Enchanted partnerships: in New Mexico, a congressman's idea becomes a Forest Service program that inspires collaboration and protects local forests - Communities

American Forests, Spring, 2003 by Bryan Foster

The project is in its first phase, 69 acres; more will come when the Forest Service finishes its federally mandated Environmental Impact Statement. "It's really frustrating," West says. "We've set money aside for the EIS, but the EIS process is complex and lengthy, so we're only able to do a small amount considered a categorical exclusion."

Unfortunately, many of the Collaborative Forest Restoration Program projects that enjoy strong community support are delayed by the lengthy EIS study and public comment period.

West's spirits pick up as we drive up into the forest. As we walk around, I'm reminded of a landowner detailing how he plans to fix up the homeplace. West says he'll favor oak, spare any tree over 12 inches, leave groupings of trees, and keep intact trees along the drainages where wildlife travel.

All the work will be done with a chainsaw, a modified 4 x 4 off-road vehicle with balloon tires to reduce compaction, a loader like a giant arm that can reach out into the forest, and a bunk that the trees can be laid on without dragging them out like a regular skidder would. The cut logs will be taken to a storage shed near Silver City that is owned by the nonprofit Gila Woodnet.

"This may not be most efficient," West admits to me, "but Todd (Schulke) wants to make sure that demand and supply are separated so that the work that's being done in the forest is for the health of the forest and not for the profit of a company."

Some of the wood will then be sold to locals as rough dimensional lumber and firewood; some will be sold to Tierra Alta, a nonprofit that makes woodstove pellets; and some will be purchased by West for a small cabin business he's starting.

ANIMAL BEDDING

Outside of Ruidoso, Sherry and Glenn Barrow have turned an old county building into an animal bedding factory.

"We looked at over 300 products that might be produced economically from small-diameter wood," Sherry Barrow says. "This turned out to be the best." Thousands of tons of bedding are used at animal shows, racetracks, fairs, stables, kennels, zoos, pet stores, and dairies all across the country.

Sherry fills my left hand with the kind of animal bedding most commonly used in the West--rough and dusty shavings that come from mill scraps and often cause respiratory problems among animals and their keepers. Into my right she pours the clean bedding she's producing--blonde, dustless chips that look like dried pieces of apple.

"There are only a few other producers of clean animal bedding," she says, "and those are in the Midwest and Southeast, where they use aspen or pine pulp." Barrow will sell 9 cubic feet of bedding, compressed into 3 cubic feet bags, at a competitive rate of S5.50.

The factory starts with a big chipper, a toothy maw that grinds trees up to 12 inches in diameter into chips. The chips then go through driers and a series of shaking sieves to remove dust. Jimmy Foster, a former rancher with hands as strong and versatile as metal tools, has put the machinery together and will keep it running.