“We knew that these types of fires would happen, man-made or natural,” said Owen Burney, NMSU ecophysiology professor and director of the forestry research center. “It really gave us momentum, and it’s a sad truth: It took the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire for people to see the light… to listen to us more attentively.”
The inferno validated the need for the reforestation center more vividly and swiftly than anyone involved had imagined.
State officials have chosen Mora as the site for an enormous greenhouse that will grow millions of seedlings to restore fire-ravaged forests and help them better withstand climate change. The greenhouse will be part of a reforestation center slated to be built in a logical location next to New Mexico State University’s Forestry Research Center in Mora.
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