What everybody (homeowners, forestry types, loggers, environmentalists, etc.) can agree to is prescribed burn practices should be improved. At the time, the st

What everybody (homeowners, forestry types, loggers, environmentalists, etc.) can agree to is prescribed burn practices should be improved. At the time, the story told about the Cerro Grande fire was an inexperienced Forestry agent started a prescribed burn in the heart of the Spring wind season, leading to an inevitable wildfire that no local NM understanding local conditions would have approved. Probably the most expensive fire in NM history. The story told of the Hermits Peak fire is another outsider Forestry agent tried to squeeze a prescribed burn into a very narrow “safe” time slot to stay “on schedule”. To no one’s surprise, the fire didn’t care much about the narrow slot of safety and the largest wildfire in NM history resulted. I think giving a State powers to selective delay any specific prescribed fire within their borders (State, Fed, tribal) would have prevented both destructive NM fires. Local wisdom counts for something and at least the Feds don’t come off looking like idiots when things get out hand. Maybe the Feds and the State together would look like idiots, but not just those outsider Feds.