Will New Mexico children's tears, watching TV to see the Capitol's Christmas trees, be freezing to their faces, due to the lack of wood to warm their families' homes?

Or is there a potential for common sense to prevail?

[Editor's Note: This is a compilation of comments from several people incensed by the absurdity of theU.S. District  Court of Arizona's decision to ban activities in the national forests of New Mexico and one in Arizona. These absurdities and ironies are not necessarily in order of importance or priority.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

Background on this article:

U.S. District Court in Tucson, Arizona Judge Raner Collins recently issued a ruling in a 2013 case by WildEarth Guardians that the Forest Service had failed to properly monitor the populations of the endangered Mexican spotted owl. A preliminary injunction had ruled all forests in New Mexico and Arizona must ban activities. A later ruling released all Arizona forests, because they had complied. with the exception of the Tonto National Forest, which had not monitored the populations. According to Howard Hutchinson of the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District, WildEarth Guardians had pushed for all area forests to be shut down.

On Thursday, the U.S. Forest Service announced it has suspended in the five national forests in New Mexico—Cibola, Gila, Lincoln, Carson, and Santa Fe—as well as in the Tonto in Arizona, everything from the cutting of fuelwood to thinning projects to prescribed burns, timber sales and more importantly to many residents of rural areas in New Mexico and Arizona the sale of firewood cutting permits.

Absurd Irony No. 1:
New Mexico was chosen to provide from its national forests the annual Christmas tree for the Capitol and the White House and 70 additional trees for the House, the Senate and other federal departments. But this ban curtails that unless policy changes quickly.

Ironic Absurdity No. 2:
The governor of New Mexico Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham was so proud of having her state chosen to provide the trees that she created an essay contest and invited all fourth-graders across the state to write essays on why it is important to have the Christmas trees for the U.S. Capitol chosen from the state of New Mexico.

Potential Tragic Absurdity No. 3:
A ban on the sale of firewood cutting permits by the Forest Service, as winter comes on, could have the potential for tragedy. Rural residents often use fuelwood to heat their homes, and some even to cook their food. October is often the month for gathering their fuel for the winter, but this stops that process.

In addition, many older or ill residents, who are unable to cut their own wood, rely on people supplementing their incomes or even earning their living from cutting and selling firewood. These wood cutters are banned from buying permits so cannot cut wood to sell.

Continuing Absurdity No. 4:
Since the 1970s, environmental groups have tried to stop and, in many cases, succeeded in stopping logging in the national forests.

A. As a result of this ban, mom-and-pop logging entities that have been in business for years or who have recently decided to invest in small-scale logging, will not only likely go bankrupt, but the jobs created by the businesses will be lost, according to Catron County Commissioner Van "Bucky" Allred. The loss to the economies of those areas, because they are generally rural, can be devastating. He cited the loss of 14 in one operation and 25-30 in another logging business.
B. As a result of environmental lawsuits to ban logging, too many trees have crowded into the forests, and when a spark, whether natural or human, starts a wildfire, it often turns into catastrophic wildfires that not only destroy habitat for the creatures that the environmental groups allegedly support, but also often escape the forests and damage homes and kill people.

Additional Absurdity No. 5:
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture has sent out a dictate that 4 billion board feet of wood needs to be cut from the national forests.

Therefore, the judiciary and the Forest Service are in direct conflict of this agency dictate.

According to Hutchinson billions of board feet of timber a year used to come out of the national forests. In 2018, the latest data available, only 300 million board feet were harvested.

Haydn Forward of Catron County said the Forest Service ban had "handcuffed the state's effort to meet the dictate."

Hutchinson noted that until the 1970s the Forest Service was the only agency operating in the black because of logging in the forests. "The agency has to pay people to monitor prescribed burns [because of overcrowded forests], but thinning produces revenue from the timber cut to prevent wildifres."

To a question about why the forest wasn't monitoring the spotted owl populations, the opinion was that the environmentalists' activities and lawsuits have placed so many additional burdens on the Forest Service that they don't have the staff to fulfill all the things they may be "required" to do.

Grant County rancher and Commissioner Billy Billings said he understands that WildEarth Guardians has begun to walk back the decision, as being too harsh.

Irony No. 6:
Native American tribes are unhappy with the ban because the ceremonial season that requires wood is upon them, and they will not be able to acquire the wood.

Final Irony No. 7:
The New Mexico Congressional delegation, U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján, Deb Haaland and Xochitl, Torres Small, all Democrats, most of whom are in support of anything coming from the rabid environmental groups, have panicked and are sending out calls to the Forest Service to "act swiftly to allow New Mexicans to resume use of National Forests."

Maybe the Grinch won't succeed in stealing the New Mexico Christmas trees or stealing a prize of a trip to the U.S. Capitol from a deserving fourth-grader.

Might common sense actually prevail?