May 2015 Green Fire Times

News & Views

from the

S u s t ai n ab l e S o u t h w e s t

K eeping C ultural A uthenticity D efending

the

V alue

of

O ur L and

2015 S ustainable S anta F e A wards the

E lvis R omero and C osmic W hite C orvette

B uilding a L ocal F arming N etwork

May 2015

Northern New Mexico’s Largest Circulation Newspaper

Vol. 7 No. 5

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Vol. 7, No. 5 • May 2015 Issue No. 73 Publisher Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Skip Whitson

Associate Publisher

Barbara E. Brown

Editor-in-chief

Seth Roffman

Art Director

Anna C. Hansen, Dakini Design Copy Editors Stephen Klinger Susan Clair Webmaster: Karen Shepherd Contributing Writers

Montserrat Vallès Albesa, Melanie Margarita Kirby, Andrew Lovato, Katherine Mortimer, Seth Roffman, Enrique Romero, Hilario E. Romero, Vicki Pozzebon

Contributing Photographers

Janelle Cordova, Bill Curry, Anna C. Hansen, Tina Larkin, Jody McNicholas, Jesse Nusbaum, Seth Roffman

PUBLISHER’S ASSISTANTs Cisco Whitson-Brown, Jenny Dixon

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Skip Whitson 505.471.5177 skip@greenfiretimes.com Anna C. Hansen 505.982.0155 dakinidesign@newmexico.com Robyn Montoya 505.692.4477 robyn.greenfiretimes@gmail.com Aurore Loranger, 505-699-0461 aurore@greenfiretimes.com

News & Views

from the

Sustainable Southwest

Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project

Contents

Keeping Cultural Authenticity: A Santa Fe Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Elvis Romero and the Cosmic White Corvette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Santa Fe’s Southwest River Corridor . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 10 Op-Ed: From Ecoversity to Urban Sprawl . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 12 Defending the Value of Our Land: Agricultural Valuation . . .. . .. . .. . .. . 16 New Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Café Thriving . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20 Farmhouse Café in Taos Helps Build a Local Farming Network . . .. . .. . .. . .21 The Local Voice: Local Soil, Local Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 CuranderApis – Hive Medicines for Interspecies Body & Spirit . . .. . .. . .. . .. 23 Pesticides Are Likely Damaging Ecosystem Services. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 24 Santa Fe Green Festival. . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 25 Fire Season: An Exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art. . .. . .. . .. . .. 25 2015 Sustainable Santa Fe Award Winners . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 26 New Mexico Legislative Bills Signed or Vetoed by Governor Martinez . . .. . .. 31 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . ... . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 17, 20, 24, 33, 37 What’s Going On. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 38

Lisa Powers, 505.629.2655 ibelievethemuse@gmail.com Albuquerque: Shelley Shilvock, 505-492-5869, ShelleyShilvock@gmail.com

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Circulation: 30,000 copies Printed locally with 100% soy ink on 100% recycled, chlorine-free paper

Green Fire Times

Green Fire Times provides useful information for community members, business people, students and visitors—anyone interested in discovering the wealth of opportunities and resources in the Southwest. In support of a more sustainable planet, topics covered range from green businesses, jobs, products, services, entrepreneurship, investing, design, building and energy—to native perspectives on history, arts & culture, ecotourism, education, sustainable agriculture, regional cuisine, water issues and the healing arts. To our publisher, a more sustainable planet also means maximizing environmental as well as personal health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol.

Green Fire Times is widely distributed throughout north-central New Mexico. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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© Janelle Cordova

c/o The Sun Companies P.O. Box 5588, SF, NM 87502-5588 505.471.5177 • info@greenfiretimes.com © 2015 Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Micah Roseberry, owner of the Farmhouse Café and Bakery, shares blue corn from her garden with a domesticated bison at the Cerro San Cristobal Ranch north of Taos, New Mexico. (See story, page 21)

COVER: F armer (and Grammy Award winning musician) Robert Mirabal of Taos Pueblo plows a field for the Farmhouse Café and Bakery in Taos.

Photo © Seth Roffman Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Keeping Cultural Authenticity: A Santa Fe Story

A TEDx talk presented at Popejoy Hall, Albuquerque, New Mexico Andrew Lovato

When you think back to your childhood, do you get a clear picture of the place that made you who you are today? What is it like? Has it changed much?

Santa Fe is quite different now.The Plaza is lined with high-priced shops selling Southwestern art and turquoise jewelry.

Real estate prices are astronomical around the heart of the city.

How did this happen? You could say it’s too much of a good thing.

More than a million people from around the world visit my hometown every year.

What is it that draws them to my humble little community?

Could it be the magnificent Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the pure desert air or maybe the spectacular sunsets? Plenty of other places equal Santa Fe in natural beauty.

The mystique or illusion of Santa Fe is its calling card: people come to experience an adobe Disneyland of mesas and margaritas, a place quaint and frozen in time, rich in Spanish and Pueblo Indian culture and history. Santa Fe was the remote capital of Spain’s northern frontier in the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries. The people were mostly self-

sufficient.They led lives far removed from outside resources, and a vibrant culture evolved. The art, traditions and religious beliefs of the people were a unique blend of Spanish and Indian influences.

How did this legacy create a recipe for one of the most popular international tourist destinations and the best city for shopping in America, according to last year’s USA Today readers’ poll?

Take a cup of historical revisionism (Santa Fe has not always been a paradise of cultural harmony; there have been many squabbles); add a sprinkle of stereotyping (Santa Fe residents do not live in a land of perpetual siestas); and add a layer of chocolate frosting (in 1957, the city passed a building ordinance requiring brown adobe-style architecture downtown). Bake in an oven for a few decades, and what have you got? A tourist industry that generates over a billion dollars annually.

Cultural authenticity will help sustain a vital tourist industry.

But culture is more than just a pleasant backdrop for commerce. At times, the line that separates authentic culture from commercial culture becomes blurred.

Marketing art, architecture and festivals is central to places that cater to tourist dollars.This isn’t true only for Santa Feans but also native Hawaiians and Chinese San Franciscans.

© Seth Roffman

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rowing up in the 1960s, my friends and I rode our bikes up and down the streets of Santa Fe, and we felt like the whole city belonged to us. The Plaza in the center of town was where people met to catch up and do some shopping. Little adobe houses dotted the area.

Andrew Lovato’s TEDx ABQ talk, September 2014

No community wants to end up on the trash heap of “yesterday’s in spots.” It’s like what Yogi Berra said about a busy New York restaurant, “No one goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”

Former Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo captured the frustration of growing gentrification when she said, “They painted the downtown brown and moved the brown people out.”

At what point do stereotypes surrounding a culture become the reality? It can be argued that all cultures are mythical creations. What is important is not so much that cultures contain myth but, rather, who controls the development and perpetuation of these myths.

A classic example was the 1883 Santa Fe Fiesta that celebrated the 333-year anniversary of the founding of the city.

In reality, the year being observed had no historical significance whatsoever.The anniversary was concocted as a way to promote Santa Fe business and tourism.

Maintaining authenticity ultimately lies in the hands of host communities.

Tourists are hungry for new experiences, and they’ll eat what they are told is on the menu. Host cultures can prepare a cultural menu that guides visitors to desire a deeper and more meaningful experience.

© Seth Roffman

It’s possible to maintain a flourishing tourist industry without killing the proverbial golden goose.

Spectators watch the 2014 Santa Fe Fiesta entrada, a reenactment of the reentry of Diego de Vargas and his troops, who, in 1692, reclaimed Santa Fe for the Spanish king.

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Tourism provides a tremendous social and economic boon. Newcomers provide influence and change that is the lifeblood of thriving communities, but it’s also possible to share a cup of water without

giving away the fountain.

I’d like to propose three ways that cultures can maintain a degree of sovereignty and sustain strong communities: First, promote cultural education to encourage appreciation of authentic culture and resist simplified stereotypes; Second, create affordable housing to ensure that indigenous populations remain intact; And lastly, encourage sustainable development that protects natural resources and creates an economic base that is not overly dependent on tourism.

We owe this to the children riding their bikes through their neighborhoods today and tomorrow, so they can declare, “This is my hometown,” as we once did. As they become part of the larger world, here’s hoping that they’ll feel a connection with their roots and cultural heritage.

After all, isn’t that what’s important in the long run? A hometown that still feels like home? i Through his writings, native Santa Fean Andrew Lovato, Ph.D., walks readers through an exploration of Hispanic and New Mexico cultures of yesterday and today. An associate professor at Santa Fe Community College, Lovato is the author of Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist To w n ; T h e Ye a r Zozobra Escaped: Featuring Zozobra’s Great Escape; and a contributing author of four other books.

Andrew.lovato@sfcc. edu

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Elvis Romero and the Cosmic White Corvette

Chapter One: The Sun God Andrew Lovato

E

lvis Romero was born at La Casita Clinic in 1955, under the watchful eyes of the Catholic nuns who provided medical care for the working people of Santa Fe. As soon as he entered the world, his mother let out a loud laugh despite her weariness and immediately jettisoned all of the proper Catholic names that she’d considered and christened him “Elvis” after she caught sight of his abundant mane of wavy, black hair.

His earliest memory fundamentally influenced the way he perceived the world and how he thought about who he was. It was not a dramatic event or even particularly interesting. In fact, it was one of the most mundane experiences imaginable. But when it happened, he was transformed, and it opened his infant eyes to the vast possibilities of his soul. Simply stated, his mother placed his tiny, 10-day-old, naked body outside in the sun.

