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Forests and Rangelands Success Story

Santa Clara Pueblo and Valles Caldera National Preserve Reforestation Initiative, A Collaborative Forest Restoration Program Project administered by the Santa Fe National Forest
Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
2008

In 2003, Santa Clara Pueblo was awarded a CFRP grant to restore 300 acres of Tribal forest land along a six mile boundary with the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The project has been administered by the Santa Fe National Forest and is located near the city of Los Alamos and the town of Jemez Springs. The goals of this project have been to create a long-term sustainable fuelbreak that will reduce hazardous fuels and increase forage for wildlife as well as bring forest conditions back to pre-settlement conditions. Harvested small diameter timber has been utilized for value added uses as fuel wood and to support beam and post markets for home construction in nearby Santa Fe.

Prior to restoration activities, the area consisted of dense stands of small diameter spruce fir and mixed conifer. The enclosed aerial photo depicts the completed fuelbreak as of the fall of 2007 accomplished almost entirely through mechanical mastication. In addition to reducing hazardous fuels to a residual stand of 50-150 trees per acre, the project has improved wildlife habitat and restored the headwaters of the Santa Clara Creek watershed located within tribal boundaries. In addition to the Pueblo of Santa Clara and the Valles Caldera National Preserve, other partners included the National Park Service, New Mexico State Forestry and TC Conley Company.

The CFRP grant was awarded in 2003 and began implementation in 2004 using Santa Clara Pueblo hand crews for most of the initial thinning. Extremely dense conditions and steep slopes prompted the pueblo to modify the scope of work for the grant in 2005 by contracting with a local thinning company, TC Conley Company in order to use their grinders and masticators capable of conducting treatments on steep slopes and through dense conditions. Seasonal thinning continued through 2006 and 2007 and the grant was successfully closed out in June of 2008.

Contact: Reuben Montes, CFRP Coordinator, Santa Fe National Forest, 505 438-7892, rmontes@fs.fed.us.