US Forest Service: Prescribed Burns Can Resume—With New Protocols – Santa Fe Reporter

Forest Service resumes prescribed burns

Following a 90-day pause announced last spring, US Forest Chief Randy Moore said yesterday prescribed burns can resume in national forests under certain conditions. Moore halted prescribed burns and called for a national review in the wake of New Mexico’s devastating Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fires—both of which began as prescribed burns and ultimately became the largest wildfire in the state’s history, burning 341,735 acres. The Forest Service acknowledged its errors leading to the fires in an 85-page-report released last June. During the 90-day pause, the agency conducted a national review, which was released yesterday. Moore said he had decided to resume prescribed burns after evaluating the National Review Team’s findings and recommendations. “Recognizing that wildfire, drought and other extreme conditions are affecting parts of the country, prescribed fires will not occur on National Forest System lands until all recommendations have been implemented at each location and only when local conditions have been certified as appropriate for a prescribed fire on the day of the proposed burn,” he said in a statement.

The national review identifies a variety of conditions leading to escaped prescribed burns, including “insufficient consideration of the impact of long-term drought on prescribed burns”; failure to use or insufficient training in using forecasting tools; inadequate patrolling and mopping up; and underrating the complexity of burns. The recommendations identified in the report address those considerations and others, creating a variety of new protocols before conducting prescribed burns. In the report’s introduction, Moore says by Dec. 15, the agency’s Incident Management Organization will develop a national strategic plan for prescribed fire implementation and a strategy for having crews dedicated to hazardous fuels work mobilized around the country. By Jan. 1, 2023, he writes, the agency will establish a Western Prescribed Fire Training curriculum. “We have decades of experience using prescribed fire,” Moore said in a statement. “However, what we learned most during this review is that we cannot overly rely on past success. We must continuously learn and adapt to changing conditions so we can be at our best to protect communities and care for the lands and natural resources we manage on behalf of the public.”

Fiesta weekend…

…is here. As such, all city offices and facilities will close at 1 pm today, including the recreation centers, libraries and senior centers. The Main Library will remain closed through 10 am, Tuesday, Sept. 13, although the return book drop will be open throughout the weekend (and the La Farge and Southside branches will reopen at 10 am tomorrow, Sept. 10). What else is closed? A bunch of downtown streets, primarily those around the Plaza, through Sunday. As for Fiesta itself, it began at 6 am this morning with Pregón de la Fiesta at Rosario Chapel, but kicks off for the city at large at noon today on the Plaza, and will be in full swing downtown all weekend, with musical entertainment; art booths; food booths; Desfile de Los Niños, aka the Pet Parade (on Saturday); and the Historical/Hysterical Parade (on Sunday). Find the full schedule here. The Santa Fe Fiesta Melodrama continues its run this weekend at Tumbleroot Brewery, and celebrates its centennial with a reckoning of its history (complete with the requisite ribbing and musical numbers, of course). ICYMI, SFR spoke with locals about their histories and views of Fiesta for this recent cover story.

Suit seeks removal of GOP AG candidate from ballot

Former Bernalillo County Commissioner James Colllie filed a lawsuit earlier this week seeking to remove Republican Attorney General candidate Jeremy Gay from the Nov. 8 ballot, saying Gay has not resided continuously in the state for five years, as required by the state constitution. Gay faces Democrat Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez in that race. The state Democratic Party announced the lawsuit yesterday in a news release. “In addition to other extremist, unqualified candidates, Republicans are trying to run a candidate who does not even meet the bare minimum to be the state’s top attorney,” Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Jessica Velasquez said in a statement. “The New Mexico GOP’s candidate for Attorney General isn’t constitutionally qualified for the office, has minimal prosecutorial experience, and little connection to our state. We need a true leader and advocate with real experience in New Mexico and I appreciate Raul’s lifelong public service which includes nearly two decades serving as a prosecutor fighting for New Mexican families.” Gay’s campaign manager Noelle Gemmer tells the Albuquerque Journal Gay left the state on active duty for the Marines and returned when he entered the reserves. “Jeremy and his family have called New Mexico home since 2014, and his wife was born and raised in Gallup,” Gemmer told the Journal in a written statement. The Republican Party of New Mexico fired back at the lawsuit. “He was fulfilling his duty in the U.S. Marines, protecting our nation and our freedoms,” GOP spokesman Mike Curtis said in a statement to the Journal. “To try to boot someone out of a race for serving his nation is despicable. This is a disgraceful way the progressive left is trying to disenfranchise voters.”

