20 Communities Cost-share Program

To date, 55 properties have been treated for a total of 100 acres. Landowners wanting to apply for the 20 Communities Cost-share Program must contact the local fire department or New Mexico State Forestry (NMSF) office to schedule an assessment of the property. An Assessment Team inspects the property and sits down with the homeowner to review the findings. If major thinning is required the landowner has an option to apply for the 20 Communities Cost-share Program. The Grant Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is the administrator for the program. The 20 Communities Cost-share Program will reimburse 70% of the cost of creating defensible space (within 30-100 feet from the home), thinning (within 100 feet to 2 acres surrounding the house), and create a fuelbreak along property boundaries or roads. The assessment team will complete a Practice Plan that identifies what degree of thinning needs to take place. The landowner can hire a contractor or complete the work him or herself. The homeowner is paid $15.39 an hour in-kind that is calculated into the 30% cost-share. The work must pass an inspection before a request for reimbursement can be submitted to the SWCD.

The reimbursement rates for the 20 Communities Cost-share Program depend on whether the defensible space/thinning is categorized as light, medium or heavy. For defensible space a homeowner can be reimbursed for 70% of $600/acre for light, $1150/acre for medium and $1700/acre for heavy thinning. Defensible space creates a zone that is heavily thinned adjacent to the home. The reimbursement rate for thinning/fuelbreaks is $550/acre for light, $950/acre for medium and $1150/acre for heavy thinning. Thinning blends more with the surrounding forest than defensible space. Basal area is used to determine the category of the property. Most properties in the Silver City area have been in the heavy category.

Gila WoodNet and Santa Clara Woodworks

Gila WoodNet was established by Gordon West, a local resident and woodworker, to research options for forest restoration by-products. Gila WoodNet is dedicated to developing new logging and processing equipment and creating value added wood products derived from small diameter timber. West wants to manufacture products out of forest restoration byproducts that currently have little market value. One product that Gila WoodNet is experimenting with is ceramicrete—a chemically bonded phosphate ceramic mixed with residual wood waste. Ceramicrete is a solid brick that can work like wood and be drilled, nailed or easily sawed. The product is made from clean or dirty woody residue and also has carbon sequestration potential.

West also owns and operates Santa Clara Woodworks, which builds furniture and log buildings. Santa Clara Woodworks utilizes locally harvested small diameter timber and byproducts from forest restoration projects. From small diameter ponderosa pine, Santa Clara Woodworks built over 250 mission-style pieces of furniture for the Nature Conservancy's Bear Mountain Lodge.

The Pinos Altos Wildland Urban Interface Project

Grant County received a 2002 Collaborative Forest Restoration Program grant in the amount of $360,000 to thin small diameter trees on BLM land around Pinos Altos. The project will provide job training and employment opportunities to the local community. Local businesses that utilize small diameter timber and forest byproducts will be given the opportunity to market and use the timber from the project.