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Bosque Clearing Resumes Near Via Oreada |
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Written by Jeff Radford
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Tuesday, 07 April 2009 |
A final 30 acres of woodland in the Corrales Bosque Nature Preserve is
being cleared of downed wood and non-native vegetation east of
Via Oreada in the last area targeted for “fuel wood reduction.”
Work was scheduled to begin around February 18 and continue for about
four weeks, according to Ondrea Hummel, ecologist for the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers which has funded ongoing regional wildfire
prevention efforts.
“As far as I know, this is the last clearing we will do in Corrales and
the last project in this program in Corrales other than constructing
the bridge at Andrews Lane,” Hummel said February 12.
As with the bridge at the east end of Dixon Road three years ago, the
proposed bridge over the Corrales Riverside Drain (“Clear Ditch”) at
the end of Andrews Lane is meant to make it easier for fire fighting
equipment to be rushed to bosque fires or other emergencies.
Hummel said construction of the second bridge would not begin until fall 2009 at the earliest.
Wildlife advocates in Corrales had raised concerns about clearing this
last 30 acres of bosque thicket at the south end of the preserve since
critters may have fled to this area as a last refuge when other dense
habitat was destroyed by clearing at the northern and middle sections
of the bosque in recent years.
Hummel said she did not expect that to be a problem. The thinning had
been phased over three or four years, she said, which gives wildlife
time to adjust. Besides, she added, plenty of undisturbed habitat
exists between the Via Oreada site and those farther north, as well as
areas to the east and west of the new area of clearing.
She advised visitors to the bosque to avoid the Via Oreada site where
crews will be cutting and chipping wood over the next three to four
weeks. “The area will be mostly east of the trail, so it shouldn’t
affect bosque visitors too much, al though there will be large
equipment moving around.”
She advised people to stay clear of the machinery which “can throw chips up to 300 feet” as trees are being chewed up.
Other large areas of the preserve have been cleared at the north end
and in the vicinity of Dixon Road. Hummel said more re-plantings
have been accomplished in those areas in recent months as well as
re-application of herbicides to prevent re-growth of unwanted trees and
shrubs.
Hummel met with members of the Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission
(CBAC) and Village officials February 9 at the Via Oreada clearing site
to preview the work that would begin in about a week. She indicated the
trees, native shrubs and desired stands of Russian olive trees that
have been flagged for retention.
She said she had searched for animal burrows that should be avoided as the clearing work continues.
When advisory commission members toured the area with Corps officials
last summer, it seemed agreed that this area would be the last clearing
project here under the auspices of the Corps’ Bosque Wildfire
Prevention initiative.
The Corps’ Ondrea Hummel submitted a draft plan for the Via Oreada clearing project to the CBAC late last year.
Public outcry over the extent of clearing in other parts of the bosque
led to the Corps’ stop-order last winter as work was being finished in
the vicinity of Dixon Road.
The clearing of dead wood and non-native plant species, such as Russian
olive and salt cedar, is part of an ongoing U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers project to reduce the threat of wildfires along the Rio
Grande.
More than 130 acres of Corrales’ preserve have already been cleared,
mostly at the south and north ends. In the Dixon Road area, the Corps’
contractors leveled virtually all vegetation in a swath for a road to
facilitate removal of rows of jetty-jacks (the steel “jacks” linked
with wire installed decades ago to prevent debris in river torrents
from tearing and eroding the levee).
That component of the Corps’ Corrales project came to a halt in
February 2008 when irate villagers protested the destruction. Several
villagers spoke before the CBAC that month, insisting that so much of
the preserve has been cleared that it can no longer function as a
wildlife refuge.
At a subsequent commission meeting, the Corps’ Fritz Blake offered to
halt the program if that is what Village officials desired. Instead,
the Corps was asked to resume its work there, and later, to proceed
with what may be the final clearing site east of Via Oreada. |
