The 14 Encino Vista scoping comments

… There is a consensus that the public is not being involved in management decisions in a manner that reflects the dynamics of small rural communities…  The community is interested in knowing if this project is truly one that intends to protect and sustain the forests’ natural resources, associated fish and wildlife habitats, and the social, cultural, and economic practices of the surrounding rural communities, or if it’s being driven by mandated acreage targets set forth by upper management within the federal agencies programs. Fire is the predominant tool mentioned as the most likely response to the above-mentioned purpose and need for action, surpassing all other methods, including most silvicultural methods that might be less invasive. Is there an example where a project such as this has yielded positive results, and, if so, can that be available for public review and comparison?
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… We TOTALLY OPPOSE this project… they do not take in effect the long term effects of this Plan on the community.  The cultural, traditional, and social economic values will be affected…  All of these areas stand to be ruined with burn scars, not to mention the added silt and erosion…  The widening of roads to create fire breaks will scar the land…  there are countless roads aside from the main roads and four wheeler or ATV roads.  We do not need any more roads.  The Forest Service personnel is adamant that a control burn will not get away, but if it does, we as the agricultural community will have to deal with washed out bridges, diversion dams, erosion, loss of irrigation for our crops. …
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… The USFS should clearly commit financial resources for implementation of the plan. Past performance indicates a lack of financial resources to many treatment plans on the shelf. At a minimum the financial plan should identify sources of funding or the approach to funding the proposed treatments. The current staff at all levels indicate a willingness for treatment but past history indicates a continual change in personnel with differing approaches and commitment. Almost impossible to build trust with a revolving change in personnel. …
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… I am writing to oppose the Encino Vista Landscape Restoration Project, in the hopes that you will take my concerns and those of others in my community into consideration as you propose actions.  I am advocating for a longer timeline to properly study and attain the data necessary to properly treat the diverse landscape mapped out in the proposal. If the forest service could work on small land parcels bit by bit, not only would it be safer to our watershed,but it would also protect the diversity of the forest. As cutting and clearing diminishes diversity for a certain time period, working to restore smaller plots preserves the diversity of the rest of the forest. …
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… Overall I support this project and agree that this restoration needs to be completed before a stand-replacing wildfire hits this area. … why is the northern goshawk the only RFSS [Regional Forester Sensitive Species] species mentioned? Others could be impacted by this work as well such as the boreal owl, pale Townsend’s bid-eared bat, spotted bat, water and masked shrews, and several plant species. …
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… Sufficient notice of the project and the comment period was not given. Very few people in the Santa Fe area, where most of the forest protection advocates focused on the Santa Fe National Forest reside, were aware of the project and the ongoing comment period until the comment period was half way complete. There was no notice placed in any newspaper, and the notice was only put out on a very limited mailing list. I strongly suggest the USFS start over on the scoping comment period and put out proper notice so all citizens and conservation groups who are interested will have time to write comprehensive scoping comments. …
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… I applaud the FS for using alternative means (small ruminant animals – GOATS) to control less desirable vegetation. However, no prescription is given for number, duration, time of year of animals to be used within the project area. These animals should be as minimally as possible in numbers and rotated on a schedule that does not allow them to denude the forest of all vegetation. …
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… I would like to know why areas would be burned without allowing thinning beforehand. I am wary of the use of masticators to thin areas instead of allowing fuelwood harvesting by the public. Prior use of masticators was not well planned or executed and resulted in over-thinning of areas that should not have been thinned. …
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The scoping document’s stated purpose ignores the highly questionable scientific basis of fuels treatments on forests and presents nothing resembling a cost-benefit analysis that the public deserves before contemplating such an impactful project.
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I am concerned with the effects of the… proposal by the Santa Fe National Forest.  I am a landowner in Canones and am concerned that this proposal will have a negative effect on the land along the Canones Creek. 
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… I am submitting my demand for an EIS to be held before granting permission for this large “restoration project.” Never will saplings survive and replace the existing biodiversity that their elders helped sustain.  I would like the FS to uphold the law. …
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WildEarth Guardians

 …despite being touted as a landscape restoration project, the proposed action provides little in actual restoration activities such as identifying the Minimum Road System and associated actions such as decommissioning system roads, removing non-system roads and fixing poorly placed and/or sized culverts,in-stream and riparian restoration, and reducing the impacts of livestock grazing and motorized use. Without such restoration work, the Encino Vista project is merely a logging and burning project, not restoration. …
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Santa Fe Forest Coalition &
Wild Watershed &
Center for Biological Diversity

… The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) special report- found that the single biggest source of carbon emissions from the land use sector is global deforestation and forest degradation. In addition to identifying the extreme urgency of achieving significant emissions reductions by 2030, the IPCC report highlights the important role of land conservation. Increased forest protection could account for approximately half of the climate change mitigation needed to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius or less. Unfortunately the SFNF has consistently ignored these findings. The scoping letter for the massive Encino Vista project fails to even mention the impacts of removing millions of trees on the rapidly warming and drying climate of the southwest. …
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Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society

… In general, we feel that thinning projects are often too concentrated on conditions on the Forest. We believe that the emphasis should be on proper function of the ecosystem processes that maintain the resiliency of the forest system. Silvicultural prescriptions that manage for particular conditions, while appropriate for specific projects and treatments, will fail if the processes that support the ecosystem are not allowed to function. This is particularly true in light of changing climate. A desired condition which is appropriate for today’s climate may not be appropriate in the future, but if ecological processes are intact, the forest will sustain its resiliency. …
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The Forest Advocate
Santa Fe, New Mexico