U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) announced last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will waive cost-sharing requirements for New Mexico farmers and ranchers impacted by the recent wildfires that ravaged the state.
"Our farmers and ranchers, business owners and families deserve relief to recover,” Lujan said in a statement reported by KOAT.
The agency, Lujan said, will cover cost sharing for emergency forest restoration, conservation and other environmental improvement programs. The provision to waive cost sharing for a USDA administered program is part of $2.5 billion of federally approved funds for those affected by the fire and post-fire flooding.
The historic and devastating wildfires, which took months of contain, were sparked by two government planned burns. The fires consumed hundreds of square miles of forest and grazing lands, destroying homes and the livelihoods of many of the rural residents, who will need years to recover.