© Seth Roffman

Throughout his life, Elvis could recreate that day vividly in his mind. As he reminisced through the ethers of the decades, this is what floated back to him: He lay dozing on clean, white sheets on a cool summer morning with a soft breeze whispering through an open bedroom window. His belly was full, and he experienced a sense of contentment after drinking his fill at his mother’s breast. Elvis lingered blissfully in that netherworld between sleep and consciousness, trying to focus

his untrained eyes on the light and dark shapes around him. The sweet perfume of his mother’s skin hung comfortingly in the air. He felt her strong, warm hands slide under his head and the small of his back as she gently lifted him to her body.

They moved from the bedroom and headed out toward a small front yard in the old, barrio section of the city. She placed a soft, white, cotton blanket on the earth and gently lowered him down in the middle. Carefully and deliberately she removed his bedclothes and, for the first time in his brief existence, Elvis felt the overwhelming sensation of the sun’s rays pouring down upon his flesh. At that moment, he began to vibrate with a glowing, radiant energy as his little heart expanded within his chest, and he was filled with a feeling of indescribable joy and wholeness.

Beneath his tightly shut eyelids, a shimmering, golden face appeared and gazed down upon him with limitless love and compassion. A celestial memory from another realm and era emerged within him, and he intuitively recognized the features of the Sun God. His benefactor and source of being, the eternal Father, was once again looking over him to protect and nurture him through another lifetime.

Elvis was too new to the planet to know the names of Ra, Apollo, or Osiris but, like worshippers from past civilizations, he felt a power and illumination rise in his spirit. He shared the same conviction with those devotees that this was the source of life and vitality within him and all living beings. Whenever he would feel the pangs of pain or sorrow as a young boy, he could close his eyes and conjure the image of the Sun God in his inner mind, and the fear, stomach upset, or other distresses that he was experiencing would melt away with the power of the beneficent glow that healed from within.

Elvis’s mom and dad knew nothing of the strange pagan stirrings that coursed through

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© Anna C. Hansen

Sun God lifts his head My eyes fill with yellow light One more day to live

his youthful psyche. They were more focused on the outer, material world.

His dad’s pride and joy in life—besides his little family—was a 1954 polo white, convertible Chevy Corvette, with a V-6, 155 horse-powered blue-flame engine.

It sported a black soft-top, deep-red seats and dash, whitewalls, and a power-glide transmission. Gilbert Romero fell in love with the car after he had seen it in Hot Rod magazine when he returned from the Army. He took half of his G.I. Bill money and put it toward a down payment on a house and used the other half for his dream ride.

He owned one of only 3,265 Corvettes made that year, selling at a base price of $2,774.

with this one-time indulgence and never again gave a thought to his own desires before considering the needs of Evelyn and his future family.

Gilbert and Evelyn were engaged soon after he returned home from Fort Hood Army Base, in Texas following the end of the Korean War. Fortunately, he was never called up for active combat but, instead, spent the war at the base manning his post as a FirstClass Private, Mail Specialist.

“Chingada, babe, listen to the sound of that motor purring!” “Watch your mouth, Gilbert,” Evelyn scolded, but her voice was full of excitement.

A coming of age piece about growing up in the Hispanic culture in northern New Mexico

Evelyn knew better than to stand between Gilbert and his fantasy car, even though there were more immediate practical concerns that the cash could have addressed. She knew that fulfilling dreams and passions was a vital part of a good husband’s psychological make-up, just as much as sacrifice and responsibility, and her instincts were right. He was satisfied

She never forgot the day that the Corvette arrived at the auto dealer’s lot after a six-month wait. With a beaming face, Gilbert opened Evelyn’s passenger-side door and gently kissed her on the forehead before proudly strolling around the gleaming machine and settling into the driver’s seat with a satisfied sigh.

“Mi amor, how does it feel to be sitting in the most beautiful car in Santa Fe next to the handsomest man?” She threw back her head and laughed, her black locks shining in the sunlight.

“Well, at least, you’ve got it right about being in the most beautiful car,” she teased. Gilbert snorted in feigned rejection, turned the key and the magnificent steed came to life.

They cruised slowly through downtown Santa Fe and then headed down Cerrillos Road. A clean, cool breeze fanned their faces as Gilbert smiled widely and waved to everyone he saw. He was like a boy on Christmas morning.

“Listen Ev, what a firme engine! Feel how smooth the transmission shifts, and check out the steering—it’s like butter!” He cranked up the hi-fi radio, and they sailed down the road with The Crew Cuts singing “Sh-Boom” on that magical afternoon.

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They stopped for a milk shake at the Dairy Queen, and all of the teenage vatos, who were hanging out that Saturday afternoon, gathered around and whistled and touched the car gingerly before wiping off their fingerprints with their tee shirts.

They looked at Gilbert as if he were a movie star like James Dean and made comments like, “Hombre, cool ride!” and “Vato, you got to take us for a cruise sometime.” Also, “Carnal, if you ever need someone to wash your chariot, let me know. No charge.”

He reveled in the admiration and his newly acquired sense of abundance and status. Although the car had cost a pretty penny, Evelyn treasured the sight of Gilbert as happy as she had ever seen him.

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Eventually, they made their way to his parents’ house, where Gilbert’s brothers and sisters were anxiously awaiting his arrival, and soon the whole scene began again. Only this time, it was even more auspicious as the whole neighborhood congregated to celebrate his great fortune.

The whole neighborhood congregated to celebrate his great fortune.

The only voice of reason came from Gilbert’s mother, who warned, “This doesn’t mean you can go tearing around town like a bat out of hell. Don’t start acting like some kind of big shot.” He smiled and nodded his head sheepishly as he walked over to his mom and gave her a hug. She relaxed, knowing she had done her duty, and the celebration went on.

Everyone had to climb into the driver’s seat and clasp their hands on the leather-covered steering wheel. They marveled at the sound quality of the radio, and Gilbert’s younger brother, Tony, made a joke that Evelyn didn’t appreciate: “Hermana, you’re going to have to keep a closer eye on Gilbert now that all the girls see him cruising down the street in his chick magnet.”

Finally, the day drew to a close, and even Gilbert was weary of all the attention.

He carefully parked the Corvette in his parents’ garage, preferring to keep it there rather than in front of their casita across town. He continued to do this for a couple of weeks, until the inconvenience became too much, continued on page 28

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Santa Fe’s Southwest River Corridor From Pueblo Lands, El Camino Real, Cristóbal Nieto Land Grant, El Pino, Court of Private Land Claims to Ecoversity and La Cieneguita del Camino Real Hilario E. Romero Early Agua Fría and the First Pueblos

W

hen the Indian Pueblos of Agua Fría were settled by Native Americans, possibly as early as 3,000 BC, “the area was an agricultural mecca,” according to Cheri Sheick of Southwest Archaeological Consultants. They chose this location because of its cold water springs, little ciénegas and the longer growing season at that elevation. They grew the trinity of squash, corn and beans and supplemented it with wild edible plants like quilitl (quelite or wild spinach), and used the river nearby for irrigation. They also fished in the upper river—later to be known as the Río Santa Fe—where there was abundant trout, and collected firewood. The forests were within eight miles to the east of their pueblo, and they hunted wild game such as elk, deer, bear and bighorn sheep. Within the area of their pueblo, they also hunted wild turkey—later domesticated—and rabbit, quail, large migratory birds and other small game. This area today would include an area running southwest along the river close to Cieneguilla, northeast along the river to the forest, southeast to today’s I-25 and northeast to the edge of Tesuque Pueblo.

The area was an agricultural mecca.

These Pueblo people are most likely the first permanent residents to live in what we now call Santa Fe. Eventually, they abandoned their pueblos sometime during the 1200s. They relocated upriver because of drought; giving them better access to water, hunting, firewood, fortified security, possible new enemies and cosmic signs. Their new pueblo could have been built just a stone’s throw northwest from today’s Plaza de Santa Fe, where the Santa Fe Community Convention Center now sits. They had to build a new pueblo, create a new diversion on the river and dig ditches for irrigation. The new pueblo presented new challenges because the growing season was shorter upriver. They probably developed new techniques to compensate for the rise in elevation and the proximity to the forest.

They brought with them drought-resistant seeds that were planted in their new environment. They remained in this area for about another two centuries before moving northwest to build Te-su-gueh Pueblo on the Río Tesuque, a pueblo that continues to be an innovative leader in New Mexico with its agriculture.

Agricultural field, Agua Fría, New Mexico, ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 015231

El Camino Real

El Camino Real—the Royal Road—brought the first new settlers as early as 1600, when some of Juan de Oñate’s group decided to retrace their steps back to the area now known as Santa Fe. They initially realized that the land closer to the mountain was difficult for farming and ranching. Many moved down the Río Santa Fe to the area known as Ojitos Frescos and south to Pin’di and Pueblo Quemado, where the ruins of a burned pueblo lay in the Traditional Village of Agua Fría. Agua

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Photographer: Jesse Nusbaum. View of Agua Fría village looking northeast toward Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico, 1912, Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 011049

Fría village extended from the Pacheco Land Grant to the southwest boundary of the Merced de Santa Fe—Town of Santa Fe Grant. Ten years later, Don Pedro de Peralta, under orders from the Spanish Crown through the Virrey de México, officially proclaimed La Villa Real de San Francisco de la Santa Fe in 1610.

