Reflections on the Hermits Peak Fires - Taos News

It's been a year since the fires. The political spotlight has dimmed, the FEMA recovery process is grinding its way through the system – and people are still in limbo about the outcome. What have we learned?

The Good

One of the surprises is reseeding programs have been notably effective. In the scientific literature, success rates have been a mixed bag, with regrowth percentages often in the single digits. And yet today, one sees miles of burnt forests with a lust understory of grasses. However, this was an unusually wet spring – we don't know if these gains can be sustained. Meanwhile, streams and acequias, recently starved for water, are running as they haven't in years because of fewer trees on the landscape.

The Bad

Despite all these lovely grasses, they are primarily a Russian species called Crested Wheat Grass, which, while decent forage and ground cover – is no substitute for native species. We need more grass diversity, especially natives and other warm-season species that don't just cover the ground – but improve biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Meanwhile, there are still no final rules on FEMA recovery assistance. Despite all the hoopla and the billions of dollars allocated, local people have seen very little of this money. Despite an influx of donor funding – little was given to long-term planning for fire prevention, and that which was is largely gone.

The Ugly

Put simply – the system's broken. The Governor points to the agencies and says the feds started the fires - they need to take responsibility. The feds point out that most of the area burned is private and out of their jurisdiction. The area is awash in recovery money with few governance systems to promote the strategic implementation of funding. And that's not just my observation –local leadership in the US Forest Service lament the lack of coordination. While many long-term political observers note that state leadership, despite an initial flurry of activity, appear disengaged.

The Hermits Peak Recovery Act is patterned after the Cerro Grande Fire Assistance Act, developed to assist homeowners in the wake of the 2000 Las Alamos fires. And yet, despite some promising provisions early in the process that included more assistance to rural landowners, insiders note the actual implementation of the process by FEMA appears more conservative. For example, the claims judge assigned is notoriously stringent in her rulings. And at this point, there is no stipulation the funds recovered for landscape damage be used on the land. So, there is no assurance funds will go to ecosystem renewal – potentially continuing the spiral of decline because though privately held – the whole community relies on a healthy landscape to prevent fire and to provide other ecosystem services such as clean water. An unparalleled opportunity to revive our burned and unburned forests after a century of neglect is slipping through our fingers – leading to a social justice nightmare where local people increasingly lose access to their historical lands and livelihoods.

Additional issues are that many local contractors have been cut out of the process. One of the biggest barriers is the federal procurement process which requires SAM numbers and CAGE codes to acquire federal contracts. However, the system does not recognize many rural New Mexico addresses – so too many locals have sat on the sidelines while out-of-state contractors reap millions to restore New Mexican land and infrastructure.

The core issue is that we have a system designed to address symptoms - not root causes. Most of the resources are going to short-term fixes, and yes, culvert, fence, and home replacement are essential because people need to be made whole (to the extent possible). However, fire no longer inoculates us from the next big burn. With shifting environmental and climatic conditions - within a few years, the chances of a return are the same as before the fire. We've already had large fires within the burn perimeter this year. While there are some progressive forest thinning programs in Taos County. The sad reality is, for the most part, we're investing billions in recreating the conditions that led to the fires in the first place, as a lack of landscape recovery, big fires, and all the associated horrors are the new norm. The status quo isn’t working – let’s try something different and focus on the coordinated long-term recovery of our forested landscapes