VIDEO: Following devastating wildfires that scorched homes and forests in New Mexico. U.S. Forest Service officials have spent years coming up with plans to prevent fires. This fall, they’ll start tackling a large area of forest land full of overgrown trees and deteriorating roads. Wildfires have left their devastating mark on New Mexico, including the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire, the largest and most destructive wildfire in 2022 that burned more than 340,000 acres and hundreds of homes.
The U.S. Forest Service is trying to prevent scenes like that. “The biggest focus is to just reduce fuel, and so whenever we can take the that overgrown forest and all those trees and reduce the number of trees, that’s a good thing to help reduce the risk of that uncharacteristic wildfire,’ said Shaun Sanchez, Forest supervisor, Santa Fe National Forest.
In the northern region of Santa Fe National Forest, work is set to begin this fall on wildfire prevention. It’s called the Encino Vista Landscape Restoration Project and it’s been in the works for six years. The cleanup will cover 119,848 acres of land. “It’s very close to Abiquiu, but the direct communities are Canyons, Youngsville, Coyote, Gallina, those are the kind of the community centers where people live in,” said Sanchez.
This part of the forest was burned by the “Black Feather Fire” in 2023. Part of the work will be removing trees, thinning out the forests, conducting prescribed burns, and reducing overall risk for wildfires. “It addresses a lot of the fuel buildup problem that we’ve had by suppressing fire for over a century. It provides firewood to our communities, that’s a big part of it,” said Sanchez. Hundreds of miles worth of forest roads that are in bad shape will also get repairs.
The area has several private homes within it and is used for recreation. “It gets a lot of camping use. It gets a lot of hunting use in the area, and it also is in the area with the Continental Divide Trail, so people can traverse the area,” said Sanchez. Work is expected to start next week. The US Forest Service said it could take 10 to 15 years to get all the work done.
