Forest Health
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
This is not an article bashing Forest Service personal. I have met many of them who are friendly and helpful. They probably joined, hoping to be good stewards of forest health. What we are talking about in this article is policy set by bureaucrats and politicians at the highest levels.
This article is about my mental health, or lack there of, and many other people’s mental health, as most of us feel better after hiking in a healthy forest.
Years ago I met a patient who was a former supervisor in the Forest Service. He was telling me that the Forest Service used to fly planes over remote ridges in the forest, and drop fire starters for controlled burns. This happened in the fall in New Mexico, because that was after our summer monsoon rainfall. Because the devices were dropped on top of the ridges, it would create a slow burn going down hill on either side.
This no longer happens. I’m not sure why this policy was stopped. Since I’ve moved to New Mexico in ‘94, we seem to do controlled burns in the spring, during our windy season. This makes no sense. Another option would be to burn all the slash piles after a big snowfall. I’ve seen private land owners do this, but not the Forest Service. A half mile from this photo below, a private land owner was burning his giant slash pile after a six inch snow storm. Why wasn't the Forest Service doing the same? Some people spent tremendous effort doing this to clean the area, and it was never followed up on. Now they are just bonfires waiting to happen.
That first picture above is of a burned area that’s ten years old. I go back there frequently to collect dead trees for firewood. There are no new trees. One trail from Monjuea to Ski Apache used to be the most beautiful trail in the area. I tried it this past summer. The trees are gone, and thorn bushes overgrow the trail.
I think there is some new legislation to prevent controlled burns in the spring, due to massive mistakes that were made in the past. I don’t believe the catastrophic fires happened in the fall. I am hoping the ban on burns in the spring will promote more in the fall.
Fire must happen at some point. Nature has shown us that. Controlled is preferable. Even in town, why are we not burning lots in the fall? I know that’s a terrifying and naive idea. That’s all we need is to burn ourselves down. Could fire departments help us burn slash piles in town, in September? I know there would be many complaints about smoke from residents. There are always complaints in both directions.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is a Native American. She recently posted an article about how US fire policy should mimic ancient Native American ways, and that may be the answer to better management of the land.
Secretary Haaland could single handily be the hero and save our forests forever. I don’t care about political affiliation, if the solution is sound and fixes the problem.
Why are we waiting for the big one to destroy town and the entire forest?