Great Pueblo Revolt in Galisteo, Santa Fe and the Nieto Family

Just prior to the Great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, a group of early Spanish settlers from the Santa Fe area traded their goods in El Paso del Río del Norte—today’s Juárez, Chihuahua. Among them was Cristóbal Nieto, who was in El Paso del Río del Norte while his father, Alcalde José Nieto, prepared his family back in Galisteo for an escape, as the Tanos were revolting. Tragically, José Nieto, his wife Lucía and Cristóbal’s sisters, María and Juana, were killed by the Tanos of Galisteo Pueblo. Cristóbal’s wife, “Petrona Pacheco, along with two of their children were taken captive during the confusion,” according to Hackett and Shelby from their translations in Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermin’s Attempted Reconquest, published by UNM Press (1942). Cristóbal Nieto most likely received news from the group of Spanish settlers that escaped the Great Pueblo Revolt that his wife and children had perished along with his parents and siblings.

According to Malcolm Ebright in his article, submitted to the Office of the State Historian and copyrighted by the State Records Center, entitled: Cristóbal Nieto Land Grant (2004), Cristóbal Nieto returned to Santa Fe as a soldier in 1697, 17 years after his wife and children were taken captive by the Tanos de Galisteo Pueblo. His wife had three daughters that were rescued from their captors and returned to Santa Fe by Roque Madrid in 1692. Later that same year, Cristóbal Nieto was reunited with his wife and three children—Simón, Maria and Lucía— and Sebastiana and Josefa (from captivity) and the youngest, Petrona, born later according to Don Diego de Vargas’s distribution of livestock and supplies, May 1, 1697, in John Kessell and Rick Hendricks/Meredith Dodge, eds., Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, Book 2, UNM Press, 1998. The realization that his wife and children were still alive must have been an emotional shock. He received a small land grant from the new governor, Pedro Rodríguez Cubero, on the southwest side of Santa Fe, bordered on the northeast by the Río Santa Fe, between the house of Domingo de la Barreda to the west and the Domingo de la Barreda land grant to the east, near what was known as the Ojito Fresco (possibly near the ditch that runs into the river on the east end of Frenchy’s Field) and intersected on the south by el Camino de los Carros, today’s Cerrillos Road.

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Cristóbal Nieto and his family raised sheep, some cows and a bull from the supplies he received from Gov. Vargas. The area had to be sufficient in water and grasslands to sustain the livestock and grow into a ranch. Oral accounts from villagers of Agua Fría describe this area as Las Cieneguitas, or little marshes, which would indicate that it was possible to succeed with a ranching endeavor. Cristóbal’s son, Simón, purchased land from José Manuel Gilthomey in 1707 nearby in between Salvador Archuleta and Capitan Luís Maese, and planted corn. (Spanish Archives of New Mexico I, Dec. 5, 1707 #639) According to Fray Angélico Chávez, in his Origins of New Mexico Families, Simón Nieto, son of Cristóbal Nieto, was married to Francisca Maese, one of the daughters of Luís Maese and his wife Josefa de Archuleta. Simón Nieto was a soldier in Santa Fe in 1700 and was still soldiering in 1728, the same year he lost his wife Francisca. According to a deed cited by Malcolm Ebright in his article on the Cristóbal Nieto Land Grant: In 1727, one year before he lost his wife, Simón Nieto sold off a tract of land bordering his father’s land grant, which was purchased by his wife that same year from her sister several years after the death of their father, Luís Maese.

Virginia L. Olmstead’s compilation of the New Mexico census of 1750, published by the New Mexico Genealogical Society, shows the Nietos were represented by Francisco Nieto (Cristóbal’s grandson); his mother, Lucía Nieto; his aunt, Petrona Pacheco; his aunt, María Nieto; and his three children as the only Nietos listed.

The Court of Private Land Claims, Feb. 11, 1893

Juan Nieto, claiming to be a direct descendant of Cristóbal Nieto, filed a claim for confirmation of the Merced de Cristóbal Nieto. The prosecuting attorney, James Purdy, muddied up the entire process with his legal maneuvers and caused the Cristóbal Land Grant to be rejected by the court without a trial on June 11, 1898 (Ebright). During its tenure, 1891 to 1904, the Court of Private Land Claims approved only 1.9 million acres out of a total 33 million acres of land grants of claimants. This was possibly the largest land grab in U.S. history. continued on page 13

Map from ca. 1893s. From J.J. Bowden’s Private Land Claims in the Southwest, Southern Methodist University, 1969, page 269

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Chicken pull (Corridos de Gallo) in Agua Fría, New Mexico. ca. 1900. Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 057659

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© Anna C. Hansen

Saint Isidore Church (Iglesia de San Isidro), Agua Fría, New Mexico, ca. 1904 – 1907.

Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative Number 015173

This was the same year that Petrona Nieto, wife of Cristóbal Nieto, died. By 1765, according to Malcolm Ebright, “Francisco Nieto was serving as a soldier in the Presidio de Santa Fe (Santa Fe Garrison) and had partitioned land south of Agua Fría that he had purchased from Andrés Montoya of Cieneguilla. This is the first document that connects a Nieto with the place name El Pino.” However, when looking at J.J.Bowden’s map of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, showing the Spanish and Mexican Land Grants of Santa Fe in his Private Land Claims of the Southwest, SMU Press (1969), he shows El Pino’s location just outside the southwestern boundary of the La Merced de Santa Fe (Town of Santa Fe Grant), which would put it in the area of Frenchy’s Park, Ecoversity and La Cieneguita, moving southwest to the boundary on the Camino Real to Agua Fría Village. The Arroyo de San Antonio eventually would be converted into Acequia de San Antonio, (which runs off the Acequia Madre down the slope between today’s Osage Lane and San Ildefonso Street in Casa Alegre and comes down to the Camino Real (Agua Fría Road) at today’s Pueblo Alegre. In the 1700s and 1800s it emptied into a “tanque” (holding pond) used by ranchers to soak their carretas.

It crossed the Camino Real and entered the Ecoversity land, and ran through the Boylan property and back into the Río Santa Fe. The last mention of the Rancho El Pino in the 18th century comes from a partition suit filed in 1788: “Rita Padilla, daughter-in law of Juan García de Noriega, who died owning an interest in “a Rancho of cultivable lands at the place of El Pino, filed a partition suit in 1788.” Ebright, Cristóbal Nieto Land Grant, Office of the State Acequia de los Pinos, Maclovia Park, Casa Alegre 2012 Historian (2004).

Op-Ed: From Ecoversity to Urban Sprawl

Montserrat Vallès Albesa

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ew Mexico has attracted people from all over the United States and the world, people with an awareness and sensibility for healthy lifestyles, the environment and our state’s unique character. These are people who want to live in a society where human values are important and where progress is defined as beneficial for the community-at-large, not the kind of progress associated with the conquest of nature that leads to societal problems and benefits only a few individuals.

community input. I have gone door to door in the La Cieneguita Homeowners neighborhood, and nobody knew about this project. Many have signed a petition to ask the Planning Commission to deny the project. Neighborhoods surrounding the Ecoversity land have created the West Santa Fe River Alliance, which includes all nearby neighborhood associations and residents. They have developed a plan to protect the river corridor against “irrational” and “unnecessary” projects like this one.

Recently, many people in Santa Fe have become concerned with a proposed high-density project called El Río, which would consist of 450 rental apartments, 10 buildings, 40 feet high. This project has been proposed by Blue Buffalo LLC/ Tierra Concepts on land of the former Ecoversity, a school founded in 1999 by Frances Harwood, on Agua Fría Street, aka El Camino Real. Why did such a drastic change occur—from a school that taught care for the land, environment and sustainability—to a project proposing to transform agricultural land into urban sprawl? There are many places in Santa Fe where this project could be built without such negative impacts to the environment, neighborhoods, quality of life and open space. Many questions have come into focus regarding the city’s annexation of the Ecoversity land, which was formerly under Santa Fe County jurisdiction.

The proposed complex is in an area where most of the land is zoned R-1, that is, one dwelling per acre. The developers are seeking to change a semirural area to high-density, R-29, as if Santa Fe were a big metropolis that can grow only vertically.This is against the requirements of the city’s General Plan, which states, “We believe it to be essential that growth in and around our city should be complemented by the preservation of neighborhoods and traditional, social and cultural patterns… The General Plan seeks to promote interests of the community-at-large over private ones.” It is also important to understand that Agua Fría is part of the historic El Camino Real. It was designated as a National Historic Trail in 2000. The mission of the National Historic Trail is to preserve the trail and its surrounding environment.

The developers are seeking to change a semirural area to high-density.

The Long Range Planning Division, under the Housing and Community Development Department, has expressed serious reservations regarding the density of the development, saying it would be more appropriate in places such as St. Michaels Drive, St. Francis Drive, or Rodeo and Zarafano roads. In February, the Planning Commission recommended denial of the project to the City Council.

Numerous residents from the Agua Fría and La Cieneguita neighborhoods, along with many others from all parts of Santa Fe have expressed their opposition to the project.

Since the project’s inception,the developers have not provided information or allowed

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Testimony before the Planning Commission meeting of February 19, 2015 The architect that designed La Cieneguita neighborhood testified before the Planning Commission, recommending denial of the project for being too dense for the property. Richard Martínez, president of the Neighborhood Network and of La Joya Neighborhood Association testified, “Anytime you do an infill project, you always want to make sure it is compatible with your neighborhood.

