Additional state funding has been secured for a project seeing the building of a multi-million center designed to replant trees throughout New Mexico.
Late last year it was announced that the New Mexico Reforestation Center will be established in the city of Mora, roughly 50 miles to the southeast of Taos.
The project will operate at the site of the long-time John T. Harrington Forestry Research Center just to the south of New Mexico State Road 518 and will see the construction of a series of greenhouses designed to nurture more than 1.2 million seedlings.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed off on a $10 million capital outlay earlier approved by state lawmakers to fund some of the initial construction work at the site.
With a long-range mission of studying and growing trees, the Reforestation Center also has a multi-phase building plan with construction taking place over a three-year period, ending in 2025.
According to information provided by the Reforestation Center, the current seedling production capacity in New Mexico is at around 300,000 seedlings a year, a number regarded as far below what the state needs, especially given that in the last two decades wildfires have decimated up to 5.4 million acres and hundreds of thousands of trees.
As planned, the Reforestation Center will produce up to 5 million seedlings annually for planting in burned-out areas of the state.
It is thought that it will ultimately cost as much as $99 million to complete the Reforestation Center, with around $43 million needed to for the final two phases of the project.
The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service earlier announced that it was committing $10 million to the project.
It has been noted that the forests of the state supply anywhere from 50% to 70% of all water used by municipalities and farms in New Mexico. In a statement issued late last year, Rachael Foe, reforestation coordinator for the state’s Forestry Division, remarked: “What reforestation really means is that in two or three decades our children will reap the benefits of decisions we made today.”
Continued Foe: “We are purposefully investing not just in the forests themselves, but in the water sources and wildlife habitat they provide.”
By Garry Boulard