COMMUNITY

Should more wilderness areas be designated in the Lincoln National Forest? Time to voice your opinion

Public can propose additional criteria for wilderness designation to help in the evaluation process

The chairman of the Lincoln County Commission opposes any more land in the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest being designated as a wilderness area.

His primary objection is based on his contention that wilderness areas lack proper management, Chairman Preston Stone he said Tuesday.

“The problem with the process is that we can comment until the cows come home, but somehow as local government and ranger districts, we have to make a point with Washington D.C. that we don’t want more wilderness areas,” he said. “You’re not managing what we have now. Listen to us.”

Summer rain prompted grasses to grow in excavated areas by the Bonito Reservoir dam.

One area identified on a summary map is on the north side of the Capitan Mountains, Stone said.

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“But anywhere you look north for two to three miles, you’ll see vehicles going down a highway,” he said. “That’s not a wilderness.”

Smokey Bear District Ranger Jodie Canfield reminded commissioners at their meeting Tuesday that the maps are only an inventory of properties that meet the basic criteria for being designated as a wilderness. They are not part of a a recommendation.

Only an inventory

“We have draft inventory maps available on our website and when people see them, they (gulp),” she said. “It only is an inventory and Oct. 30,  is the deadline for comment. People can suggest criteria for additional screening of potential wilderness areas. We have two on Smokey Bear. In the end, the forest supervisor will make the recommendation and only Congress can authorize the designation.”

Map shows areas meeting basic wilderness criteria on the Smokey Bear Ranger District.

The White Mountain Wilderness covers 48,873 acres around Bonito Lake, Monjeau and areas along Ski Run Road in the Sacramento Mountain Range. The Capitan Wilderness encompasses 35,067 acres in the Capitan Mountains.

“This is something every single forest in the nation has to do,” Canfield said Thursday. “It is a directive from the 2012 planning rule, not something initiated by the Lincoln. The first step is inventory. The rudimentary criteria is 5,000 acres buffered by 100 feet on either side of a road center line.

“We did not get public comments to add criteria and that’s why it is important now for the public to weigh in and suggest additional criteria that would be valuable as we go into the evaluation phase.”

The map can be viewed at https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd667181.pdf

“This is step one, just a map,” Canfield said. “It means nothing.  I know people get their shirts in a knot. I try to dampen that.”

According to the website, Forest Service officials want to publish the Final Inventory Maps in winter 2019.

"Final Inventory Maps will include all National Forest System areas that are identified to move on to the next step of the process, which is the evaluation of the inventoried lands," the website stated. "This is only a preliminary step in a larger process and does not mean that all areas on the Final Inventory map will be proposed or managed as Wilderness."

Step 2 is Evaluation, which has not begun. A draft evaluation report will be developed and made available for public review and comment. During the Evaluation Step, the level of wilderness characteristics possessed by the lands identified in the previous Inventory step will be evaluated.

Step 3 is Analysis, when staff will analyze the evaluated areas determined to be potentially suitable for inclusion in one or more alternatives as part of the Forest Plan Revision National Environmental Policy Act process.

"All factors including, but not limited to, impacts to local existing or future forest products uses, restoration needs and defensible space from wildfire/wildland-urban interface will be taken into consideration when deciding if an area should be recommended, or not," the website stated.

Public comment and information is welcomed at every stage.

Step 4 is Recommendation when the Forest Supervisor will decide which areas, if any, to recommend to Congress for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Only Congress may designate wilderness.

Robert Barber, chairman of the county's Land and Natural Resource Advisory Committee, told commissioners that  they still have time to make impact on how future wilderness area are selected, and said that congressional delegates should be kept in the loop. He noted that Hale Lake east of Ruidoso Downs is one area indicated and said he has concerns about how the forest service would deal with roads and private property within the proposed areas.

He asked commissioners to write letters or pass resolutions opposing the wilderness designations and the recent injunction against timber cutting in national forests connected to inadequate management of threatened Mexican spotted owl habitat.

Negative impacts

Stone said both the judge's ruling and the wilderness process endanger the county and "set a precedent of what not to do." Not cutting trees and managing the forest creates conditions for major wildfires, he said.

Lincoln County Commission Chairman Preston Stone opposes designation of any more wilderness areas in the national forest.

"The reason we have catastrophic fires is lack of management in the forest," he said. "Bonito Lake is a prime example. We had five to seven bulldozers above that lake to prevent that silt and ash (from rain after the Little Bear Fire in 2012) from coming into lake. (The remediation) is costing taxpayers millions of dollars to remove the material now."

"The injunction is an example of single species management damaging the environment at risk of other," Barber agreed.

More:Excavation work at Bonito Lake on schedule

"Every time I think about Bonito Lake, it makes me sick," Commissioner Tom Stewart said. "Back in 2000, (Smokey Bear ranger) Buck Sanchez he and I teamed up against Alamogordo and Holloman (Air Force Base) and said you've got to help us treat around the lake, because it is a  major water source. They didn’t and 10 years later. they lost that water source. (The forest service) can’t manage what they have now."

More:Work resumes on South Fork Campground restoration

Although Bonito Lake sits in Lincoln County, it is owned by the city of Alamogordo in Otero County and before the fire was used for recreation near the city's-owned campground and for a water supply.

Submit comments

Submit comments by October 30, by email to lnf_fpr_comments@fs.fed.us or by mail to Lincoln National Forest, Attn.: Plan Revision, 3463 Las Palomas Road, Alamogordo, NM 88310.

For more information, check out fs.usda.gov/lincoln, cllick on Land and Resource Management at left, then Forest Revision Plan, at right is Inventory and evaluation.

Reporter Dianne Stallings can be contacted at dstallings@ruidosonews.com