Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Why acres burned are the wrong way to measure wildfire impacts
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022
The Bitterroot Hotshot crew works on the Cerro Pelado fire in New Mexico, May 2022. Photo by Dan Stucki, USFS ([link removed]) .

New Mexico is on its way to the worst wildfire season in state history, with nearly 800,000 acres burned so far. The largest fire in the state, the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, has burned more than 300,000 of those. But ecologists warn that focusing on the size of a wildfire misses the point.

“Acres burned really is a bad measure of impacts from a wildfire,” Matthew Hurteau, fire ecologist at the University of New Mexico, told the Santa Fe New Mexican ([link removed]) . “The thing we’re concerned with ecologically is how much of the fire footprint … burned at high severity.”

Hurteau added that centuries ago, low intensity wildfires burned areas significantly larger than 300,000 acres, but didn't burn the soil as badly, allowing for ecosystems to recover quickly.

In Oregon, new research is helping land managers identify how to lower the severity of wildfires across sagebrush ecosystems. A 10-year-study of mitigation and prevention methods found that thinning vegetation in the Great Basin was the most effective long-term method ([link removed]) for mitigating wildfire spread and severity. Using prescribed burns and herbicides to kill invasive plants only had short-term benefits.

This year's wildfires are also highlighting differences in how communities track air pollution from wildfires. Last month, a consumer-grade air quality monitor in Las Vegas, New Mexico recorded a daily average of fine particulate matter that was nine times the healthy limit ([link removed]) . It remained above the healthy limit for ten days. But that single low-cost sensor was the only one near the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire, and the town of Mora, which was hardest hit, had no sensors at all. New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján was one of six Western senators who encouraged appropriators to make sure the EPA focuses on community equity as it places new air quality monitors.


** Climate change and endangered species
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Just as climate change is forcing new approaches to wildfire, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing an update ([link removed]) to regulations under the Endangered Species Act to create new tools for helping species recover. The changes would allow species to be reintroduced outside of their historical ranges, as habitats shift because of climate change.

“The growing extinction crisis highlights the importance of the Endangered Species Act and efforts to conserve species before declines become irreversible,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “This effort to update proven conservation tools will help ensure species on the cusp of extinction can recover and thrive for generations to come.”
Quick hits


** Firefighters plead for pay raise promised last year as staffing shortage looms
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Head of U.S. fire administration: Take Red Flag Warnings seriously
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McClatchy ([link removed])


** Biden invokes security powers to boost solar, delay consequences for Chinese trade violations
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NBC News ([link removed]) | The Guardian ([link removed]) | CNN ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | Canary Media ([link removed]) | USA Today ([link removed]) | Roll Call ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | CBS News
([link removed])


** Appeals court upholds ban on fracking off California coast
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E&E News ([link removed]) | Phys.org ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed])


** Settlement ends fight over Utah coal exports to Japan through 2026
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** To protect against looting, Interior won't disclose location of Native American burial sites
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Santa Fe New Mexican ([link removed])


** BLM welcomes new state director for New Mexico
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Albuquerque Journal ([link removed])


** Using AI and satellite images to track threats to the Mojave Desert
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Wired ([link removed])
Quote of the day
”

This should be heeded the same as if we were issuing a hurricane warning. That is something that is not done. If you say a hurricane is coming, we watch it, right? We can see it and prepare.”
—U.S. Fire Administration head Lori Moore-Merrell, McClatchy ([link removed])
Picture this


** @USFWSNews ([link removed])
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“Recovering species & preventing their extinction will require innovative, proactive, science-based policies & conservation actions that address the growing impacts from climate change & invasive species before it is too late,” said Martha Williams,
@USFWS ([link removed]) Director.

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