With wildfire risk up, House supports controlled burns

摘要

In a bid to reduce wildfire risk, New Mexico's House has advanced a bill making it easier for residents to burn brush and wood debris on their property. The bill, passed unanimously yesterday, removes severe liability provisions written into territorial law 20 years before New Mexico became a state and about 100 years before residents became aware of global warming. "Unfortunately, an 1882 territorial-era statute still on the books imposes strict liability and double damages for harm caused as a result of burning, thus discouraging the prescribed burning necessary to keep our rangelands and forests healthy," said Democratic state Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo. Decades of fire suppression aimed at protecting increasingly suburban populations across the Mountain West has interrupted natural fire cycles that clear undergrowth. That makes fires harder to control when they break out and more likely to incinerate large trees that would be merely be singed in a smaller blaze.