The Encino Vista Project
The 200 square mile Encino Vista Landscape Restoration Project in the Jemez Mountains northwest of Los Alamos is larger than any project ever before implemented in Santa Fe National Forest, and it has never been mentioned in any of the Forest’s frequent news releases. There was not a notice placed in a newspaper announcing the project’s fall 2019 Scoping Document, comment period, or community meeting. The Forest Service is preparing an environmental assessment (EA) for the project. A preliminary EA has been prepared internally.
The description of the project in the Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA) for Santa Fe National Forest is:
To restore the frequent-fire forests by modifying the arrangement of forest stands, openings, and interspaces in order to improve the potential for stand regeneration and offset the risk of forest type loss due to natural success an [sic] wildfire. (p. 3)
In November 2019, the Scoping Document was uploaded to the Forest Service’s web page for the project, and a 30 day scoping comment period began. The scoping document states that the project is proposed because “the existing condition within the project area is not meeting desired conditions.” (p. 10) The proposal includes:
The Forest Service received 14 scoping comments about the project in the fall of 2019 and responded to them in the fall of 2021. As of the start of 2022, it has not published any of these comments online. The Forest Advocate obtained the comments via a Freedom of Information Act request and published them here.
The Forest Service’s Responsible Official wrote in response to the scoping comments:
After considering all comments, I have determined that no significant issues were presented in scoping that would result in unavoidable significant effects and the need to prepare an EIS. The public also did not present new issues that would result in the need to develop alternatives to analyze in detail in order to reduce adverse effects. (p. 2)
. . .
As the Responsible Official, I have determined that no significant issues were raised during scoping. (p. 52)