Kim Wright has spent hundreds of hours on the phone with neighbors.
Wright, a retired nurse, volunteers with the Cimarron Watershed Alliance, a nonprofit focused on watershed and forest health on the eastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The 2022 Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire made the fears of a catastrophic fire feel all the more real. So when she learned a year ago that the federal government was awarding more than $8 million to the alliance to help nine northern New Mexico communities better defend themselves against wildfire, she said, 鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 believe it. We were so excited.鈥�
Creating defensible space around a house and structures, thinning nearby forests, and hauling away wood can cost up to $4,000, Wright said, 鈥淪o this is a huge opportunity for everybody in these communities.鈥�
But people needed to know about the opportunity. She found and reserved places for three community meetings that later drew between 40 and 90 attendees each. She and her husband made coffee and served snacks. She individually followed up with attendees who owned property in the area and mailed hundreds of hand-addressed envelopes. She responded to every email she received.
A year later, those communities are still awaiting signs of on-the-ground wildfire preparedness as fire season fast approaches.
The money awarded to the Cimarron Watershed Alliance was part of nearly $11.5 million in federal funding local governments and nonprofits secured for wildfire preparedness in New Mexico, including work to protect homes and plan for wildfires, through the newly established program.
The Forest Service announced the awards a year ago, and some nonprofits began staffing up, planning to get to work last summer. But a mismatch in federal and state paperwork stalled distribution of that money for months. The bigger lesson speaks to problems arising throughout the country with some of the Biden administration鈥檚 landmark legislation: Status quo state and federal systems are struggling to distribute money available in this era of once-in-a-lifetime funding opportunities.
Wildfire season has worsened over the past decade and a half, especially in the West. New Mexico鈥檚 two largest wildfires in the state鈥檚 history happened in 2022, burning more than 600,000 acres and resulting in hundreds of lost homes. The next three largest were recorded in the early 2010s.
Historic forest management practices, wildfire suppression, and climate change have made wildland fires increasingly extreme over recent decades. These days, wildfire season sprawls throughout the year, and fires are putting a growing number of homes, people, landscapes and watersheds at risk.
鈥淭he wildfire crisis in the United States is urgent, severe, and far reaching鈥� begins a presented to Congress last September by a newly created 50-member Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. The commission calling for more collaborative and proactive approaches to respond to this crisis 鈥� like those prioritized in the Community Wildfire Defense Grants program.
In 2021, Congress appropriated $1 billion over five years in the massive Bipartisan Infrastructure Act for the program.
鈥淯ltimately, the investments will help communities, especially those that need resources, to achieve fire mitigation efforts that could save property and infrastructure but, more importantly, lives,鈥� a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Forest Service Southwest Region wrote in an email.
Communities can apply for up to $10 million to implement projects. That level of funding allows for an unparalleled increase in pace and scale. A low and waivable cost share also makes this money available to underserved and lower-income communities. The nearly $11.5 million New Mexico was awarded was a share of nearly $200 million distributed during the program鈥檚 first year.
The program is 鈥済ame-changing,鈥� said Laura McCarthy, New Mexico鈥檚 state forester, who has worked on wildfire policy for two decades. 鈥淚t is based on a lot of science and it鈥檚 also bringing a scale of resources that we鈥檝e never seen before in this arena.鈥�
As a new program, it took time to ramp up capacity both at the federal and state level, say staff at the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico鈥檚 Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The Forest Service said it made the funds available to the state of New Mexico in August. But it was November before New Mexico鈥檚 awardees began receiving paperwork to access that money, and more months before dollars started flowing.
The program鈥檚 setup was problematic from the start: State lawmakers had to pass an exemption to the state鈥檚 procurement code during last year鈥檚 legislative session just to allow the state to funnel money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, to grantees. But the state also requires certain information, terms and conditions in contracts, and those details weren鈥檛 mirrored in the federal grant application documents.
鈥淚t鈥檚 taken us a while,鈥� McCarthy said. New Mexico 鈥渙pted in鈥� to help administer the program, but states could also choose to 鈥渙pt out鈥� and allow the federal agency to work directly with grant recipients. 鈥淢aybe we would opt out,鈥� she added, 鈥渘ow that we know what it really means.鈥�
The delays have reached beyond the nine northern New Mexico communities Wright worked to inform.
