TIERRA MONTE, NM, July 31 (Reuters) – After the U.S. government started the largest wildfire in New Mexico history in April, it is asking victims to share recovery costs on private land , jeopardizing relief efforts, according to residents and state officials.
The fire was caused by US Forest Service (USFS) prescribed fires to reduce wildfire risk. The fires spiraled out of control after a series of missteps, torching 432 residences and more than 530 square miles (1,373 sq km) of mostly privately owned forests and grasslands, much of it owned by members of centuries-old Indo-Hispanic pastoralist communities.
“Today I’m announcing that the federal government is covering 100 percent of the cost,” President Joe Biden said during a visit to New Mexico in June. Biden announced a disaster declaration covering debris removal and emergency protective measures.
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But federal cost-sharing statutes for other federal relief programs are limiting Biden’s authority and exposing holes in the government’s safety net meant to help survivors and restore landscapes.
It’s a system that more Americans will turn to as extreme fires and floods become the norm in climate change.
“I DID NOT CAUSE THIS DAMN FIRE”
Biden’s move was intended to top FEMA relief and a congressional bill that could be passed in the fall to provide 100 percent federal compensation for losses from the so-called wildfire. Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon.
Daniel Encinias was among the survivors who met Biden and was told by USDA officials that he would get one-time support at little or no cost.
He, his wife Lori, three teenage sons, four dogs and eight cats live in a camper trailer next to the ashes of their home in Tierra Monte, 35 miles northeast of Santa Fe.
Encinias applied to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to fix his well, but was told to share 25% of the costs based on a federal statute that could not resign, as it did not fall under Biden’s statement.
Encinias said NRCS officials told him his application would be considered in September and that reclamation work would begin six to 12 months later if accepted.
So, like many fire survivors in this low-income area who don’t have insurance, the retired rancher and electrician did the work himself.
“Why the hell am I going to pay anything when I didn’t cause this damn fire?” said Encinias, 55, as he fed his cattle hay he was forced to buy after his baler was set on fire.
An official at the local NRCS office in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where Encinias applied for support, referred questions to the national office. Officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
UNCERTAIN CALENDAR FOR RECOVERY RELIEF
Many families affected by fires cannot afford to share at least 25 percent of the costs of the USDA’s Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP), which provides relief such as stabilization of burned areas prone to flash flooding, according to Laura McCarthy, the state forester of New Mexico. Residents sometimes own large tracts of land handed down from 19th-century Spanish-Mexican grants while working blue-collar jobs.
“They’re really fighting,” McCarthy said.
That has led locals, state officials and federal agencies to count on the abandonment of cost-sharing and passage of the bill in Congress.
Democratic Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez sponsored the legislation that passed the House and will likely need help from Republicans in the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment
Leger Fernandez is in talks with the USDA and the White House to reduce cost shares and helped negotiate a waiver with the NRCS for flood mitigation work on private land.
“The federal government burns your house down, so they’re responsible, in my opinion, for paying 100 percent of the cost of rebuilding,” Leger Fernandez said.
Support cannot reach the 45 mile long disaster zone fast enough.
The fire burned about 170 acres (68.8 hectares) of rancher Kenny Zamora’s forest. Their pastures in El Turquillo are covered in up to 2 feet of mud after monsoon rains triggered debris flows on hillsides that no longer absorb water. The torrents have twice brought down fences.
Zamora, a retired USDA Rural Development Agency employee, applied for USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) support to feed his livestock.
The FSA office in Las Vegas told him he was ineligible. USDA officials told him that the EFRP for the area has not yet been funded. He pays for the recovery work himself.
“If you don’t have insurance, you’re pretty much on your own,” said Zamora, 59, who like Encinias is considering joining a massive civil suit that may be filed against the USFS.
The FSA’s Las Vegas office referred questions to state executive director Jonas Moya, who did not respond to a request for comment. The FSA’s national office did not respond to requests for comment.
Climate change is making wildfires worse, as ecosystems no longer have natural protections like cooler nights to slow their spread. read more Destroyed landscapes are also less able to cope with other disasters, such as floods.
Two women and a man died on July 21 after flooding swept through the burn scar in northeast Las Vegas.
At Tierra Monte, ash flows sent boulders falling below Encinias’ trailer and drowned livestock.
FEMA has so far awarded $4.2 million to 1,164 fire survivors, for an average payment of $3,600. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday that FEMA granted her request to extend Biden’s declaration to residents who have suffered damage from flooding and debris flows in wildfire burn scars .
For now, the Encinias family is earning a maximum payment of $37,000 from FEMA for the loss of their 5-bedroom home. They also lost eight hectares of forest, agricultural machinery and cars.
“I hope that eventually something comes out where it helps people,” Encinias said.
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Reporting by Andrew Hay in Tierra Monte, New Mexico; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Donna Bryson and Josie Kao
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