Thinning Project Begins; Goal is to Protect Homes and Health of Forest

By LEE ROSS Mountain View Telegraph

Workers with chainsaws have been unleashed on 82 acres of open space near Edgewood.

The $100,000-plus Poker Draw thinning project is in Section 29 and Section 32, which are controlled by an agricultural lease by Edgewood. The area is south of Old Route 66 and west of N.M. 344, near the Los Cerritos Estates subdivision.

"I just think it’ll be a great project in protecting homes," said Mark Meyers, a State Land Office forester involved in the project.

"It’s a very dense area," he said. "This will be a big benefit to the health of the community and the health of the forest area."

Access to the area for thinning is west of Los Cerritos Estates through private property, said Edgewood Parks and Recreation Director Roger Holden. He has obtained an agreement with the owner of that property.

The access skirts Los Cerritos Estates, which might have served as a much easier point of entry, according to Holden.

In fact, there has been speculation in the past that the town intended to use the subdivision to gain access to Section 32.

The long-standing intent of the town is to gain a permanent and easy access for recreation into the 680-acre Section 32, according to a news release from Holden.

In 2004, around the time the town acquired the lease for Section 32, residents of Los Cerritos Estates expressed concern that the town would condemn one of their roads and take it over as an access road.

Holden indicated that those concerns may explain why thinning crews are not going through the subdivision.

Because of the looming expiration of $50,000 in funding for the thinning project, access to Sections 29 and 32 had to be found relatively quickly.

The appropriation from the State Forestry Division expires Dec. 31, according to Holden. That money is currently being used to fund the first phase of the project, a 300-foot-wide fire break alongside the subdivision, where trees are being thinned to about 60 per acre.

Phase two of the project will thin the area adjoining the fire break in Sections 29 and 32. Trees there will be thinned to 120 trees per acre.

The second phase will be funded by another $50,000 from the State Land Office, according to Holden. He said that funding source expires May 31.

The project is expected to be completed by Feb. 28, depending on weather and access, Holden said.

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