Forest Service to Host Valle Vidal Forum
The Carson National Forest will
host an open house on March 31, 2005 in Santa Fe to discuss the 100,000
acre Valle Vidal Unit.
The forum will be the third in a series to solicit public input on how
the Valle Vidal unit should be managed. The National Forest is in the
process of updating its forest management place to include Valle Vidal,
which was omitted from the original Carson Forest Land and Resource
Management Plan adopted in 1986.
A popular snowmobiling and hiking destination located between Cimarron
and Costilla, El Paso Corporation has
requested to lease 40,000 acres for exploration and coal bed methane
gas drilling. Hundreds of people have attended past open houses held in
Taos and Ratón and more than 3,500 written comments have been
submitted.
The Santa Fe open house will be held on March 31, 2005 at the Sweeny
Center, 201 Marcy Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The doors open to the
public at 6:00 pm for sign up and to allow the public to dialogue with
Carson personnel prior to presentations, slated to begin at 7:00 pm. In
addition to openning presentations by the Forest Service, five or six
brief group presentations that represent NM voices will be part of the
open house. Group presentations will include the Valle Vidal Coalition,
Albuquerque Widlife Federation and other stakeholders.
A moderator will facilitate the presentations by the groups. Once the
groups have presented their statements for the Valle Vidal, the public
is once again welcomed to participate in an informal and open dialogue
with Carson personnel on issues or concerns relative to the Valle Vidal
and/or the Forest Plan amendment. Public comments on why they value the
Valle Vidal will be accepted during the open house but can also be
mailed to the Carson National Forest on the self addressed briefing
paper that will be provided during sign up. Comments can also be
electronically mailed to comments-southwestern-carson@fs.fed.us.
