GRANTS - The Wood Industry Network held a meeting Tuesday in the woods of Cibola National Forest in the Zuni Mountains, where restorative forest treatment is underway.

The treatment is part of a Collaborative Forest Restoration Program, which was launched by the U.S. Forest Service to restore forestlands, promote growth of wood industries and involve young people in forest health.

“The work we're doing will restore fire damaged forests, reduce future fire risk, protect adjacent communities and engage stakeholders, such as citizens, environmental groups, industry, communities and government agencies,” according to Naomi Engelman of the Forest Guild, a nonprofit group dedicated to forest health. The WIN group is an offshoot of the Forest Guild.

The area visited is a 1,200-acre parcel being restored to savannah and upland meadow conditions.

Engelman explained that Congress passed a law in 2001 geared to promote forest industries, which had lagged due to the listing of the Spotted Owl as an endangered species.

“The Mount Taylor Ranger District already had water shed mapping and an analysis of the forest so it was selected for the CFRP program by the federal government,” she said. “The Forest Guild then obtained a three year grant to implement the program.”

The grant requires a match, which can be provided in the forms of the time and mileage of participants and youth education.

The outing made its first stop at a monitoring site, where students measured and recorded plant activity in a treated area.

“The students working here are from Grants High School and the nearby Cottonwood Gulch Camp,” said Eytan Krasilovsky of the Forest Guild. “This area of land was cleared for grazing, but it's never been reseeded or burned. We're trying to restore the 'under story' grasses and flowering plants to reduce erosion.”

Participants in the outing, which included Forest Service personnel, representatives from the New Mexico State Forestry Department, and personnel from local emergency agencies and soil conservation offices, were allowed to ask questions of the student workers.

The young people came from as far afield as New York City and Washington, D.C., but also from New Mexico.

To accomplish their work, the students use a grid system, creating small square plots, which they then study for the presence of various plants. After counting the number of various species, they enter the information in books. This information helps the program determine if the treated area is regenerating desirable plant life.

The trash from the thinning of the forest is called “slash” and serves as wildlife snags for various species, according to Krasilovsky.

The tour left the monitoring site and gathered for lunch under the trees, where an abbreviated WIN meeting was held. Contract opportunities from the Lava Soil and Water Conservation District, the New Mexico State Lands Office and New Mexico State Forestry were discussed.

The effect of the state Traditional Cultural Properties designation of parts of Mount Taylor as protected properties was examined. The consensus was that the designation would have little effect on forestry programs.

A Forest Service spokesman stated that although the mountain qualifies for cultural protection under federal guidelines, there are no current plans to make the nomination.

Following the meeting, the group hiked to an area where workers from Ramah Navajo Chapter were cutting down the narrow diameter trees, whose removal is crucial to the restoration plan.

By Diane Fowler

Beacon staff writer