During the past year, and for the past several years, catastrophic forest fires have devastated public and private lands all over the west.
The US Forest Service is always quick to steer attention in the direction of how the fires have started. Sometimes there is human negligence or malice, but more often than not lightning is the culprit. In any case, the public and the media are quick to get bogged down in the questions surrounding the cause of a fire. But that is a mistake.
Why? Because the vital issue is not what started these fires. The main causes of the fires are relatively unchanged through the centuries, perhaps millennia.
Much more important today is the question: Why are these fires, once started, increasingly unstoppable?
Regardless of the cause, none of these fires should even come close to the almost limitless destruction which is now routine.
When lightning strikes, or when human beings do something stupid, of course we should be on the lookout for a fire. But these fires should end up burning no more than a few acres. Perhaps a really big disaster might result in at most 100, or 150 acres of loss. The catastrophic 500,000-acre fires we have seen all over the west should never be happening under any circumstances.
Why are they? Answer: Poor or non-existent forest management.
With a poorly-managed forest, the undergrowth, the brush, the tightly overgrown timber, the fallen deadwood all serve as highly flammable---almost explosive---fuel.
With competent forest management such fuel is reduced to a minimum, and a naturally occurring event such as lightning would normally lead to nothing more than a localized fire of a few minutes' duration. However, after decades of mismanagement even the most minor events lead to relentless, fuel-consuming infernos.
Radicals in the name of "environmentalism" have long since stopped the gathering of leña (firewood) in northern New Mexico, even though such an enterprise benefits both the residents who pick it up as well as the forests which are cleaned up. These same activists have prevented common sense measures such as limited logging for the purpose of reducing the level of undergrowth. Radical activists have also prevented the prudent construction of fire breaks which could keep a fire from spreading even under the harshest conditions of drought and wind.
Remember, a 500,000-acre fire is one which has consumed almost 800 square miles! This means a fire has carried itself throughout an area equal to 20 by 40 miles. A fire cannot possibly do that without an almost unimaginable amount of explosive fuel to feed it. 800 square miles of blackened ground is the price we pay for indifferent stewardship.
Meanwhile, in the wake of neglect and inactivity the federal government takes the false (and immoral) position that the loss of life and property due to catastrophic fire is an "Act of God," and that no means of redress or compensation for the victims exists. The victims in these cases are both private property holders as well as the individual sovereign states whose citizens are deprived of the use and enjoyment of their forest lands.
The "Act of God" reaction is a ludicrous position to maintain. The small fires that have occurred for millennia and which have pruned the forest long before the arrival of human beings in our area, are indeed acts of God. But the burning of a half million acres of precious natural resources, and the destruction of the hopes and dreams of generations of Americans, are the acts of human beings.
These catastrophic fires represent the very worst consequences of poor stewardship, wrought by the arrogance of Washington-based centralized bureaucracies, and the institutional indifference spawned by such organizations.
It doesn't have to be this way. Federal law (7 U.S.C. §2268) authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to relinquish jurisdiction over national forests to the states when deemed necessary. The high risk ofcatastrophic fire is clearly a condition which warrants such a step. Title 7 of U.S.C. §2268 provides as follows:
"...the Secretary of Agriculture may, whenever he considers it desirable, relinquish to a State all or part of the legislative jurisdiction of the United States over lands...under his control in that State. Relinquishment...may be accomplished (1) by filing with the Governor of the State...a notice of relinquishment...or (2) as the laws of the State may otherwise provide."
Taking that existing federal law into account, last year the New Mexico State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1, drafted by Albuquerque attorney Cliff Nichols, and Governor Johnson signed it into law. The major points contained in the new New Mexico law are as follows:
1) a state of emergency exists in New Mexico because of the present risk to lives and property of citizens living in or next to national forests
2) all petitions to the US Forest Service to reduce or remove the risks have been ignored or discounted.
3) such failure to exercise responsibilities constitutes grounds for forfeiture of jurisdictional supremacy.
4) because of the recognition of the preceding points, a jurisdictional vacuum exists, requiring New Mexico to acknowledge its obligations as a sovereign power to protect lives and property from the threat of catastrophic fires.
5) the legislature declares a disaster within those areas where large amounts of forest undergrowth have created the potential for damaging fires...the legislature also declares that the disaster is of such magnitude that the police power of the state should be exercised to the extent necessary to provide the resources and services that will end the disaster.
The New Mexico law was passed some 21 months ago. And appeals to the federal government for competent forest management have been submitted for more than a quarter of a century. It is clear the federal government is not going to act.
Government entities must either take action, or take responsibility. But it is not reasonable that the US Forest Service is continuously allowed to:
1) take no action to fix the problem and, simultaneously
2) take no responsibility for the resulting catastrophes that occur as a direct result of their inaction.
What should happen now is a formal request by Governor Johnson, or, after January 1, Governor Richardson, to Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman that the appropriate jurisdiction be transferred to the State of New Mexico to enable the state to take the actions necessary to protect life and property.