How to recover landscapes and livelihoods in the wake of recent fires

In the wake of recent fires, the forested highlands and the largely Hispaño-indigenous communities who rely on them face two alternatives: a continued spiral of decline of their ecological and cultural heritage or vibrancy, opportunity and renewal. In conversations with landowners, loggers and mill owners, we believe viable solutions exist, approaches that have been successfully undertaken elsewhere. The question is not, ‘Do these approaches work?’ It is, ‘Do we have the collective will and wisdom to seek them?’

The consequences of our actions are not financially trivial. One of our team members, Oregon State University Forestry Professor John Sessions, has calculated that the approximate minimum value of just the sawlogs that can still be harvested from trees killed in the recent fires is over 100 million dollars. The value of these resources can accrue to the community if we act quickly and intelligently. There is additional value in small diameter timber, watershed preservation, sustained hunting and the vital importance of averting another major wildfire. In sum, the consequences of the path chosen have massive implications for our communities, economies, landscapes and the region’s future.

Toward a new farming challenge

In New Mexico and across the West, we already know what not to do because we’ve been doing it for decades. We see the consequences of competition, division, fragmentary policies and shortsighted planning in the too-thick stands of trees choking our forests, the diminished habitat for wildlife, and the robbing of acequias, fertile farms, and ranchlands of the water needed to sustain life and livelihoods. At the same time, a dearth of well-paying jobs is leading to the growth of the region’s most significant export: our children. All these outcomes are, at least in part, the result of not having an integrated approach to forest management.

Our collective policy failures are also evidenced in the blackened fire scars with millions of matchstick-like dead trees radiating across our landscapes and the floods that roar down our valleys with increasing fury. The decimated water supplies to cities such as Las Vegas, the lost homes and lifeways, the billions of dollars in firefighting costs and incalculable human suffering.

The challenge is to move much more quickly and collaboratively than in the past. We have only a few years to recover as much value as possible from the dead and down timber caused by recent fires and to jumpstart local economies through ecosystem restoration. At the same time, we can avert similar catastrophes for the stillliving forests if we work to thin them ASAP. These efforts require a focused, directed approach that builds on local insights and, simultaneously (in the words of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs) “think different” about potential solutions.

In response to this crisis, the Sangre de Cristo Initiative and partners from across the region and beyond propose an integrated strategy to addressing Northern New Mexico’s forest challenge. The first step we have been immersed in is talking with landowners, loggers, mill owners and others who live and work in our mountains. Through those conversations, we hope to find out what works, what doesn’t and why. What do they need to improve their lives and livelihoods, and what are the principal barriers they face?

Through years of conversations, we hear the same challenges recounted, challenges that are not addressed within existing approaches. These include:

• Insufficient access to markets

• Insufficient access to capital

• Insufficient access to reliable skilled labor

• Lack of a means to obtain value from non-merchantable timber

• Lack of a coordinated, integrated strategy

Past efforts have fallen short or failed, mainly because they deployed partial solutions to a complex, multifaceted challenge. Therefore, rather than focusing on individual components, we step back and ask how all the pieces fit together. We have collected some of the leading experts in conservation, forestry and transportation logistics to redefine how we undertake restorative forestry. The one point we hear recurrently from all involved is there are many complaints about what is wrong — but few proposals for proactive, viable solutions. We’ve got one, and we ask policy makers, funders and foundations to take a break from business-as-usual, give us a listen and invest in a new approach. We’ve already lost too much of our landscape, communities and livelihoods to wildfire. The time is short to recover as much as we can from the last fire while averting the next big one.