Encino Vista. Courtesy/SFNF

SFNF News:

SANTA FE — The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) will begin accepting comments today, March 15, 2024, for the Encino Vista Landscape Restoration Project (EVLRP) preliminary environmental assessment.

The Encino Vista Landscape Restoration Project is an approximately 130,305-acre project on the Coyote and Cuba Ranger Districts. The proposed EVLRP was developed after the South Fork Wildfire (2010) and the Diego Wildfire (2014) created severe long-term resource damage to watersheds, wildlife habitat, and forested landscapes within the project area.

The SFNF recognized the need to create healthier forest systems, based on desired conditions identified in the 2022 SFNF Land Management Plan, and to protect the local communities of Cañones, Coyote, Gallina and Youngsville in Rio Arriba County from uncharacteristic wildfire events.

The project area is also a priority landscape for the Santa Fe National Forest, NMED State Forestry Division and the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), and one of the nationally identified Wildfire Crisis Strategy high-risk fire sheds (WCS) covers the western portion of the project area.

Proposed project actions are focused on mitigating resource damage by creating a healthy, more resilient forest by reducing stand densities using thinning, reintroducing the natural process of fire to the landscape through prescribed fire, improving and enhancing wildlife habitat through forest and watershed restoration, and managing roads to reduce runoff and watershed damage.

The public will have an opportunity to hear more about the project, ask resource specialists questions, and learn how to formally comment on the preliminary environmental assessment at two scheduled open houses.

Open House Schedule

• 5:30-8 p.m., Wednesday, March 20, 2024
  Coronado High School Boardroom
  1903 State Highway 96, Gallina
• 1-3 p.m., Saturday, March 23, 2024
  Rural Events Center – Abiquiu
  House #122A State Road 554

For information on this project and to learn how to formally comment, visit the EVLRP website.

For questions about this project, call the Coyote Ranger District Office at 575.638.5526.