By Hannah Grover
New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department is anticipating the southwest portion of the state may have the highest risk of wildfires this year, according to State Forester Laura McCarthy.
McCarthy presented to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission this week as the state regulators look at ways they can best work to reduce wildfire risks related to electric utilities.
“We know right now that the nexus for this fire season is going to be in the southwest corner of the state, and we have pre-positioned extra resources down there already,” she said.
The southwest corner of the state is experiencing “extreme to exceptional drought,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Extreme drought is defined as having increased fire danger, reduced irrigation allotments, die-off of native vegetation and impacts on livestock that could lead to producers selling herds or needing to bring in supplemental feed even as crop yields are low.
In exceptional drought, bears begin to wander farther into urban areas and migratory birds change their patterns. Federal land managers are likely to close areas during exceptional drought. Oftentimes, surface water dries up and farmers have to rely more on private wells. Even large rivers run dry during exceptional droughts.
McCarthy said the Forestry Division has firefighting resources spread out across the state and also relies heavily on local governments to respond if a wildfire ignites.
“Our forests themselves are fire-adapted, and it’s not going to work to take fire out of the ecosystems entirely,” McCarthy said.
However, she said the state has strategies in place “to help us achieve a balance between putting out wildfires where we need to and keeping communities and our infrastructure safe and resilient at the same time.”
McCarthy said the state wildfire action plan was drafted in 2020 and the agency is going through a process of updating it.
One way that utilities can help reduce the likelihood that their infrastructure will cause a wildfire is by removing hazardous trees along their easements. This can be a challenge, though, when the right-of-way crosses through private property.
“Landowners will use intimidation if they don’t want trees cut on their land,” McCarthy said.