Laura McCarthy is the 11th State Forester and the first woman to take on the role since joining the New Mexico Forestry Division in 2019. Ms. McCarthy holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and the Environment. She started her career as a wildland firefighter for the USDA Forest Service and later transitioned through forestry-related positions with the Forest Trust and Forest Stewards Guild. Ms. McCarthy most recently served as the Nature Conservancy’s Senior Policy Advisor for Forest and Fire Management and as associate state director for the Nature Conservancy’s New Mexico office.

A message from your State Forester

Rebound and re-energize are the two words that best describe the year 2023 for the Forestry Division. January and February kicked off with record snowpack in many parts of the state. Spring brought cooler-than-average temperatures, followed by an extended hot and dry late spring and summer with exceptionally little monsoon rain in July and August. The Forestry Division and our partners responded to an average number of new wildfires. Yet the conditions for wildfire spread were moderated by the lingering beneficial effects of the winter moisture, and therefore nearly all wildfires were quickly contained, and few losses were sustained. 

The respite in 2023 from mega-fires gave the Division time to focus on recovery plans for landowners in the 2022 burned areas, as well as time to build capacity for tree seed collection and reforestation and to reduce hazardous fuels in high-risk areas. Some of the most notable highlights of the Division’s accomplishments in 2023 are development of an online training and workbook for landowners to become Certified Prescribed Burn Managers; awarding a record number of grants to volunteer fire departments to purchase wildland firefighting equipment and hire wildland coordinators; and expanding the botany team and creating an incidental take permitting process to better protect the state’s endangered plants.  

In the 2023 legislative session the Division worked to modernize the authorities for forest and wildfire management. The Forest Conservation Act that created the Forestry Division in 1939 was amended to authorize post-fire activities such as slope stabilization and erosion control in burned watersheds. Another bill in the 2023 session created a Forestry Division Procurement Exemption to eliminate duplication when New Mexico organizations are awarded federal grants for forestry projects. The legislature also authorized the Division to increase full-time equivalent employees and build wildland firefighting capacity, leading the State Personnel Office to create New Mexico’s first-ever Wildland Firefighter Job Series with a pay scale that equals federal wildland firefighter compensation. 

New Mexico competed for federal funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and brought new dollars to the state. For example, New Mexico organizations were awarded more than $11 million through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program for updates to Community Wildfire Protection Plans and to conduct hazardous fuels reduction treatments and more than $20 million for tree planting in large urban areas and rural communities across the state.  

The 2020 Forest Action Plan provides enduring guidance for the Division’s work to reduce wildfire risks in high-priority watersheds, protect life and property from damaging wildfire, and steward the state’s natural resources for future generations. As you will see in the following pages, the Division is making progress toward the goal of restoring New Mexico’s forests. Climate changes are affecting forest health in a variety of ways, and the Division is fully engaged in managing forests and wildfires to sustain our water sources, wildlife, and way of life.