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Court Ruling Ends Effort By Otero County To Combat Fire Danger

An appellate court has dashed any hopes one southern New Mexico county had to address fire danger on national forest lands due to the inaction of the federal government.

A 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Denver found that Otero County's resolution to treat overgrown areas of the Lincoln National Forest along with a state statute enabling counties to take action under certain circumstances conflicted with federal law.

The judges said the case was a question of constitutional power and that federal law pre-empted the state law and the county's resolution.

New Mexico enacted the law in 2001, after a prescribed fire on federal land forced the evacuation of the mountain community of Los Alamos. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and the national lab there was temporarily closed.

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