20 Communities Cost-share Program

The 20 Communities Cost-share Program is funded with National Fire Plan monies that are passed through the state to communities throughout New Mexico. Red River received $480,400 from the 2001 and 2002 round of grants. The fiscal administrator for the grant program is the town of Red River who pays the initial cost for thinning then bills the state.

Red River pays the 30% cost-share

Through this program homeowners can be reimbursed for up to 70% of the cost to reduce hazardous fuels on their property. Normally, the property owner is responsible for the remaining 30% in cash or in-kind payment. However, the Red River approach is to have the town pay the 30% cost-share portion. In-kind combinations from the town in the form of labor and salary are used for the match. Since Red River pays the match, the program is essentially free and opens the door for the town to make continuing progress in addressing the wildfire risk.

The residents of Red River support this expense because they realize a fire anywhere in the area can have a devastating effect on the community. After the Hondo fire the impact on Red River was long lasting. Many people who regularly vacationed in Red River saw the Hondo fire on national news and thought the town had burned. The community felt a significant economic impact for a year after the fire. The impact slowly declined over a two year period once people learned Red River was unaffected by the Hondo fire.

The 20 Communities Cost-share Program is advertised at public meetings and the local newspaper, but is most successfully promoted by word of mouth. If a property owner wishes to participate in the grant program they begin by signing up at the Red River Town Hall. Deke Willis is the Red River Assistant Fire Chief and he generates the documentation to begin the process. A contractor, Southwestern Environmental Consultants (SEV), develops a management plan and does the original assessment of the property. SEV is located in Arizona but has an office and one employee in Taos. SEV is paid $205 an acre to develop a management plan, mark it on the ground and be available to explain the details to the property owner. The management plan also documents the property owners' desires and needs. The town will either hire a contractor or complete the work themselves through Fire Department employees. The homeowner has the option to complete the work themself at a reimbursement rate of $15.39 per hour. When the thinning is completed on a property the work is inspected by Willis using the management plan. After the initial inspection, New Mexico State Forestry (NMSF) Cimarron District conducts the final inspection. They review the work against the management plan and the guidelines of the grant and approve or disapprove payment. Red River pays the contractor or homeowner who completes the work, and is then reimbursed by NMSF.

The maximum reimbursement for thinning in the Red River project area is $600 for "light" work, to $1,700 for "heavy" work. Defensible space is another rate. The maximum reimbursement is $2,050 for "heavy" and $650 for "light" work. Defensible space creates a zone that is heavily thinned adjacent to the home. It involves a total clean up, which means all the slash is physically picked up, piled, burned, chipped or removed. Thinning has a lesser impact and balances more with the surrounding forest. The goal is to reduce the ability of the forest to sustain a crownfire. A majority of work in the Red River project area is considered heavy.

Not everyone wants to participate in the 20 Communities Cost-share Program, even when the cost is minimal. The Red River Fire Department accommodates these people in any way possible. One program is to offer a homeowner one-on-one assistance to determine their fire risk. The fire department relies on FIREWISE literature and a guide distributed by NMSF entitled "Living With Fire". Although the one-on-one help is not requested often, there have been good results from the homeowners who have taken this option. In about twelve cases homeowners wanted to do the work themselves. They didn't want anyone to tell them how to thin or do the thinning for them. The homeowners asked the town to remove the resulting debris and Red River gladly accommodated those requests.

Workforce issues

The first year of the 20 Communities Cost-share Program revealed an unexpected problem, the expense of debris removal. The first round of bids in 2001 had three bidders; all substantially higher than the recoverable maximum dollar amount set by NMSF. No one was awarded the contract. On the second round of bids slash management was removed or significantly reduced and there were two bids out of five within the maximum amount. The town hired both contractors, Canon Forestry and Randy Wilkinson. Wilkinson won a contact for $800 an acre for thinning only. A second contract was let for $1,200 an acre to Canon Forestry with limited slash management. In less than a week both contractors told the town they could not work for the agreed amount because they were losing money. Canon Forestry eventually withdrew. Wilkinson's rate was adjusted to $950 an acre with no slash management. The town now hires Fire Department employees/volunteers to fill in when there are no contractors to do the work.

Many feel biomass management is the greatest challenge for Red River. There are limited options to utilize the timber from thinning projects. Since fuels reduction projects are likely to continue for the next several years, utilization is a critical piece of the process. Firewood appears to be the primary utilization. When the area around the water treatment plant was thinned, people from Questa and other neighboring communities collected the wood as soon as it was cut. Timing and easy access provided the opportunity for people to gather and use the wood.

Firewood collection - Questa District has a demand for firewood and personal use timber. Many surrounding communities depend on the forest for their livelihood. Firewood is needed for cooking and heating homes. Personal use timber is used for wood products such as latillas (wood poles) and vigas (wood beams). The problem is the district has a minimum number of roads and three wilderness areas, which limit access to forested public lands.

Ron Thibedeau has been Questa District Ranger for fifteen years. He considers the ability to provide wood to the public a critical responsibility for his district. Thibedeau intends to schedule wildland urban interface (WUI) thinning projects to accommodate the public's need by opening an area to firewood and personal use collection prior to actual thinning. The Forest Service will mark trees and then allow people to collect firewood for a year or two. In the second or third year a contractor will thin at a lesser rate because many of the trees were taken out. A year later the piles will be burned. This process serves three purposes. First, the product reaches the people who need it. Second, the Forest Service saves money because the contractor thins fewer trees. Third, there are fewer debris piles to burn, which reduces the amount of smoke.

Woodchips from fire mitigation projects - Currently, all wood chips produced from thinning in the Upper Red River Valley are stored at the water treatment plant. The town is waiting to transport the chips to a new biomass fueled facility, Eastside Energy Corporation (EEC), out of Alamosa, Colorado. A 2002 Four Corners grant of $25,000 allowed Red River to purchase two storage containers for transporting woodchips to the EEC facility. EEC will pay $28 a green ton for wood chips. When the wood chips are transported to Colorado, the facility will take a sample of the woodchips, determine how much energy the chips can produce and calculate how many British thermal units (Btu) are in the load. The company was on hold from starting in operations in January 2003 because of an injunction initiated by neighboring property owners. The town is counting on the money from EEC to help offset the cost of the slash management.