Wildfires are a sad, avoidable catastrophe

Despite what we might otherwise hear, there is really nothing good to be taken from our latest Jemez Mountains forest fire. This unhealthy disturbance is yet another avoidable catastrophe, it is not cyclic or natural, it has no ecological purpose of “thinning crowded trees” and nor will it improve overall wildlife habitat, as the U.S. Forest Service states. In the news, we see stories of residences fleeing, structures threatened and ranchers scrambling to save their cattle.

Cattle production speaks volumes on the sociocultural factors contributing to wildland fire frequency and severity in New Mexico. The grand presumption — part of a highly structured mentality — that livestock grazing can be used as a means of reducing fire intensity by checking “excessive fuel loading,” aided by veneration of western American icons, is widespread but unfounded and a marvel of humanity’s self-justification in overseeing nature as a resource for unfettered disposal. Humans themselves manufacture our crises by holding this mentality, foolishly blaming them on the limitations of the primary victim, nature itself. Much more underlies this fire than a careless camper.

The times are ripe for questioning some basic assumptions, no-holdsbarred. What are livestock doing in the precious Jemez? I was appalled to document in 2013 numerous cows of some public lands permittee devastating native plant communities and degrading soil health in areas now engulfed by the Cajete Fire. In this dangerous stage of global climate change, Southwesterners are obliged to grasp that fire preparedness, sustainability management, and other nostrums will not save us.