The 842-acre American Creek Project has been completed and the area is now open to fuelwood collecting. Wood on the ground is predominantly ponderosa.
Permit holders can collect off Forest Road 42 (also known as State Route 111, which is unpaved) and the east side of Forest Road 91. The easiest access to the area is from Highway 64. These two roads are in pretty good shape, but can get soupy during and after heavy rain.
There is also plenty of dead and down wood on Forest Road 91 west of the project area to Forest Road 712, but--heads up!--the road is in worse shape, however passable with high clearance, four-wheel drive and some grit. Forest Road 91 between 712 and 91B remain closed to fuelwood cutting.
Permits are available for $20/10 cords (in ½ cord tags) at the Tres Piedras Ranger Station Mondays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., 1 - 3 p.m. Or head to any ranger station or Forest Supervisor's office in Taos for a permit (call ahead to check availability).
The American Creek Project was a combination of commercial timber sale (430 acres) and forest thinning (412 acre) that helped reduce stand densities to improve wildlife habitat foraging and to facilitate prescribed fire in the future. The project is located within the recently designated Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project, which spans 3.8 million acres in New Mexico and Colorado. More information can be found here: http://fs.usda.gov/detail/carson/news-events/...
Original source can be found here.
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