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20 Acres More of Bosque Cleared This Fall |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008 |
Another 20 acres of the Corrales Bosque Nature Preserve is to be
cleared this fall despite public outcry over the habitat devastation at
the north end of the preserve where such “thinning” occurred last
year.
The clearing of dead wood and non-native plant species, such as Russian
olive and salt cedar, is part of an ongoing U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers project to reduce the threat of wildfires along the Rio
Grande.
More than 130 acres of Corrales’ preserve have already been cleared,
mostly at the south and north ends. Most recently, acres of habitat
were destroyed when the Corps’ contractors leveled virtually all
vegetation in a swath for a road in the vicinity of Dixon Road to
facilitate removal of rows of jetty-jacks (the steel “jacks” linked
with wire installed decades ago to prevent debris in river torrents
from tearing and eroding the levee).
That component of the Corps’ Corrales project came to a halt in
February when irate villagers protested the destruction. Several
villagers spoke before the Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission February
14, insisting that so much of the preserve has been cleared that it can
no longer function as a wildlife refuge.
At a subsequent commission meeting, the Corps’ Fritz Blake offered to
halt the program if that is what Village officials desired. Mayor Phil
Gasteyer said he would contact Blake shortly thereafter to give a
decision.
That decision was apparently to resume operations.
Corrales Comment contacted the Corps’ biologist, Ondrea Hummel, April
30 for an update on the project. “We’ve been asked to come back this
fall to clear an area in the Romero Road area, and to proceed with the
bridge at Andrews Lane.”
She said about 20 acres near the Romero Road entrance to the bosque
would be thinned. The bridge would be installed over the Corrales
Riverside Drain (“Clear Ditch”) at the south end of Andrews Lane a
little beyond its intersection with East Meadowlark Lane. The bridge,
creating a new entrance to the bosque to make it easier for fire
fighting equipment to be driven to future fires, would be similar to
the one installed by the Corps at the east end of Dixon Road two years
ago.
Hummel said April 30 it was not likely that the Corps would be ready to actually construct the bridge at Andrews Lane this fall.
When the Corps’ plans for the Corrales bosque were presented at a
September 27, 2004 public meeting at the Old Church it included
proponents of the clearing from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy
District and the Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission.
As the project was about to get under way, Corps biologist Ondrea
Hummel explained that about 50 acres of woodlands north of Alameda
Bridge would be cleared of “fuel load” while leaving cottonwoods,
native shrubs and a few islands of Russian olive trees as
wildlife habitat in that area.
Work on that stretch was to include installation of a dry hydrant
(pump) in the “Clear Ditch” near the Cabezon Road entrance to the
bosque so that ditch water could be used to extinguish fires.
Another 70 acres was to be similarly cleared at the north end of the
nature preserve over the following two years, and another dry hydrant
was to be installed in the ditch near Dixon Road.
Fire Chief Anthony Martinez has subsequently determined that the dry
hydrants are not necessary, especially since he anticipates the pumps
would require excessive maintenance due to drawing up sand from the
bottom of the ditch.
The Corps’ plan at that time called for two, possibly three, new
crossings of the “Clear Ditch.” The new, gated culvert crossings would
go in at the east end of Dixon Road and south end of Andrews Lane. A
third crossing might go at the end of East Alary Road.
The decision to continue clearing in the nature preserve was apparently
prompted by recent discoveries of people violating rules against fire
and fireworks in the bosque.
Two Albuquerque teenagers were arrested May 2 for setting off fireworks
near the Romero Road entrance to the preserve. And members of the
Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission reported finding fresh evidence of
camp fires set along the river, also in the Romero Road area.
It is this general area that is targeted for resumption of bosque clearing this fall.
Fire Chief Anthony Martinez said one of his firefighters on a routine
patrol in the preserve May 2 heard popping sounds that appeared
to come from inside the bosque. The fireman drove to the Romero Road
entrance, which had already been closed and locked due to fire danger,
where he saw a car parked near the gate.
Martinez said the patrolling fireman then called Corrales police to the
scene. The officers located and issued citations to the two teens.
The fire chief said the daily patrols he has ordered for the bosque
seem to be paying off. “Our first success was catching a fire that had
just started in the Via Oreada area” back in November. He said
the fireman saw smoke that he thought was coming from the bosque, and
traced it to a location along a trail about 1,000 feet east the levee.
That fire burned about 50 square feet before it was extinguished.
Martinez said he tries to patrol the entire length of the preserve at
least once a day, a different times of day, to watch for fires.
He said the Bosque Advisory Commission is expected to make a
recommendation soon whether the preserve should be closed off from
public use until the threat of wildfires diminishes.
Commissioners recently discovered eight or nine shelters that had been
constructed, contrary to Village law, within the bosque. Two of the
larger ones have already been torn apart. A major concern over
such shelters is that they are often locations where camp fire pits are
found.
At the September 2004 meeting on bosque wildfire prevention efforts,
Hummel, the Conservancy District’s Yasmeen Najmi and Bosque Advisory
Commission Chairman Ben Blackwell defended the project amid questions
from the public regarding its necessity and adverse impact to the
nature preserve’s wildlife habitat.
“The idea of the preserve is that it should be left alone,” said Susan
Weiss. “That was the premise when the preserve was formed. There is a
lot of documentation to that.”
Projects to reduce the wildfire threat are great, she noted, “but
that is not the idea behind this preserve, and it never was.”
The better way to reduce the fire danger in the preserve, she said, “is
to have proper patrolling. That way you wouldn’t have to mess around
with the preserve the way you plan to do.”