This project is not. People who live in the neighborhoods know what would be right for them. This is why they are expressing themselves this way.” A village of Agua Fría resident testified,“This development would destroy the last vestiges of the real nature of our community and our ecosystem along the river.” Another resident stated, “I am going to ask you just to consider the ethics of valuing the development’s interest above the health

Green Fire Times • May 2015

Ecoversity property with public notice development sign, January 2015

and welfare of thousands of existing Westside residents.” Another resident, a 35-year-old mechanical engineer living on Calle Carmelita, said, “With all due respect to these gentlemen, I don’t want to live in their apartments. This isn’t New York or San Francisco, and living three miles outside of downtown Santa Fe is no young professional’s dream of urban utopia.” A Casa Solana resident, Gina Ortiz, a 32-year-old physician’s assistant, said, “The congestion, pollution and carbon footprint this project will create will affect future generations.” Former City Councilor Frank Montaño said, “If this project is approved, our quality of life will be significantly deteriorated.”

Agua Fría is considered a secondary artery and already has traffic problems.

This apartment complex would make Agua Frí a a traffic hazard and a dangerous artery. Agua Fría does not have the infrastructure to handle fire or emergencies. La Cieneguita Street is narrow, and people have to park on it.

For 17 years, cross-traffic from Agua Fría to Cerrillos has destroyed the street and affected the safety of children, pets, trees and residents. You can drive through Agua Fría and adjacent neighborhoods and see that the roads and streets are in poor condition. The neighborhoods have waited more than a decade for the city to fix them. If this project were approved, it would add to the unsafe conditions we already have in this neighborhood.

There is no real demand for rentals of this type in the city of Santa Fe. The only real demand is for affordable housing, which this project will not address. By law, the developers must build 15 percent of the total units as “affordable.”These are shown separately on El Río’s site map. One of the planning commissioners commented,

“The way you are addressing affordable housing is segregation.”

The Blue Buffalo LLC/Tierra Concepts project assumes that this high-density development will help attract good jobs for young professionals. The truth is that it will only create temporary jobs for the developers and the construction crews.

Common sense and statistics tell me that the problem of not having more young professionals in Santa Fe is due to lack of jobs, not lack of housing.

Residents feel powerless when people with money, political influence and power work against the true needs of the communities.

The developers said this project will bring affordable rental units for young professionals. According to a Santa Fe New Mexican article on Feb. 15, 2015: “The apartments would average 850 square feet, with rent ranging from $750 a month for a studio to $1,500 for a two-bedroom unit.” This is affordable?

Santa Fe residents can rent houses with more space inside and with front- and back yards for less. My stepson lives in a 1,300-square-foot, totally remodeled adobe house with vigas, radiant heat, fireplace and a nice yard and pays $1,300 per month. A man who testified before the Planning Commission said, “It is outrageous that these people are pretending they can rent to millennials for this kind of money. I have seen millennials taking internships and working part-time jobs, several at a time, and none of them continued on page 33

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Santa Fe’s SW River Corridor

continued from page 11

Map of Santa Fe and Village of Agua Fría in 1952, Map collection, New Mexico State Archives

On the Official Topographical Map of Santa Fe County, in 1904, which was the same year that the Court of Private Land Claims concluded its adjudications, the Rancho El Pino was no longer on the map because the area has no boundaries showing. The Nieto family descendants still live in Santa Fe. However, this history shows that the Agua Fría village was contiguous from the southwest boundary of the town of Santa Fe. By 1952, the map of Santa Fe County shows several small houses along the Camino Real—Agua Fría Road—in the area where Rancho El Pino was located.

Oral accounts talk of the Corridas de Gallo (rooster pulls) that took place up until the 1960s in this area. Rancho El Pino was sold, and several generations of families (los Maese, now Maez; los Brito; Valencia; Sánchez; Montoya; Gallegos and Rael) continued to live, ranch and farm on parts of the land for the next century, possibly up until the 1990s.

Eventually, developments made their way into this old land grant through land sales. The Acequia de los Pinos (Acequia Madre) runs through the entire area, and during years of sufficient snowpack it carries water. Casa Alegre was built in the upper portion of the area in the 1940s and ‘50s by Allen Stamm, followed by Pueblo Alegre in the 1980s, and Cielo Vista in Acequia Madre, behind SF Indian School the 1990s, along with La Cieneguita del Camino Real affordable housing subdivision, by the Housing Trust. Frances Harwood purchased almost 12 acres in the lower portion of the ranch and, in 1999, opened Ecoversity, which is next to the Alamo and Camino Mío neighborhoods.The Ferguson Street neighborhood, called Aspen Creek, was the last development built, in 2002. The history of El Camino Real and the Agua Fría community is an extremely significant part of the history of Santa Fe. We owe a debt of thanks to the settlers, ranchers and farmers of this area for their contributions to the survival and history of La Villa Real de San Francisco de Asís de la Santa Fe. i

© Anna C. Hansen

The 20th Century

Hilario E. Romero, a New Mexican Mestizo (Spanish/Basque/Jicarilla Apache/Ute), is a former New Mexico state historian. He has spent the past 40 years in higher education, as professor of History, Spanish and Education, including at UNM and Northern New Mexico College.

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Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Defending the Value of Our Land Agricultural Valuation in Santa Fe County Enrique Romero

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ambé is one of the most beautiful places in northern New Mexico, especially when the seasons are changing. The transition from winter to spring is one of my favorites. While most everything else lies dormant under the cold, moist soil, the wild orchard grass and the irises, eager to get an early start, break through the remnants of last year’s fertility. The snow-packed Sangres tower over the village, reminding us of the source of the 17 acequias that divert the Río Nambé, providing water to over 1,700 acres of land in the valley. One of those acequias, La Acequia Nueva, irrigates the property of native Nambeseño Orlando Romero.

Orlando’s property, which he has named La Villa Enrique in honor of his grandfather, who moved to the property in 1929, is a wonderful balance of nature and domesticity. During this time of year, bees swarm around apricot trees in full bloom. The trees are not planted military style in organized rows or set a certain number of feet apart. Rather, they surround his home and have been strategically placed, so that he can take advantage of the deep shade the large apricot and apple trees provide. Under the fruit trees are picnic tables where Orlando and his family enjoy outdoor gatherings during the spring, summer and fall. While the trees provide shade, the cool acequia water that flows through the laterals that meander just outside his front porch cool off the earth during the summer. The laterals provide water to grapevines, flower and

vegetable gardens and nearly threedozen apple, cherry, apricot and peach trees. Orlando has made creative and efficient use of his 2.9 acres.

The law simply ignores the historic and modern reality of northern New Mexico.

Now, all around the property is evidence of spring cleaning. There are piles of branches ready to be mulched, new fruit trees ready to be planted and clean laterals ready to take on the responsibility of making this place come to life. Orlando has been irrigating every year since his return from graduate school in 1976. The spring cleaning is a lot of work, but the rewards at the end of the year and during the hot summer months make the work meaningful.

In late January, Orlando received a letter from the Santa Fe County Assessor. The letter stated that his land would lose its agricultural status for property tax valuation in 2016 unless he provided proof that it was “still primarily used for agricultural purposes.” The letter suggested that Orlando, as the landowner, had the burden of showing the assessor, by July 1, 2015, that the land was being used for agriculture.

Orlando was outraged when he read the letter. He says he remembers someone from the Assessor’s Office coming to the property a year or two ago, and that soon afterward, his 2014 property taxes

Romero home in Nambé

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skyrocketed. He thinks that it must have been during this “site visit” that the employee made the determination that his land was no longer being used for agriculture. “The only thing that makes any sense,” Orlando says, “is that this employee came out when everything was Orlando Romero proudly showcasing some of his grapes dormant and didn’t see the Even with this rather expansive laterals throughout the property. Or definition of “agricultural products,” the maybe the employee didn’t know what valuation has limitations. For example, he was looking for.” the regulations require a minimum Now Orlando, and every other property of one acre of land to qualify for the owner who received this letter, has agricultural valuation. Landowners to submit evidence of agricultural who own less than one acre may still use, including photos, inventories of qualify if the agricultural products agricultural products and receipts of produced on the land are orchards, agriculture-related purchases. The poultry, or fish. If the land also includes ball’s in his court now, and Orlando a home, the regulations presume that is preparing to refute the assessor’s the home site is one acre. Therefore, one erroneous conclusions. acre will be subtracted from the land valued as ag unless the landowner can For Orlando, the burden of submitting prove the home site is less than one proof of what should be obvious was acre. Another restriction pertains to not the most outrageous part of the grazing. Even if the landowner owns letter. Rather, it was the conclusion more than one acre of land, he or she that “agricultural use [had] been may not necessarily qualify for the abandoned for an excessive number of agricultural valuation if the land is used years.” The letter didn’t say how many for grazing. Each year, the Property years but referred to the statutes and Tax Division establishes the carrying regulations under which the assessor’s capacity of grazing land and bases the determination was made. minimum-acreage requirement on the So what do the statutes and regs say? carrying capacity. Currently, in Santa Section 7-36-20 NMSA 1978 states Fe County, the minimum acreage to that the valuation is based on the qualify for the agricultural valuation “land’s capacity to produce agricultural for Class A properties is 80 acres, and products.” Agricultural products are for Class B it is 54 acres. fairly inclusive and range from the The minimum-acreage requirement most obvious items—plants, crops, for grazing and for growing crops is trees, orchard crops, livestock, dairy what frustrates Orlando the most and products, honey and wool—to less is the main reason why he feels the common products like mohair, hides, law is flawed. The law simply ignores pelts and fish. Basically, as long as the the historic and modern reality of products are either used for subsistence northern New Mexico. Orlando, a or sold, or used to produce other historian and writer, says that the products that are then sold or used Spanish colonial record indicates that for subsistence, state law allows the the small plot predominated during agricultural valuation. Landowners, the colonial period, and, as late as the who are resting their land to maintain 19th century, the “long lots” of northern its capacity to produce agricultural New Mexico were composed primarily products later, may also receive the of small acreages. Like today, families agricultural valuation. Also, certain made efficient use of plots of land lands in federal soil-conservation programs may qualify.

