Here’s a look at today’s headlines:
Wilderness Ranger District fire managers announce plans to implement various prescribed fires through the fall and winter as conditions permit. The projects include broadcast burning and pile burning. Broadcast burns are prescribed burning activities where fire is applied generally to most or all of an area within well-defined boundaries. The following broadcast burns are partially funded by the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish: · Gattons Park 1 Rx, 60 acres, located along Hwy 35 by the Old GOS Ranch. · T-Bird 1 Rx, 128 acres, located off Forest Service Road (FSR) 4085Q (Elks Pasture Road), south of private property on Ponderosa Road and west of Camp Thunderbird. Piles burns are planned in these locations: · Off Hwy 35, and Elkhorn Road, behind Desert West Auction · Lake Roberts off Forest Drive and FSR 4206M · Near Cooney off FSR 150A & 4080T · Near the Gila National Monument Visitor Center.
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, introduced a bill to reauthorize and fund the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program for six years, permanently reauthorize and fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and permanently fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. “This bill would provide long-term, predictable funding that is tremendously important for counties in New Mexico. Secure Rural Schools and PILT help counties avoid budget shortfalls and maintain the economic strength of our communities who rely on these funds for better schools, infrastructure maintenance, fire management, forest health projects, and other local services,” said Sen. Heinrich.
For the first time in its 110-year history, the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is spending more than 50 percent of its budget to suppress the nation’s wildfires. A new report released today by the Forest Service estimates that within a decade, the agency will spend more than two-thirds of its budget to battle ever-increasing fires, while mission-critical programs that can help prevent fires in the first place such as forest restoration and watershed and landscape management will continue to suffer. Meanwhile, the report notes, these catastrophic blazes are projected to burn twice as many acres by 2050.
Veteran-owned business owners, federal prime contractors, and military veterans/Guard/Reserve/transitioning active-duty personnel are invited to attend the Fifth Annual New Mexico Veterans’ Business Expo & Job Fair on Aug. 27 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Albuquerque Convention Center in downtown Albuquerque.
Las Cruces Crimestoppers is now offering a 5,000 dollar reward for information on the suspect in the bombings at two churches there Sunday morning. Evidence gathered at Holy Cross Catholic Church and Calvary Chapel is now on its way for professional analysis. Detectives are also following up on several leads.
