If you care about the forest, get informed on possible burn

The New Mexican‘s article missed the most important issues in the Zoom meeting with the speaker Dominick Dellasala.

He is a respected authority on wildfires and has studied them all over the world.

He pointed out the way the U.S. Forest Service skews data and ignores the fact that living trees sequester carbon (“Group wants more study of prescribed burns in Santa Fe mountains, Oct. 9.”)

The U.S. Forest Service plan is extremely vague and lacks important details. Their plan uses outdated and flawed tree ring studies that have proven inaccurate. Most importantly, they refuse to complete an environmental impact statement.

If you care about the Santa Fe National Forest, please urge your elected officials to insist on an environmental impact statement before any more trees are cut or burned.

Fred King Santa Fe

A creative leader

There are many reasons to reelect Mayor Alan Webber. Everyone knows about his leadership helping to keep us safe during the pandemic.

He was for the mask ordinance — no ifs, ands or buts. But you may not know of his support for the creative economy, artists and arts organizations of Santa Fe. When the pandemic hit, his administration immediately created the Artist’s Relief Fund, giving grants to local artists. When the economy started to open up, he convened a meeting of the major arts festivals, offering the city’s support to help them succeed.

Statewide, 1 in 10 paychecks is tied to the arts, and it probably is much higher in Santa Fe.

Webber understands the vital role the arts and creative community play in the well-being of Santa Fe and their important economic impact.

He has earned my vote and I hope yours, too.

JoAnn Balzer Santa Fe

Mark these goals

I have been a resident of Santa Fe for almost two decades but am a native of San Francisco, where I was an urban and environmental planner. Both cities were named with St. Francis in mind — one with his name and the other with his faith. St. Francis worked for the good of the people — he helped the poor and he fed the hungry. I am reminded of that every time I utter the name of these cities.

Those of us who live in Santa Fe know its beauty, its history, its cultures and its amenities. We know Santa Fe needs a leader to maintain and, when needed, improve those amenities. Mayor Alan Webber, in my opinion, has been and will be that leader.

He stated his goals in a one-page, folded (no envelope) letter (saving paper and trees). What struck me is his commitment to adding electric cars and solarized buildings.

Visit alanforsantafe.com for the mayor’s own words.

Gerry Wolff Santa Fe

No common sense

Incumbent Mayor Alan Webber’s past four years of deficient administration is well-reflected by Santa Fe police Capt. Matthew Champlin’s recent lame statement in The New Mexican that “he doesn’t regret pulling officers from the Plaza last year.”

Apparently this senior policeman doesn’t have high regard for maintaining law and order — and I think at least partially at the behest of Mayor Alan Webber.

Champlin’s irresponsible attitude reminds one of Bandelier Superintendent Roy Weaver’s statement after his suspension during investigation of the May 2000 Cerro Grande Fire that he didn’t do anything wrong, even after Los Alamos National Laboratory and Santa Fe National Forest officials had asked him not to initiate the prescribed burn that destroyed 400 Los Alamos homes and over 50,000 acres of irreplaceable mountain forest.

Weaver persisted when common sense should have warned him that starting a fire in an almost inaccessible canyon under tinderbox conditions without adequate resources was a dumb idea.

Similarly, what were Webber and his senior policemen thinking when deciding not to disturb what I believe were mostly out-of-town agitators from forcibly commandeering the Santa Fe Plaza and desecrating a century-old military monument?

Again, common sense seemed to be lacking. Santa Fe and its small, dependent neighboring communities deserve a mayor who better understands Santa Fe’s history and culture.

Robert Wells Los Alamos