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So, for now, Orlando is going to do what he’s always done. He’ll prune his f ruit trees and grapevines, till his gardens and wait for La Acequia Nueva to deliver the lifeblood of this valley’s history and culture. If he is unable to convince the assessor, Orlando is prepared to protest the valuation in 2016 before the County Valuation Protests Board. He doesn’t want it to come to that, but receiving the agricultural classification is more than just about relieving the burden of increased property taxes. It’s about preserving historical continuity and the importance of the small agricultural plot in northern New Mexico. i Native New Mexican Enrique Romero is a staff attorney at New Mexico Legal Aid, Inc., where he works exclusively in its Land and Water Rights Program. Romero attended the University of Notre Dame and, in 2014, was a recipient of that school ’s Shaffer Public Interest Law Fellowship.

Orlando Romero i s E n r i q u e ’s father.

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Northern New Mexico Seed Exchange

Last month, the 10th annual Pueblos y Semillas Gathering and Seed Exchange took place in Peñasco. The event was hosted by the New Mexico Food & Seed Sovereignty Alliance, which is comprises of the New Mexico Acequia Association, Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association, Honor Our Pueblo Existence and Tewa Women United.

© Seth Roffman (5)

between one-half and one acre, growing many varieties of vegetables and other produce. Families used those small plots for growing food for subsistence, for sale or to give to their extended family. When it comes to the grazing requirement, Orlando says it was rare for one farmer to own 50 acres of land just for grazing. In fact, it was common, even when he was a child, to graze goats and cows along the riverbanks in lieu of grazing on one’s own property. Also, it was not uncommon for a farmer to purchase feed from a neighboring farmer to supplement what he grew for his livestock.

Agricultural Lands Tax Hikes Challenged State tax law is critical to keeping agricultural lands in production and to protecting the traditional fabric and culture of communities with long ties to the land.

About 460 Santa Fe County residents and at least several thousand people around New Mexico are fighting to keep their agricultural-use tax rate, which is considerably less than annual property taxes at the residential rate. An assessment in 2014 by the County Assessor’s Office found that 1,539 of about 2,000 properties were verifiable as agricultural. The rest were questionable.

Those landowners were sent letters requesting documentation to show that their property is still agricultural.

That resulted in a lot of angry people, many of whom are challenging those assessments. In recent months, the newly elected county assessor, Gus Martínez, and his staff have met with property owners at community meetings.

Understanding the importance of the ag valuation to agricultural communities across the state, the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) took the lead in advocating for and passing a bill (SB 112) during the 2015 legislative session by building a statewide and bipartisan coalition to expand the definition of agricultural use for property valuation to include the resting of land under certain conditions such as drought. Over time, some families have subdivided their properties and sold off parcels.

Changes to the initial draft bill removed the minimum-acreage requirement and the inclusion of recreational horses. The final bill signed by Gov. Martínez provides an additional tool to help county assessors better meet the concerns of agricultural land users. The bill states: “Agricultural use” includes the resting of land as the direct result of at least moderate drought conditions as designated by the USDA if the drought conditions occurred in the county within which the land is located for at least eight consecutive weeks during the previous tax year and provided that the land was used in the tax year immediately preceding the previous tax year primarily for the production of agricultural products.

Ag Lands Valuation Workshop – May 7 • Nambé Community Center

The NMAA is hosting a workshop on May 7, at Nambé Community Center to help Santa Fe County residents and anyone else interested in the valuation process understand this topic. For more information, call 505.995.9644.

Green Fire Times • May 2015

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New Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Café Thriving

Café Fresh uses locally roasted, organic coffee beans from Aroma Coffee and organic dairy and dairy alternatives such as soy or almond milk.The café also offers local honey, organic Bhakti chai, spicy and organic hot ginger tea. Chimayó red chile powder is used to make Mexican Mochas.

Organic flavorings are available for coffee drinks.

Particularly notable at Café Fresh is the delicious Heather Bradley, manager, and green drink. The café’s baristas shop at the Colleen O’Leary, assistant manager farmers’ market for this healthy smoothie’s ingredients: kale, chard and sprouts, all from local farms.The addition of organic bananas, strawberries, chía seeds and honey create the sweet flavor.

© Anna C. Hansen (2)

If you haven’t visited the new shops at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, this would be a good time.

The remodeled retail space, which includes Café Fresh, the new espresso bar, has really hit its stride.

Café Fresh is small but has many food offerings, including soups, bagel sandwiches and quesadillas. Whenever possible, the ingredients for soups and sandwiches come from the farmers’ market. Gluten-free cookies and decadent pastries are sourced from local bakeries. There is quiche from Crumpackers Bakery on Sundays, when the Railyard Artisan Market occupies the pavilion space. The café also has handcrafted mugs for sale, crafted by local potters.

All the proceeds from Café Fresh and the other café, in the market hall, directly benefit the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market.The market is open year-round on Saturdays. Café Fresh and the other shops are open an hour later than the farmers’ market, until 2 p.m. every Saturday and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the Tuesday market, which starts on May 5, the café opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 1 p.m. In June, the market will switch to its summer hours, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at 1 p.m.”.

On April 10, roundtable discussions were held during the 2015 Taos County Farming & Ranching Fair.

The event’s theme: “Opportunity for Renewal.” The stated goals: To reaffirm, continue and strengthen wise land-use traditions and practices; build partnerships; and explore innovative farming and ranching strategies. Topics included agricultural land tax valuation, successful field replanting, water conservation, livestock management, weed and pest control, and making money in agriculture.

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© Seth Roffman (2)

Taos Farmers and Ranchers Roundtable

Farmhouse Café in Taos Helps Build a Local Farming Network

Seth Roffman

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Besides providing high-quality organic local cuisine to diners, the Farmhouse Café and Bakery supports local farmers and is helping build a local farming network. The Farmhouse has sourced its ingredients from over 20 local farms and ranches.

Thus far, the café has purchased 10,000 pounds of organic flour from the Costilla-based Sangre de Cristo Wheat Project 4,000 gallons of organic oil, 8,000 pounds of locally grown Yukon gold potatoes from White Mountain Farm, 12,000 organic eggs from locally owned Happy Hens Farm and 600 pounds Robert Mirabal and Robby Romero of biodynamic salad greens from Morningstar Farm. Other local sources include Sangre de Cristo wheat, corn meal from Santa Ana Pueblo and Mary’s Organic Top (r): UNM Kid’s Campus visit to the café’s garden. Locally sourced food includes Chicken. Local carrots, potatoes, cabbage and salad greens are also supplied by Chimayó red chile bison stew as well as wild mushroom barley vegan soup.

Cerro Vista Farm. Sweet Grass Beef and products made from Organic Valley Sustainable Native Agriculture Project the number of meals per day, add milk and butter are also used. in the 1980s that originally drew several new schools to the fall lunch Roseberry to the Taos area. program and include weekly activities that connect the students to their Upcoming Sustainable food with gardening and cooking. In Farming Workshop collaboration with the Taos Village The café’s garden has produced Taos blue corn, quinoa, ancient wheat, black Nile Roseberry has been teaching UNMFarm, Roseberry established a UNM barley and over 500 pounds of squash, which provided the café with roasted squash Taos’ Sustainable Farming classes Teaching Farm last fall that will be soup and curry squash pie throughout the winter. for the last two semesters. She is the site of a Community School Farm also presenting a UNM Sustainable The Farmhouse Café and Bakery started as a local organic farm-to-table café project. UNM Sustainable Farming Farming workshop from July 6 through but quickly became a point of convergence for many community projects. Last student mentors, high school students July 10. The workshop will focus on August, the café began serving 90 organic breakfasts and lunches to UNM’s Kid’s and preschool groups will work together growing quinoa and small grains, Campus and the Little Bug Preschool. Roseberry uses the café’s infrastructure to grow grains and vegetables in a field creating a successful CSA, beekeeping, to subsidize the production of high-quality meals for the students. Student field and salad greens year-round in a highharvesting and marketing, planting and trips and visits to the Farmhouse range tunnel greenhouse. storing vegetables for winter storage, from garden harvest activities and picnics making goat cheese, using biodynamic This summer the Farmhouse garden is to a monthly cooking day with Inspire preparations, growing hops and much hosting a 40-member CSA (Community Bilingual Preschool and evening family more.

