Near Taos in northern New Mexico, Vicente Fernandez, a mayordomo, or forest caretaker, cut saplings and seedlings crowding a mature fir tree.
In an about-face, the Forest Service is now paying local woodcutters or leñeros $300 an acre to cut these trees for personal use or sale.
Some environmentalists oppose Taos County's so called Mayordomo Program, and other thinning, saying it is a waste of time, harms forests and is often a guise for logging.
"The Forest Service believes in helping communities to wisely use the forests," the agency said in a statement.
"We cannot fireproof forests, we can fireproof communities," said Horning, who has lived in northern New Mexico for 30 years.