The nonprofit Forest Stewards Guild, which promotes responsible forestry around the nation, won a $1.3 million grant to assess wildfire hazards around homes, reduce nearby fuels likely to spread sparks into structures, and increase outreach around Santa Fe, where it is headquartered. The nonprofit hired a new staff member last summer, but that person was put on other tasks while waiting for the grant funding to materialize. They finally started on their project in January, said Eytan Krasilovsky, deputy director of the Forest Stewards Guild, 鈥淏ut it means we missed a season of doing something.鈥�
鈥淧eople are talking about 鈥榯he crisis,鈥� and this doesn鈥檛 feel like they鈥檙e treating it like a crisis,鈥� he added.
Colorado, unlike New Mexico, chose to let the federal government administer the program. A Colorado county where the Guild also collaborates on projects had grant money flowing and work underway last summer.
鈥淭he Forest Service is getting tons of funding, but they can鈥檛 move it quickly and efficiently, or their state partners can鈥檛 move it quickly or efficiently,鈥� Krasilovsky said, and given the urgency, 鈥淭hese things just have to be better.鈥�
In Sandoval County, as firefighters evacuated a rural community and popular campgrounds and recreational areas during the 2022 Cerro Pelado Wildfire, county staff saw yet another reminder that its Community Wildfire Protection Plan needed updating. That document guides efforts to prevent and respond to wildfires.
鈥淚t was just another indicator that we really had to update this plan and identify, what are the hazards, where are our evacuation zones, what are we needing to do, first of all, to help prevent a fire,鈥� said Eric Masterson, Sandoval County fire chief.
Sandoval County received a Community Wildfire Defense Grant to update the plan, but delayed funding means it won鈥檛 be in place before this wildfire season. It also narrows the window for completing a robust, community input-driven plan before the coming rounds of the Community Wildfire Defense Grant applications. Last fall, 12 more New Mexico communities applied for grants to update such plans.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fine line 鈥� we want to make sure we鈥檝e done it well, and don鈥檛 miss something, and we want to have it done so that when other opportunities come up 鈥� things are in place for people to move forward,鈥� Masterson said.
The largest of New Mexico鈥檚 grants from 2023鈥攖wo grants totaling $9.8 million鈥攚ent to the Cimarron Watershed Alliance, the organization for which Wright volunteers. That money will be spent creating defensible space around hundreds of homes and widening a fuel break to give firefighters a foothold for slowing wildfire. The Cimarron Watershed covers 670,000 acres of forest and grasslands in Colfax County, and about a quarter of the county has been blackened by severe wildfire, said Rick Smith, the allliance鈥檚 executive director and a volunteer firefighter. The wildfire defense grant will be spent trying to protect what鈥檚 left.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a race against time,鈥� he said.
After news of the grant came last year, Smith hired three people, bringing the organization鈥檚 total to four employees. Staff started planning projects and walking properties with landowners, racking up $25,000 in time and mileage.
鈥淲e鈥檙e having to implement all of this through the bootstrap kind of method,鈥� Smith said, 鈥渟o the financials are definitely a strain on us.鈥�
Both grant contracts finally arrived in November after months of work by alliance staff, but the state says it can鈥檛 reimburse those costs because they are 鈥減re-award costs.鈥�
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 have to staff up. That was their decision,鈥� McCarthy said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating鈥攂ut it doesn鈥檛 help them or us if we give them the money illegally.鈥�
However, the Forest Service public information office said reimbursing pre-award expenses for salaries and travel is allowed and the award paperwork says as much.
As for Wright, she鈥檚 still on the phone. Now, she鈥檚 fielding questions about when, exactly, work people were so excited to sign up for will commence.
鈥淭hey call me and say, 鈥楬ave you heard anything?鈥欌�� Wright said. 鈥淚 always say, 鈥楥all me anytime. And try not to get frustrated. These things aren鈥檛 quick.鈥欌��
