A federal appeals court has ruled that New Mexico’s Otero County acted unconstitutionally when it passed a resolution to remove trees from a national forest.
On Thursday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that both the county resolution and a state statute on which it was based violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The state statute sought to give counties authority to begin reducing wildfire risk on federal lands. In 2011, the Otero County Commission said it would remove hazardous fuels in the tinder-dry Lincoln National Forest without Forest Service approval. The U.S. government then sued. In its ruling, the Tenth Circuit said the state and county “must yield to federal law regarding conduct on federal land”.
