Closing Taos Interagency Dispatch is a risk to Taos County

Today, the Taos Interagency Dispatch Center (TIDC) currently has a contract with Taos County for a state-of-the-art communications facility and radio tower, located right in Taos next to our Taos County 911 dispatch center.

The TIDC is jointly operated and staffed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). It provides six permanent, full-time jobs, held by staff who are either born and raised here or lived here for decades. It also provides a pipeline for growing local talent who can move up the career ladder.

Now, as part of regional consolidation efforts of the Forest Service and BLM, there is a proposal to close the TDIC, our local Wildland Fire Dispatch Center. This deeply concerns the Taos County Commissioners.

We see how the close working relationship of partners at the TDIC has proven beneficial to all parties, with TIDC providing the community with local knowledge and rapid response to wildland fires in the Taos Zone.

And we fear this closure would equate to an estimated loss of one million dollars of annual economic activity in the town of Taos and Taos County, as TDIC employees would have to relocate to Albuquerque along with their spouses – several of whom have jobs with the local schools and hospital.

Additionally, specialized local contractors, such as water tenders, risk losing work opportunities by being pooled together with Santa Fe and Albuquerque resources.

New Mexico is one of the fastest-warming states. One result of climate change is an increase in the number and intensity of wildfires, making any move to reduce our local firefighting capacity questionable.

In a devastating fire season, having resources on the ground near a catastrophic wildfire is invaluable, promoting safety and building community. Additionally, an emergency services network requires redundancy in order to provide both back-up and continuity of operations, so we believe that consolidation can in fact significantly compromise safety.

Consolidation of dispatch centers will increase the complexity of the fire environment – from safety to communication links, span of control, and workload management. It also means decreased familiarity with local medical plans and procedures, aviation mishap guides, and local first responders.

In February of 2020, the County Commissioners asked participating agencies about this consolidation plan. No response was received. Neither the purpose of consolidation nor the efficiencies or savings it will supposedly bring, have been clearly explained. We have also not heard anything about an approach to mitigating the resulting increase in firefighting complexity.

Last month, in the interest of our community’s health and safety, we passed a resolution opposing consolidation. We want the public to be aware of this issue, and we are requesting that our Congressional delegation take all necessary steps to intervene and have the Taos Zone removed from dispatch consolidation plans. Instead, let’s keep the TIDC in Taos County – almost half of which is federal lands deserving of federal protection.