Blackwell responded to Weiss by noting, “One thing we seem to be
missing in Corrales is the fact that [the Conservancy District] owns
the bosque. We, being the citizens of Corrales, only get to manage it.
So we can’t unilaterally decide what we are going to do and what we
aren’t going to do without consultation and permission from the
Conservancy District.
“I think it would be completely irresponsible for us to do nothing to
the bosque. Otherwise, it’s going to look like Montaño [bosque area,
site of a major bosque fire in 2003] and there’s nothing left to manage.
“You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine, and my
opinion is that we need to be responsible in our management of the
bosque. Otherwise, our resource is going to burn up.”
Asked for his opinion about the level of wildfire danger in the bosque
now compared to 20 years ago, retired biologist Jim Findley, the person
most responsible for creating the nature preserve decades ago, said it
is about the same. Some areas have more dead-and-down wood and others
have less he said, due to prior fires.
Bosque Advisory Commissioner Sally McGrath pointed out that one reason
there is more dead wood is that villagers are no longer permitted to go
into the area to cut firewood, as had been customary for generations.
One villager asked how the Corps will prevent Siberian elms from taking
over the areas cleared. Hummel replied that the project includes
several years of follow-up inspections and treatments such as spraying
of herbicides to control elms and other undesirable vegetation.
Former long-time bosque commission chairman Jeff Radford insisted on
hearing some answer to his question “how much clearing is too much” to
maintain the preserve’s essential habitat.
“Looking back and looking forward, one of my concerns has always been
that the fuel reduction projects we’ve had will amount to a piece-meal
degradation of the wildlife habitat there.
“I haven’t heard anything said today that would indicate to me that
‘well, we’re going to do this and that’s all we’ll need to do.’
“So I keep saying, ‘Just tell me how much is too much.’ I want
someone from a biologist’s standpoint to say, ‘look, if you keep
piece-mealing this with 20 acres here, 50 acres, and next year 50 acres
here and 100 acres there, we’re not going to have anything there that’s
worth calling a nature preserve anymore.’ I haven’t gotten an answer to
that question, and I would very much like to have an answer.”
Blackwell replied jokingly: “Let me make a stab at evading the answer.
I can’t answer the question. It’s a very subjective thing, as to
how far is too far.
“If your million-dollar home is across from a fire, we didn’t go far
enough. If you live five miles away, but you go into the bosque daily
and you sit peacefully and count the birds, then anything we do is too
much.
“So somewhere in between is the right thing, and that’s what we’re
trying to do, trying to figure out with consensus what is the right
thing to do.
“We’re not going to make everybody happy. Somebody is going to be mad no matter what we do.”
Yasmeen Najmi, the Conservancy District biologist, also addressed the
question. “I share some of your concerns about fuel reduction efforts
in general. Obviously some of the decisions that were made were based
more on public safety and political aspects rather than biological
aspects.”
On the other hand, she said, an ongoing research project is looking at
the adverse impacts to wildlife from such programs. “We’re starting to
get some preliminary results, but not all of the treatments being
studied are done.”
Findley also addressed Radford’s question. “I think there is a partial
answer. This brochure that you [Hummel] handed out has a photograph on
the front of a ‘newly restored’ area of the bosque. I don’t know where
it is, but if that was done here, it would be too much. It would not be
a nature preserve in any meaningful sense.”
In the aftermath of the public outcry this spring over the excessive
clearing that has taken place, Village Councillor Sayre Gerhart
suggested that a wildlife habitat plan be developed for the preserve.
Findley agreed to work on such a plan.
The beginning of such a plan was produced by then-Chairman of the
Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission Astrid Brown, a biologist, in 1991.
She suggested that “Corrales police department should keep logs of
their patrolling activities of the bosque. These should be reviewed by
the CBAC [Bosque Advisory Commission] every six months. Police should
patrol high-use areas of the bosque, such as Cabezon access, Romero
Road access and East Meadowlark access evenings and weekends.
“A citizen’s bosque preserve auxiliary group should be formed which
would patrol the bosque during daylight hours and report violations of
the [bosque] ordinance to the police.”
Addressing the issue of fire control, Brown wrote: “Fire poses the
greatest threat to the bosque, especially to stands of cottonwoods with
dense understory vegetation. A protocol should be developed for the
rapid location and efficient treatment of fire in the bosque.
“A member of the CBAC should be notified of the occurrence and the
location of a bosque fire, so that the burned area can be monitored by
volunteers for several days after the fire is extinguished. In addition
, the following actions should be considered:
“1. Increase number of entry points to the bosque. Currently there are
two access points for fire-fighting equipment (Cabezon and Romero).
“2. Placement of fire breaks in disturbed are as in the widest portion
of the bosque, where fire access from the levee road or river may be
difficult.
“3. Removal of deadfall in the more sensitive parts of the bosque, such as mature stands of cottonwoods.”
Over the years, police patrolling of the nature preserve has been
sporadic although it has usually increased during periods of high fire
danger. The idea of an auxiliary citizens’ patrol has also been
implemented and faded several times. Both have been judged effective
when they are active.
Regarding Brown’s recommendation for more access points for fire
fighting equipment, the Dixon bridge over the Riverside Drain has been
completed, and design work is under way for the Andrews Lane bridge.
However, her recommendations for fire breaks in disturbed areas only
and for limited clearing of dead-and-down wood have been substituted by
the Corps’ far more extensive clearing efforts. |
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