Supported Agriculture) project that cooking classes featuring five-star dinners. includes a “share-a-share” program Local food is always at the center. Pinto For anyone interested in experiencing for low-income families. Roseberry beans from Vicente Valdez’s farm are an the culture in agriculture, Robert will share her own 12 years of CSA example of a healthy food that costs only Mirabal will be kicking off a summer experience with beginning farmers in a 14 cents per serving. Last fall, Roseberry series, “Mirabal and Friends,” by Young Farmers Coalition to help grow packed up her solar oven and visited playing another benefit dinner concert the potential production capabilities Taos Elementary Garden and UNM at the Farmhouse Café and Bakery on in Taos County. Her goal is a CSA in Kid’s Campus and helped students plant, Saturday, May 9. The café is located at every neighborhood. Coincidentally, harvest and make kale chips from their 1405 Paseo del Norte in El Prado, three one of her coalition partners, Sam school’s garden. miles north of Taos Plaza. For more Gregory, is growing on a farm at New information, call 575.758.LOVE or As this school year is coming to a Buffalo in Arroyo Hondo, that was the visit farmhousecafeandbakery.com i close, plans are underway to quadruple home of Southwest Learning Centers’

© Bill Curry

The Farmhouse has sourced its ingredients from over 20 local farms and ranches.

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© Tina Larkin

Tiwa Farms is helping get more Taos Pueblo fields back into production, supporting farmers’ efforts to grow healthy food for the pueblo’s families and schools. Mirabal plowed 50 fields last spring. Tiwa Farms provides the Farmhouse Café with custom-ground corn meal and blue popcorn.

Mirabal photo © Seth Roffman

© Jody McNicholas (2)

seed exchange and garden blessing marked the beginning of the growing season in Taos and brought together the collaborative efforts of musician Robert Mirabal’s Tiwa Farms and Micah Roseberry’s Farmhouse Café and Bakery. Mirabal brought his native seed collection to share and, after plowing the Farmhouse garden, played an “Iron Horse” concert with Robby Romero. Proceeds from the concert and a farm-to-table dinner benefitted the café’s organic school lunch program, Tiwa Farms and an outdoor garden for the Taos Pueblo Head Start program.

The Local Voice

Local Soil, Local Food

Vicki Pozzebon

ull disclosure: I am no soil expert. I fancy myself more of an expert on water quality, having grown up with a water well-drilling father who was, in fact, a soil tester and certified geologist. I was the kid who did science projects on water-quality testing and kept a pH test kit in my school bag, mostly because I liked watching the litmus paper turn colors in the water fountain.

So how does a localist with an interest in clean water get so passionate about soil?

Maybe because, after 10 years of living in New Mexico and watching our topsoil blow away in 40-mile-per-hour winds every spring, I have come to understand that soil is an important component to our food and water supply. I’ve been working deeply in the local food system movement for years now, but soil has never once entered into my conversations. Until very recently, that is.

In early February, on an unseasonably warm day for the California Bay area, about 30 localists, ranchers, farmers and impact investors met on the TomKat Ranch, in Pescadero, to learn how to sequester carbon in soil and heal our climate while growing better cattle and food for our local food systems. I will confess, the first few hours I walked around the ranch listening to stories about their 100 percent grass-fed beef operation and how they brought back native grass by allowing cattle to free forage and frequently rotating them, thereby Jaum Barron of regenerating the healthy grassland and reducing their carbon Fruit of the Earth footprint on the environment. I wondered out loud, “What’s this Organics got to do with local economies?”

Turns out, soil—composed of minerals and microorganisms—can hold up to one billion bacteria, several yards of fungal filaments, several thousand protozoa and scores of nematodes in just one teaspoon. What we put into our soil or, on the flipside, take out of it, matters. Depleting soil of these nutrients with pesticides and chemicals or allowing them to simply blow away in the wind makes for a very unhealthy environment for you, me and the food we eat—from our beef to our poultry to our veggies and dairy. This all makes for an unhealthy food system, too, as we rely more on large-scale farming, where chemicals are dumped into the soil and pesticides are sprayed to keep the crops “healthy,” and then that produce is trucked thousands of miles across the country.

Without healthy soil, we cannot have healthy local economies.

Plants need soil to grow, and soil is the basis for everything you and I need to thrive: food, flora, fiber, fuel. I felt like I’d somehow skipped this Soil 101 class as a kid. Why didn’t I remember this? Why had I taken soil for granted all these years and not thought about the how of my food grown locally? Of course, I know that organic or sustainable farming practices are better for me and the environment. Of course, I know that grassfed beef is better for me and the environment. Of course, I knew all these things. What I did not know was just how very depleted our country’s soil is and what some ranchers and farmers are doing to holistically manage their production to regenerate the soil and sequester carbon. It already holds 2.5 trillion (with a T) tons of carbon, and with effective land management we can build carbon in soil by 1 to 3 billion tons per year, equaling approximately 3.4 to 11 billion tons of carbon dioxide, or one-third of all human-generated carbon emissions, annually. We all know about the drought we’ve been experiencing in the Southwest and, with temperatures rising and megadroughts perhaps not far off, the result will be less water in the soil, which means less food, loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitats, all resulting in weaker local economies. Because soil sequesters carbon from the atmosphere and stores it deep underground, it can be our best tool to fight climate change. Through photosynthesis, plants transfer carbon to the soil, acting as a “carbon sink” that simultaneously boosts agriculture productivity, purifies our air and stores water. According to Peter Donovan of the Soil Carbon Coalition, the carbon cycle is “the mother of all ecosystems services. This process does eight times the work of all industrial energy used by humans.”

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So what does it all mean? This year is the International Year of Soils, and many local, national and worldwide organizations are partnering to spread the gospel of soil. It takes partners and education to turn our soils healthy again. Think about this, from Carbon Cycle Institute’s home webpage: The climate-beneficial carbon cycle solutions championed by CCI cannot be successfully scaled unless CCI’s development partners and allies—including ranchers, conservation, and climate agencies—clearly understand the fundamentals of the carbon cycle, its relationship to soil and climate change, and the direct implications for our global climate.

In response, CCI developed and implemented a “Carbon Cycle 1.0” education and outreach strategy to promote carbon cycle literacy, targeting key constituencies, decisionmakers, and thought leaders in the fields of climate change and sustainable agriculture.

A report released recently at the 3rd Scientific Conference of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Cancún, Pastoralism and the Green Economy—a Natural Nexus?, highlights holistic land management’s role in safeguarding natural capital across a quarter of the world’s land area, stating that it “contributes to water regulation and biodiversity conservation. It also provides other goods such as high-value food products.”

Without healthy soil, we cannot have healthy local economies. It seems so simple, and it is, so let’s not overthink it. I’m urging you, environmentalists, climate-change activists, foodies, home gardeners, urban farmers—eaters all—to care about soil and how things are grown in our local economy, not just where. Learn about healthy soils; ask for grass-fed, not just grass-finished. Ask if your farmer practices holistic land management and is a steward of the land, not just growing your vegetables for your farmers’ market salad. Food grown and cattle raised in the holistic way on land where the soil is repaired for generations to come can be better for us and the environment.Suddenly, my burger tastes a whole lot better, and the air smells a little sweeter. i Vicki Pozzebon is a localist, writer and cultivator. She is a BALLE Fellow and the author of the forthcoming book For the Love of Local: Confessions from the Heart of Community. Read her blog, The Local Voice, at vickipozzebon.com and follow her on Twitter: @vickipozzebon

To learn more about the International Year of Soils:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has information and resources and this excellent infographic: http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/281883/ TomKat Ranch and Left Coast Grass-fed Beef http://www.leftcoastgrassfed.com/about/our-grassfed-cattle/ Soil Carbon Coalition http://soilcarboncoalition.org/

Carbon Cycle Institute http://www.carboncycle.org/

great books to read

Defending Beef, Nicolette Hahn Niman, Chelsea Green Publishing

“Grounded in empirical scientific data and with living examples from around the world, Defending Beef builds a comprehensive argument that cattle can help to build carbon-sequestering soils to mitigate climate change, enhance biodiversity, help prevent desertification, and provide invaluable nutrition.”

The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, Kristin Ohlson, Rodale, Inc.

“Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices—and, especially, modern industrial agriculture—have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world’s soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet. In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and best-selling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for “our great green hope”—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming.”

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© Genevieve Russell

F

CuranderApis – Hive Medicines for Interspecies Body & Spirit

How the Midwives of Agriculture Nurture Ecological, Biological and Psychological Health Melanie Margarita Kirby

W

hen I was first introduced to beekeeping as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, nearly 20 years ago, I had no idea that the mysterious and lively world of beekeeping would captivate me so. The very essence of bee stewardship invited me to pay attention to the flora and biodiversity all around us. As stewards of our landscapes’ well-being, there are opportunities to observe the majesty of the daily synchronicity of our animal, plant and elemental paisanos. I found the interconnectedness of it all—from fields to flowers to food to medicine— awe inspiring and humbling.

And So Goes the Bloom

The manifestation of spring bloom begins with many challenges. With the warming weather and the melting of the Rocky Mountains snow, cold dense air descends into the valleys, following the Río Grande corridor, chilling tender early blossoms. The fragile first steps of spring soon leap to summer with its longer days. As the heat cranks up, landscapes metamorphize. They can be cultivated, manicured and planned.

They can be of mixed inputs and can provide diverse outputs.

Landscapes can provide sustenance.

Undisturbed parcels with varying conditions and microclimates can provide diverse blooms to feed diverse critters, from locusts to coyotes. The landscape is nurtured by the prevailing weather and climate and by what treads, breathes and flows upon it.

