Two pueblos and four individuals filed federal claims Thursday against the U.S. Forest Service for alleged damages due to the 2011 Las Conchas Fire and subsequent flooding. The claims all allege losses due to burned timber, erosion and flood damage, and habitat loss caused by the fire. The pueblos of Jemez and Cochiti place the value of damages at $15 million. The Cochiti Community Development Corp., the pueblo’s private enterprise arm, also claims $15 million in damages. The four individuals who filed claims and BJD Real Estate jointly own the 200-acre ranch near where a downed power line started the Las Conchas Fire, which ultimately burned 156,000 acres and destroyed 63 houses. The claims say on June 26, 2011, a 60-foot-tall “visibly diseased and dying aspen tree” on private property fell onto a power line. The electrical line, in an easement through the Santa Fe National Forest, ignited the Las Conchas Fire. The Swearingens said in earlier reports that the tree was on private property adjacent to their ranch. The claimants say the Santa Fe National Forest is at fault for only giving Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, which provides power to the area, a 20-foot-wide easement in a 1995 agreement. The claims allege there were already trees taller than 60 feet outside the easement when the agreement was signed. The trees were tall enough to fall on the lines. The claimants also say the Forest Service failed to treat and restore national forest watersheds upstream of their ranch after the fire, which will likely mean “periodic severe flood and erosion of claimant’s land” when it rains. They say the agency should have seeded and mulch
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 04:52:22 +0000