(Note from RT: This is written about NM, but I am sure it is the same for all BLM states.)

(Note: One must consider that such 'volunteer groups' may well be financed and staffed by such as The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, and others. How much of this activity will be for road and trail repair, when the agenda is to remove roads and rewild?)

April 25, 2003

By Eric Billingsley

NMBW Staff

New Mexico Business Weekly

116 Central Ave. SW Suite 202

Albuquerque, NM 87102

505-768-7008

Fax 505-768-0890, attention editor.

ebillingsley@bizjournals.com  or 505-348-8302

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Small businesses and rural communities in New Mexico could soon have the opportunity to secure long-term land management contracts with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

As a part of the Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed by Congress, the BLM can now use stewardship contracting to accomplish forest and rangeland restoration.

Instead of paying a company with cash to perform land management work, stewardship contracting allows the agency to exchange BLM services and resources for restoration work.

The BLM hopes to use the program to repair roads and trails on federal lands, increase soil productivity, perform prescribed burns, remove vegetation, perform watershed restoration, and re-establish native plant species, among other initiatives.

"We see this as an opportunity to work with many groups of people in New Mexico on federal land management, and to accomplish more with the BLM's money," says Ron Dunton, newly hired special assistant to the state BLM director, and point person for the stewardship contracting program.

According to BLM officials, shrinking budgets and cutbacks in personnel over the years have forced the agency to get creative in how it funds forest maintenance. Stewardship contracting, it says, gives the agency more ability to leverage all of its resources to accomplish land management objectives, versus being tied to budgetary constraints.

The BLM can now work through exchange agreements with businesses, communities or non-profit organizations for up to 10 years. For example, the agency might reduce a rancher's grazing fees in exchange for grassland restoration. Or, a small company could perform forest thinning in exchange for being able to keep and sell the trees removed from the land.

The BLM manages approximately 13 million acres of surface land in New Mexico.

Dunton says the agency hopes to work with small businesses, conservation organizations, non-profits and rural communities to accomplish land stewardship initiatives. The BLM also plans to leverage some of its annual budget to attract grants for restoration work in New Mexico.

In 2003, the BLM hopes to thin piñon trees that have been killed by beetle infestations in northern New Mexico; perform maintenance on BLM roads in the state; and explore what type of leeway the law gives the BLM to negotiate contracts with oil producers in the San Juan Basin.

Dunton says all stewardship contracts are still subject to federal environmental regulations and procedures.

"I think stewardship contracting is a great opportunity for diversifying the economic base," says Harry Montoya, CEO of Hands Across Cultures, a non-profit organization in Española that helps young people with substance abuse problems.

Montoya is negotiating with the BLM to allow youths in his program to do forest thinning. He says the wood harvested from the land would be used to make latillas, vigas, and traditional arts and crafts such as santos and retablos for resale. "This could allow young adults to enter into entrepreneurial endeavors. It's an environmental and social win-win," says Montoya.

Laura McCarthy, forest protection program director for Santa Fe-based Forest Trust, says "I think this is a good thing for communities and some of the problems small rural businesses face could be solved."

For example, a forest products company in Cuba, New Mexico has not been able to maintain a steady supply of work and employees year-round. She says landing a 10-year BLM stewardship contract would give the company the stability it needs to succeed.

However, she says the environmental community is leery, because there are no assurances in the federal legislation that would prevent large trees from being cut from federal lands in the name of forest thinning. She says there is concern the program could create an incentive for people to work on federal lands that may, in fact, be healthy, and there might not be adequate oversight by the BLM.

Dunton and other BLM officials are soliciting interest in the program across the state.

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