The capacities of various landscapes cannot be fully understood until reviewed in relation to surroundings,

Zia Queenbees Farm and Field Institute Workshops

In celebration of their bee farm’s 10th anniversary, Melanie Kirby and Mark Spitzig are offering classroom and field practicum for people interested in honeybee husbandry. The “Intro to Apiculture–Beekeeping in New Mexico” workshops start May 17 and 18 for four consecutive Saturdays in Taos and four consecutive Sundays in Santa Fe. There is a $250 fee. To register, call 505.929.8080. For more info, visit www.ziaqueenbees.com

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circumstances and interactions—both wild and cultivated. Wild interactions can help promote cultivation and vice versa. When honeybees are present, their actions promote vitality and reproductivity. The plants sing to the bees, and the bees, in return, resonate back. This enhanced vibrational field energizes life’s processes.

Miel y Mas – Honey and More

Through pollination, bees help plants bear f ruit, carrying seed that will allow a plant’s story to be passed on.

In return, the bees are awarded a rich mix of protein and carbohydrates.

Bees forage for nutrition to sweat their wax, produce royal jelly, concoct bee bread—a mixture of pollen and honey stored in a honeycomb cell— and transform nectar into honey. They also forage for their own medicine in the form of the foods they prepare.

Propolis, which is resin from plants, shrubs and trees, is used to line the interior of a hive, seal cracks and contain decay and bacteria.

Planting medicinal landscapes feeds the land and the community.

Nectar serves as the carbohydrate and pollen as the protein in a honeybee’s diet. There must be adequate amounts of each for nutritional health. If their forage is compromised, due to either monoculture or toxic residues from systemic insecticides and other environmental contaminants, this will contaminate their forage and food stores. Contamination would also spread to harvestable products such as wax, royal jelly, pollen, bee bread, honey and propolis.

Bees need a lot of energy to make their comb, the skeleton of their nest.

This serves as the housing units where a brood is reared and food stored.

Beeswax is actually the byproduct of bees sweating. They intake a lot of nectar and increase their body temperature in order for their wax glands to produce tiny “coins” of wax, which they pass from sister to sister and form into the hexagonal honeycomb

that will contain their nest. It takes more than 20 pounds of nectar for bees to sweat out just one pound of beeswax. It is their biggest asset and takes the most energy to produce. Once they have their comb’s “spinal column” formed, foraging bees will begin to store “bee-kissed” nectar that has been collected from flowers, brought into the hive and passed from sister to sister, mixing with enzymes in their mouths and then deposited into a hexagonal cell for dehydration and storage. Nectar varies in consistency from plant to plant, but it is mainly water and sucrose that can be broken down into fructose and glucose. The bees must dehydrate it in order to preserve it, so that it doesn’t ferment and can be stored and consumed during the months when blooms are not available. Dehydrated, enzymed nectar turns into honey.

S ome honey s are light, others amber or dark. It all depends on the floral source, which depends on the season, topography and climate.

Some crystallize quickly, while a few never crystallize. Crystallization of honey is a natural phenomenon. The ratio of sugar to water determines if crystallization will occur. The higher the sugar content, the more likely the honey will crystallize. This is only for honey that has not been subjected to high heat or pasteurization.

This pure honey is considered raw because it retains traces of pollen, wax and sometimes propolis. Raw honey is more nutritious than pasteurized

honey because the quantity of essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids is preserved, whereas high heat will take a lot of the good nutrients out. In New

Mexico, raw honey crystallizes rather quickly because our arid, high-desert environment hosts plants that are able to preserve their water to prevent drying out. Plants here are quite intelligent. They know to not relinquish precious water stores when conditions are not conducive. For example, many plants will produce nectar and pollen at specific intervals of the day and will not give up their nectar during the hottest hours. Some will not produce any nectar unless it is above a certain temperature; such as alfalfa, which will only begin producing nectar at 70 degrees F. Additionally, not all nectar is created equal. Some nectars have a higher sugar content than others. For instance, some varieties of pears begin blooming at the same time as apples. Bees prefer apple blossoms to pear blossoms because the apple blossoms offer sweeter nectar. Some plants will produce continued on page 24

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CuranderApis

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pollen and nectar that, with heavy, wet spring snow, high winds or monsoon rains, can be washed or blown away and, thus, will not be as attractive to bees. Circumstances change with the weather. If there is no moisture, there is little or no bloom, and plants know not to extend all their resources, so their nectar and pollen offerings may be of a different quality.

Medicinal plants also transmit some of their healing energies into their nectar, pollen and sap. It is with purpose that the bees collect these nectars, whether they do so knowingly or not. Once collected, gathered and transformed into honey, propolis and bee bread, these essential nectars, pollens and saps serve to nourish and to maintain health.

Planting more medicinal landscapes feeds the land and the community.

The bees’ preservation of nectar into bee bread creates the sustenance for them to feed themselves, their young and their queen. In good years, surplus food stores can be harvested by a beekeeper. The worker bees have different jobs within the hive to cover all the necessary tasks for its maintenance. Soon after emergence from their cocoons, new bees begin their lives serving as nurse bees, feeding the young larvae before pupation. And the cycle continues.

The midwives of agriculture include bees, butterflies, birds, bats, wasps, flies and moths.

La Jalea Royal – Royal Jelly

All babies, for the first three days of their larval stage, are fed royal jelly, a powerful, nutrient-rich antioxidant and anti-aging concoction made by honeybees. Royal jelly looks like yogurt and tastes like it, too, with a spicy kick.

After the third day, sister worker bees and their brothers—drones—will have their diet switched to bee bread, packed together in layers in honeycomb. Royal jelly is tedious to produce and harvest and is highly prized. Only the queen bee has a royal jelly diet all of her life.

She can live several years, whereas workers live only a few weeks during the foraging season. Drones can live up to a few months.

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Several Asian countries have substantial royal-jelly production. There are not many in the United States. One small-scale bee farm in northern New Mexico harvests royal jelly: my farm, Zia Queenbees Farm & Field Institute, which this year is celebrating a decade of service.

El Polen – Pollen

Because pollen serves as the protein for the bees’ diet, it is known to be an energy booster. Pollen is a sacred substance; it is alive and carries the stories of the past into the future by passing on the genetic legacy. Pollen is like seed; it helps create the fruit that will beget the seeds that are grown, saved, shared and passed from one generation to the next.

The difference between pollen and bee bread is that pollen, in its raw form, is a granule. All pollens have tough silicone exteriors to protect them as they travel through the air via the wind or pollinators. The nutrition contained in raw pollen is hard to access and is not digestible due to the exterior silicone casing. Thus, in order to access the nutrition within the pollen, one must pierce the tough casing by mixing pollen into something acidic such as yogurt, honey or juice.

Bee bread has had its exterior pierced and is also preserved in the honey so as not to ferment or mold. Numerous live cultures and yeasts are found in pollen, which is why it is referred to as a live food.

And so it is. As the bees buzz, caressing our enchanted landscapes, they provide the resonance and synchronicity of the cycles of life and health and wellbeing. Their products in various forms and combinations help to heal the landscape and lifecycles and, also, can help heal humans, animals and plants.

Healing with hive medicines is called apitherapy and includes the products of the hive and their combinations, as well as bee-sting and acoustic therapies.

It is with great reverence that I’ve learned to approach our tierra encantada and the intricacies of our multicultural tapestry as we embrace and encourage the cycles of life. Hand in hand, or hand in wing, we can ride Mother Nature’s cloak and help steward health and well-being for the diverse forms of life to which we are so connected and with which we are blessed to interact.

May the buzz be with you – ¡Qué Viva Las Abejas! i Melanie Margarita Kirby is a native New Mexican from Tortugas Pueblo. She and her partner, Mark Spitzig, established Zia Queenbees in 2005 to provide New Mexico communities with pollination services, locally bred pollinators, hive products, hive medicines and research. She is the editor of kelleybees. com, a monthly online newsletter. Visit www. ziaqueenbees.com for more information.

Pesticides Are Likely Damaging Ecosystem Services

Neonicotinoid pesticides are sold by agrichemical companies to boost industrial agricultural yields of staple crops and are also widely used on annual and perennial plants in gardens and lawns. Global sales reach into the billions of dollars.

“Neonics” are chemically similar to nicotine. A study published last month in the journal Nature found that bees, particularly bumblebees, might actually get addicted to neonicotinoid-laced nectar. If foraging bees prefer to collect nectar containing this pesticide, it could have a negative impact on whole colonies and bee populations.

In 2013, the European Commission, an influential scientific body, banned the use of neonics on flowering plants after a separate organization, the European Food Safety Authority, found that exposure to the chemicals created “high acute risks” for bees. In an effort to overturn the ban, two of the main neonic producers—Syngenta and Bayer CropScience—have sued the commission.

Last month, a report the commission released said that neonics are more damaging than previously thought. The report says that a growing body of evidence shows that widespread use of the pesticides “has severe effects on a range of ecosystem services like pollination and natural pest control, as well as on biodiversity.” The report went on to question whether the pesticides have a place in sustainable agriculture.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a moratorium on new neonics. The agency has not yet mandated the removal of such pesticides that are currently on the market. A study by Friends of the Earth and Pesticide Research Institute in 2014 found that 51 percent of garden plants purchased at Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart in 18 cities in the United States and Canada contained neonic pesticides at levels that could harm or kill bees. Home Depot, the largest U.S. homeimprovement chain, has asked its suppliers to start labeling any plants treated with neonics and is running tests to see if suppliers can eliminate neonics in their plant production. Joining a few U.S. retailers who took similar steps last year, Lowe’s, anticipating suitable alternatives, will phase out sales of neonics by the spring of 2019.

