media outlets have reported that rank-and-file Forest Service employees felt pressured to “get the job done” in a political environment where the Governor supports the Biden Administration’s climate change agenda. One Biden goal calls for the Forest Service to increase, and perhaps double, the acreage for prescribed burns each year. In 2019, the Governor signed a bill that encourages more prescribed burns.
As Integrity NM’s executive director noted in her June 5, op-ed for the Albuquerque Journal (Link).
The current federal and state administrations’ responses to the fire do not compare favorably with the actions taken by President Clinton and Gov. Gary Johnson during the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000.
It took 77 days for the *U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to issue a report evaluating the poorly planned Hermits Peak Fire. The USFS. added insult to injury by promoting the Santa Fe National Forest supervisor who was in the direct chain of command for making the decision to start the fire. Instead of remaining in Santa Fe to face the criticism and her subordinates, she is going to Washington, D.C. to serve as the Assistant Chief of Staff to the head of the Forest Service.
While the promotion was in the works for months, it seems questionable to relocate her now. It avoids answering embarrassing questions about the factors, political and otherwise, leading up to this disaster.
No decision has, or will have, a bigger impact on the state than the ill-advised decision to set the Hermits Peak burn April 6—a fire that continues to burn today having burned 341,000 acres. It destroyed at least 903 structures and damaged 85 more. Countless livestock and wildlife perished in the fire. As of July 7, FEMA reported that 3,204 families in San Miguel and Mora Counties had registered for federal assistance. The watershed – the drinking water supply of numerous communities – are threatened, as is the future viability of these communities. Flash flooding in the burn scar has now cost lives.
While no one is sure of the final cost, the Governor estimated the cost “in the billions”. July 20, Democratic members of the New Mexico Legislature, realizing the extensive and long-term damage and costs, raised the desirability of the state suing the federal government.
Integrity NM believes that an Inspector General investigation would help policymakers decide if this is the best way to proceed on behalf of New Mexico taxpayers.
This mandate from the top for more prescribed burns, without updating the protocols to recognize that the West has been in prolonged drought, is extremely dangerous. With outdated plans, and no updated, enhanced safety measures, a directive for more prescribed burns without ideal weather conditions is a tinderbox waiting for another disaster.
*The U.S. Forest Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
