Heinrich Secures Commitment from U.S. Forest Service to Visit and Meet with New Mexicans in Pecos Valley, Slams Administration for Repealing Roadless Rule
Heinrich to U.S. Forest Service: “We want these decisions to be rooted in local communities, and yet they seem to have been cut out of this process”
WASHINGTON — During a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Public Lands, Forests, and Mining Subcommittee hearing to examine pending legislation, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Committee, secured a commitment from U.S. Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Christopher French to host a public forum meeting in the Pecos Valley on mining developments. Heinrich additionally brought attention to the Administration’s refusal to take public opinion into account prior to repealing the Roadless Rule.
On Additional Mining in Pecos Valley
Heinrich began his questioning by asking French to commit to hosting a public forum in the Pecos Valley, “Mr. French, the Administration recently reversed a very popular administrative withdrawal in the upper Pecos watershed, despite overwhelming public support in that community for the withdrawal. Your agency even canceled a public forum that would have allowed for discussion with the, of the withdrawal and given the community a chance to share their views with the Forest Service. Would you commit to coming out to the Pecos Valley and meeting with that community and having a public meeting?”
French affirmed his commitment, “Yeah, thank you very much for the question, Senator. Of course, and we'll have a conversation around any of those issues. We know that the comments that we received on the withdrawal itself, overwhelmingly supported the withdrawal, but across the agency, the Administration's policy is to preserve the spaces we have right now for future development until such time that we understand what our current mineral development is across the Agency. So, it's, it is about more about a broader administrative, administration policy around the use of public lands and...”
Heinrich pushed back, “Well, why not meet with the local community before making a decision? I mean, that's kind of the way we typically do planning in these public land agencies is first you listen to the community, just like Senator Barrasso, the Chairman, articulated his issues with BLM planning. We want these decisions to be rooted in local communities, and yet they seem to have been cut out of this process.”
French responded, “Yeah. Senator, as you're aware, when this was first put, proposed, more than two years ago, there was broad comment period on that so that we could understand what the feelings the community were. I'm not aware of any comments that oppose that withdrawal, but that is in conflict with the broader Administration's policy right now on the use of public lands and supporting mineral and energy development.”
Heinrich answered, “So, my dad worked for Anaconda Copper, my grandfather worked at Battle Mountain Gold Mine in Nevada. So, I fully recognize that there are many places in this country where mining can be done safely and with strong local support. I just don't think the upper Pecos is one of those places. And I wonder, can you tell us, does the Forest Service even consider values like recreation, agricultural productivity, or traditional uses when making decisions about where to permit new mining activity?”
French said, “Of course we do. Yeah. So, there's a difference between an administrative withdrawal versus when we actually get an expression of interest and we go through the environmental process to look at what the consequences of permitting something like that would be. In those cases, we are looking at all the various impacts, whether they're economic, social, to the environment that surrounds where the mine would be, including the uses of that area, such as recreation or cattle grazing. All that takes into consideration and how we permit areas and allow for that activity.”
On the Roadless Rule
Heinrich shifted gears, “I very much appreciate your willingness to come out and meet directly with the local community, and I look forward to that happening. You called the Roadless Rule a barrier. Do you know what sportsmen in New Mexico call the roadless areas that are protected in our state?”
French answered, “I do not.”
Heinrich helped French, “They call it elk habitat.”
“Yes they do,” French said.
Heinrich continued, criticizing the lack of public meetings the Administration had when overturning the Roadless Rule, “And if you overlay the Roadless Rule with, I mean, I almost hesitate to suggest people do that, because they would see places that I like to go and have some solitude when I’m elk hunting. But how many public meetings did this Administration have before proposing overturning the roadless rule?”
French answered, “The Administration has only proposed a new approach on the Roadless Rule and the general approach there is thinking about, what are the barriers to protecting the communities from wildland fire risk. There's more than 24 million acres of the wildland urban interface that are either within roadless or within a mile of roadless, of which we are restricted from how we treat those areas other than, let's say, using prescribed fire access.”
Heinrich disagreed, “I looked at a number of state roadless treatment numbers, and there are substantial amounts of those roadless areas being treated for fire prevention.”
French responded, “That is correct, but it limits the type of activities that you can do. And I'll go back to the discussion that was happening earlier with Senator Barrasso, and the question around, how do you expand these things? Oftentimes, when you're doing field production work, the actual value that is coming out of those materials is minimal compared to the actual cost of doing that. So, in order for us to do more acres and create broader areas of treatments, we need to do the most efficient treatments that we can, providing access and providing the ability to get in there and do that is the way to make that happen. Otherwise, those costs for doing that work are extremely, extremely expensive.”
Heinrich concluded, reiterating the importance of including the public in policy decisions, “Once again, I would just encourage you to have a robust public process before making these decisions.”
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