Looks like a cold winter with no firewood

[ozro]

Court ruling halts all woodcutting in forest | Silver City Daily Press

"
Communities adjacent to the Gila are bracing for the worst after all woodcutting in the Gila National Forest was suspended last week. The suspension came as defendants in a lawsuit — the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — respond to a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins that says the agencies have not fulfilled their responsibility to protect and improve habitats for the federally listed Mexican spotted owl.

The ruling means fuelwood cutting and associated permits, logging and timber sales, tree thinning and prescribed burns are all halted indefinitely — in all national forests across New Mexico, not just in the Gila."

Read the entire article at the posted link.

This is a big issue around here that has many people concerned and has caused firewood prices to rise dramatically in the past week.
It could be good for some folks, llike me, who hold private land with trees that can be cut. I am not going in to the firewood business though.
Prices in Gallup yesterday were observed to be 250 to 275 a cord for juniper firewood. Last year prices were 175 to 200 a cord.
I already caught and kicked out 2 pairs of guys trying to sneak onto private land I own or manage to cut firewood. My security systems won't be discussed here, except to say that it isn't safe to intrude on my side of the fence.
Locally, this is a very serious issue, there isn't any viable options to heating with wood for most of us.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

New Mexico wants California style wildfires? Why?

 

[SavannahMann]

The problem is always priorities. In the law there is little that is a higher priority than protecting endangered species. Even when the remedy to the threat is idiotic.

The Kangaroo Rat as one example. People who owned property upon which the Rat was spotted were told to stop everything. Inevitably the land became so overgrown and crowded that the Rats moved away. No more Rats, but how do you prove they aren’t there or won’t be back? You know. The Rat May be migratory like the European Swallow.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Apparently WildEarth Guardians didn't learn anything from the California wildfires last year. With no forest management of prescribed burns, clearing & thinning it becomes a disaster waiting to happen AKA major wildfire that will take out the owl that they are trying so hard to protect. \

BUT on the other hand...….why hasn't the forest service don't the monitoring & research that was requested? Don't they do any planting/replanting of trees as part of their management system?

 

[ozro]

Apparently WildEarth Guardians didn't learn anything from the California wildfires last year. With no forest management of prescribed burns, clearing & thinning it becomes a disaster waiting to happen AKA major wildfire that will take out the owl that they are trying so hard to protect. \

BUT on the other hand...….why hasn't the forest service don't the monitoring & research that was requested? Don't they do any planting/replanting of trees as part of their management system?

Before the California fires, we had two in AZ that each burned almost a million acres. There has been 2 like that on the Cibola NF in NM.
The fact is the NF has been spending most of their budgets on reforestation projects in burned areas.
The forests the feds control are mismanaged, badly mismanaged. State controlled land and reservation land is managed much better.
Managing a forest by federal lawsuit, as has been going on for 25+ years in this area isn't working.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

The problem is always priorities. In the law there is little that is a higher priority than protecting endangered species. Even when the remedy to the threat is idiotic.

The Kangaroo Rat as one example. People who owned property upon which the Rat was spotted were told to stop everything. Inevitably the land became so overgrown and crowded that the Rats moved away. No more Rats, but how do you prove they aren’t there or won’t be back? You know. The Rat May be migratory like the European Swallow.

I think it's Georgia where a man was prohibited from engaging with his property at all because a frog once lived on that land. The frog has actually been extinct for decades. There is no arguing with fools. They are mostly democrats.