A restoration center is being developed at New Mexico Highlands University to help supply the millions of seedlings needed to replenish forests damaged by wildfires, according to KRQE.
The state Forestry Division, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico are also participating in the project, with help from a $1 million grant from the New Mexico Higher Education Department.
The state said it needs a long-term solution in order to avoid another massive fire like the 2011 Las Conchas fire, which "left thousands of scorched acres in the Jemez Mountains and led to mudslides and flash floods," KRQE said.
"We’re all going to be working together to figure out, how do we get the pace and scale of reforestation increased to meet that demand," Collin Haffey, Forest and Watershed health manager, said to KRQE.
The Forestry Division said the center will produce a maximum of 300,000 trees a year. Haffey said that is not enough to keep up with the need, and the partnership is intended to determine how to increase production.
"It’s critical for our healthy waters and our healthy communities that we have healthy forests," he said. "To do that, our scientists are telling us that we need to plant trees in some of these high-severity burn areas."
The state's seed banks are also severely deficient; according to Haffey, the amount of Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and pinon seeds needs to be increased, KRQE said.
