SFNF News:
SANTA FE — The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) and Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition (GSFFC) are hosting two virtual public meetings on a proposed forest restoration project in the mountains near Santa Fe.
Virtual Public Meetings:
- Wildfire Wednesday live stream 6-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 6.
This meeting will begin with short presentations by SFNF experts on key findings in the draft environmental assessment (EA) for the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) and will include time for questions from the public. - Lunch and Learn live stream 12-1:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 14
This meeting will feature virtual “breakout rooms” on vegetation, wildlife, fire and fuels, air quality and climate, watersheds, scenery and recreation.
The plan is to livestream both meetings simultaneously on the SFNF Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/santafeNF/ and the GSFFC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SFFireshed/. (This assumes Facebook will be functioning after today’s global outage. If Facebook is still down, we will announce a “Plan B.”)
The 30-day public comment period on the draft EA opened Sept. 30, and comments received by Oct. 29 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 is accessible from the project webpage by clicking “Comment/Object 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 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 the GSFFC, a multi-partner collaborative that came together to proactively address the risk of high-severity wildfire and post-fire flooding and debris flow near Santa Fe.