COVID-19 by the numbers

Reported Sept. 8

New cases: 315; 613,588 total cases

Deaths: four; Santa Fe County has had 348 total deaths; there have been 8,479 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 114. Patients on ventilators: five. According to the state’s most recent statewide hospitalization report, 86 people have been hospitalized in the last seven days—about 12% fewer than the week before.

Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends for the seven-day period of Aug. 29-Sept. 4, Santa Fe County’s case rate continued to decline and was at 19.4, compared to 19.8 the previous week. The state recorded 2,407 cases statewide—based on reported cases—over the seven-day period, a nearly 30% decrease from the prior week.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent update for COVID-19 “community levels,” posted yesterday, New Mexico no longer has any red counties (last week, we had one: McKinley County). That’s the good news. The bad news is Santa Fe County slipped from “green” (good) to “yellow” (medium) and is now one of six yellow counties. The state map, which updates each Thursday for the prior seven-day period, uses a framework that combines case rates with hospital metrics. The community levels site has accompanying recommendations at the bottom of the page. The CDC also provides a quarantine and isolation calculator.

Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration; Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; New Curative testing site: 9 am to 5 pm, Monday-Friday, Santa Fe Technology Department, 2516 Cerrillos Road; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

Two co-founders and directors from the New Mexico-based Native Women Lead, Alicia Ortega (Pojoaque/ Santa Clara Pueblos) and Jaime Gloshay (Navajo/White Mountain Apache/Kiowa), appear on the most recent episode of the IndigEconomies podcast to discuss “re-matriating finances,” and their “model for restorative finance rooted in traditional values moving beyond the norms of financial violence with their own underwriting criteria as an antithesis to the 5 cs of credit.” Earlier this summer, Native Women Lead in collaboration with New Mexico Community Capital received a $10 million through the Equality Can’t Wait challenge.

Vogue raves about IAIA fashion exhibition

Vogue magazine reviews IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art’s latest exhibition, The Art of Indigenous Fashion, guest curated by IAIA Professor of Art History and SWAIA Indigenous Fashion Show Director Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation). “A New Fashion Exhibit Spotlights Contemporary Indigenous Design,” by Christian Allaire (Ojibwe), with photographs by IAIA’s social media and content coordinator, Nicole Lawe (Karuk), extols the exhibition, writing “it proves that Indigenous design isn’t one specific thing but rather greatly varies depending on an artist’s tribe, location and style.” Stand-outs, Allaire says, include “pieces that combine traditional craft with a modern point of view,” such as Marcus Amerman’s black leather jacket from 1983, which features a beaded image of a nude Brooke Shields wearing butterfly wings; Jamie Okuma’s dentalium shell dress combining “a traditional craft with a more avant-garde silhouette”; Teri Greeves’s hand-beaded Converse heels; Lauren Good Day’s “vibrant ribbon-work-style dresses”; and Yolonda Skelton’s fox and fern imagery cape. “While all of these garments differ in fabrication and aesthetic,” the review says, “Bear Robe brings attention to their similarities: mainly their innovation and a sense of carrying forward cultural traditions in new, unexpected ways.”

Camels back in NM

While Santa Fe will have a ridiculously cute pet parade tomorrow, Ramah, New Mexico will host a camel caravan. The US Army Camel Corp Commemoration goes down at 9 am tomorrow at El Morro National Monument, a tradition also steeped in history: According to the monument’s website, camels first appeared at El Morro in 1857 as part of a US military experiment to cross the desert between Texas and California. Camels, El Morro says in a Facebook post, are particularly well-suited to the desert terrain: “Some camel adaptations are well-known, like their ability to go long distances without water, or to walk on hot sand and rock. Others, however, might be less known, like the purpose behind their long eyelashes.” A series of Facebook posts from the monument details some of the history between camels and New Mexico, tracing back to 1857 when Lt. Edward Beale led a group of soldiers from Camp Verde, Texas to California, creating a wagon route, parts of which endure today as Route 66 and Interstate 40. Travel Awaits magazine, in a story about the upcoming event, writes those camels made headlines when first they crossed the desert, with one headline reading: “The camels are coming,” when they arrived in Los Angeles. The event will feature interpretive programs by park rangers, as well as historical reenactments by camel expert Doug Baum (who apparently travels with a herd of camels). And while pets are allowed on the trails at El Morro, they are not allowed near the camels.

(Possibly) wet weekend ahead

The National Weather Service forecasts a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature near 86 degrees. Chances for rain this weekend begin tonight, with a 30% possibility of precipitation, rising to 40% on Saturday and Sunday, amidst showers and thunderstorms, with a little relief from the heat as temperatures slide back down into the 70s.

Thanks for reading! The Word is catching up reading about Queen Elizabeth II’s death yesterday, and looking at the amazing photos from the monarch’s life (here’s a few more).

Favorite