Forest Service, City host public meeting
Lincoln National Forest
The Forest Service and the City of Alamogordo hosted a public meeting at the Willie Estrada Memorial Civic Center to discuss the proposed Westside Sacramento Mountains watershed restoration and fuels reduction project Thursday evening.
The Sacramento Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest is partnering with Alamogordo to reduce the threat of high intensity wildfires, promote healthy watersheds and improve the overall forest eco-system function in areas of east of town.
Forest Service Partnership Coordinator Mark Cadwallader said the purpose of the meeting was to inform the public of the proposed project, including the need, the preliminary forest restoration treatment activities and locations, and the environmental analysis process.
“The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a proposed project that we’ve been working with the City on what we call a Collaborative Forest Restoration Program that’s going to help aid in doing some watershed restoration and some critical watersheds and water supply,” Cadwallader said. ‘We’re here looking for some public comment on what we’re doing and get some public input to see if we’re on the right direction with some of our ideas to prevent catastrophic fire and to try and improve watersheds.”
The Collaborative Forest Restoration Program provides funding opportunities for collaborative, community level projects for ecological restoration on public lands in New Mexico.
SWCA Environmental Consultant Shannon Manfredi said they wanted to inform the public about some of their biggest concerns.
“It’s at the beginning. We don’t have the whole thing figured out. It’s to inform the public and get input from the public about what are the biggest concerns,” Manfredi said. “What do we need to protect? Or what do we need to do more of? These are just ideas for improving the project. There’s other things that will help wildlife habitat and protect people’s properties.”
She said the city’s water comes off the mountains but due to the Little Bear fire in 2012, which was one of the city’s main water sources, it got ruined.
“The city’s water comes off of the mountains and after the Little Bear fire in 2012 one of the main sources where the city got their water, it got ruined from the wildfire and so before there’s additional damages to these other areas it’s an effort to reduce the risk of wildfires so that you don’t have a bunch of sediment and messing up the watersheds,” Manfredi said. “There’s been a lot of other fuels reduction projects in the area so this is just filling in all those areas and it’s a collaborative effort.”
The proposed project is located in the western slope of the Sacramento Mountains, which is identified in the 2013 New Mexico Communities at Risk Plan as having a high potential for catastrophic wildfire. This same area also includes the watersheds that supply drinking water to Alamogordo.
The project is 6,500 acres of National Forest System lands and 190 acres of land owned by the City of Alamogordo. Eight areas are critical for protecting the City’s drinking water supply: Two areas south of the Mescalero Apache Reservation boundary, three areas near the west side of the Tribal land and three areas south of the Two Goats Project area.
The Two Goats Watershed Improvement Project is a similar project currently under implementation. It is improving conditions on 1,800 acres on critical watershed areas.