Some studies assert that neonic pesticides are killing off bees on such a large scale that our food security is threatened. Honeybees pollinate plants that produce about a fourth of the food consumed by Americans.

The midwives of agriculture include bees, butterflies, birds, bats, wasps, flies and moths that help pollinate landscapes for continued biodiversity.

The wide diversity will provide food for micro- to macroscopic life forms. In its entirety, it is all about reproduction of lifecycles and giving birth to beings that exist both in spirit and in whatever capacity their material form allows.

Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Santa Fe Green Festival – May 16, 8 a.m to 3 p.m.

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The 2nd annual Santa Fe Green Festival will take place on May 16 at El Museo Cultural, 555 Camino de la Familia. Businesses and organizations will showcase the latest in green products and services. In conjunction with the farmers’ market, festival-goers can experience green building design and home technologies, renewable-energy options, electric vehicles, organic food, water conservation and harvesting, interactive exhibits for kids and much more. For more information, call 505.428.9123 or visit santafegreenchamber.org

Scenes from the 2014 Santa Fe Green Festival

Fire Season: An Exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art • May 1 – July 26 Timed to coincide with New Mexico’s fire season, an exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art, in Santa Fe, features work by five photographers who explore the dynamic element of fire. Subjects include controlled burns and active wildfires, as well as their aftermath of devastation and renewal. The exhibition opens May 1 at 5:30 p.m., with a free public reception, and runs through July 26. In honor of National Wildfire Preparedness weekend, the museum extends a special welcome to firefighters and their families on May 3. At 2 p.m., Dr. Alexander Evans, Research Director at the Forest Guild, will present a free lecture, Fire and Communities: Images and Science.

Forests are of ten referred to as the lungs of the planet, functioning by absorbing carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere—the opposite of people.

Ne w M e x i c o’s abundant forests and trees are thus a crucial natural resource and have long defined its distinctive and beloved landscape.

Wildfires are a natural Greg MacGregor, Tres Lagunas fire, 2013 part of regulating those ecosystems but pose a threat to human habitations, especially the uncharacteristically severe fires of recent years. Featured in the show are two Santa Feans who have photographed extensively in the Jémez Mountains in the aftermath of the Las Conchas fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres in 2011. Patricia Galagan and Philip Metcalf approached the site as both evidence of an unprecedented local fire and as an extraordinary visual terrain, returning for numerous visits in 2012 and 2013. Working in black-and-white with infrared film, Metcalf ’s series, Fire Ghosts, captures the skeletal remains of a once-verdant forest—stark vistas of blackened old-growth trees and ashen ground. In Fire Frazzle, we see a portrait of a towering individual tree destroyed by fire. Despite the sobering subject matter, Metcalf finds

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unexpected beauty in the burned trees. Galagan’s series, The Green Fuse, also addresses the inescapable destruction of the fire-ravaged landscape but emphasizes fire’s role in the regeneration of the forest ecosystem. Pieces in the show range from Tiny River of Green, in which the artist highlights a small area of regrowth among the dead trees, to August’s Garden, in which a massive fallen trunk is cradled in the grasses and wildflowers nourished by the burn. The images, Galagan writes, “remind us that the most essential task of a forest in our hotter, drier world is to survive.”

Unexpected beauty and renewal in burned trees

Jane Fulton Alt’s series, The Burn, began in an eventful year in which her first grandchild was born, her sister was diagnosed with cancer, and she witnessed a controlled prairie fire in the area bordering Chicago. Struck by the expressive possibilities of the fire at this turbulent time in her life, Alt spent the next six years working amidst the heat and smoke of controlled burns in Lake Forest, Illinois, attempting to capture “the ephemeral moment when life and death are not opposed but are harmonized as a single process…” In Burn No.93 and Burn No. 55, she uses the subtleties of shifting smoke as visual manifestations of her own disorientation, lucidity and emotional fluidity, using the external landscapes to reflect inner states.

Larry Schwarm, a native of Kansas, has been photographing prairie fires in vivid color for several decades. Printed large and often appearing as fields of intense color, Schwarm’s pictures convey the scale and force of prairie fires, along with their terrible beauty. The most successful images, he says, “look the way it felt to be there,” evoking the intense sight, smell, temperature and sound of a wildfire. His image Prairie Fire Near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, vividly suggests the velocity, heat and light of a conflagration sweeping across the plains, while Smoke Passage, Chase County, Kansas, shows a towering expanse of smoke ascending apocalyptically into the sky, illuminated by the red glow of fire.

Finally, Santa Fe landscape photographer Greg MacGregor sums up in one image the challenges of having human-built environments adjacent to forested areas. His blackand-white view of New Mexico’s Rail Runner train shows it stopped at the Santa Fe depot with a colossal column of roiling smoke rising behind, from the Tres Lagunas fire of 2013. The photograph is a reminder of nature’s power and its indifference to where we build our houses, suggesting that we need to continue working to adapt ourselves to the ongoing presence of fire in our lives. For more information, see http://www.nmartmuseum.org/focus

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2015 Sustainable Santa Fe Award Winners

T

he annual Sustainable Santa Fe Awards were presented

by New Mexico State Sen. Peter Wirth on April 8 at a gala sponsored by the city of Santa Fe’s Sustainable Santa Fe Commission (coordinated by SSF Programs Manager Katherine Mortimer), Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, Earth Care, Green Fire Times, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services and La Fonda Hotel.

The awards celebrate community members taking leadership roles in advancing sustainability in the areas of environmental stewardship, economic health and social justice. They recognize model projects that are helping Santa Fe reduce its ecological footprint, mitigate carbon emissions and build resilience in the face of climate change, in accordance with the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan.

And the winners are…

Affordable Green Building Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity (505.986.5880, ted@sfhfh.org) Habitat for Humanity built highly energy-efficient “Passive Homes” that require strict benchmarks for insulation, air infiltration, air quality, solar

Community College or Rancho Viejo, allowing Santa Feans to reduce the carbon footprint of motorized vehicles.

Environmental Advocacy New Energy Economy (505.989.7262, www.NewEnergyEconomy.org)

The nonprofit advocacy group New Energy Economy—“addressing the climate challenge with bold solutions”—worked with people and organizations throughout northern New Mexico that would be adversely affected

by PNM’s proposed powerreplacement plan. The alternative proposal the group developed gave people a voice for a plan that would be healthier and more just for all PNM customers.

Water Efficiency Water Efficiency Rating System (WERS) Development Team (505.603.5498, doug@harvesth2o.com)

gain and solar panels. The homes are expected to use only 28 percent of the amount of energy of a conventional home. They were made available to low-income residents earning less than 60 percent of the area’s median income, with zero-percent interest financing.

Renewable Energy or Energy Efficiency Anne Alexander and Richard Khanlian with Homewise (505.983.9473, www.homewise.org) Ann Alexander and Richard Khanlian, working through Homewise, have created the Santa Fe SOL (Solar Opportunity Loan) fund, which provides low-interest loans for solar installations to low- and moderate-income households that would otherwise not be able to afford solar. The initiative also provides education about the benefits of solar.

Transportation New Mexico Department of Transportation – District 5

NMDOT repaved the full width of Rabbit Road from Old Pecos Trail, with rehabilitated shoulders for pedestrian and bicycle travel. The project provides safe, nonmotorized access to those traveling between the Rail Trail and Santa Fe

T h e W ERS D e ve l o pm e n t Team created an innovative, performance-based, waterconservation tool for new and existing homes. It is an easyto-use interactive software program to assist in designing and building or in water use to reduce the energy and carbon footprint required to process drinking water.

The WERS rating was a collaborative effort of the Santa Fe Area Homebuilders Association’s Green Building Council, Santa Fe Water Conservation Committee, Santa Fe Community College, Build Green New Mexico and the nonprofit Green Building Coalition. It has been accepted by the New Mexico Construction Utilities Commission and will likely be adopted nationally.

Food Systems Adaptation Santa Sidra Cider (505.424.6122, www.santasidra.com)

Santa Sidra Hard Cider produced 100 percent of its award-winning handcrafted beverages with 25 tons of apples from New Mexico growers that otherwise would have been wasted. In 2014, this generated over $25,000 in revenue for farmers, created local jobs and helped keep local orchards alive and preserve New Mexico’s agricultural heritage.

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Ne w M e x i c o’s apples make excel lent hard cider because they come from highdesert orchards, grow in mineral-rich volcanic soils, get abundant sunshine, hot days and cool nights, and are watered by historic acequia irrigation systems.

All of this results in ciders with amazing flavors.

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Student Wellness Action Team (SWAT) members participated in a campaign to ban the sale of miniature liquor bottles on Santa Fe’s south side. SWAT members created an educational video about the Airport Road areas and the influence of the availability of alcohol on underage drinking, community self-image, stewardship and health.

Community Outreach or Education Santa Fe Public Schools (505.467.3445, lrandall@sfps.info) and Reunity Resources (505.629.0836, www.reunityresources.com) This partnership launched a schoollunch waste-composting program in Santa Fe’s elementary and community schools that educates over 5,000 students about the effects of food waste on the environment and the value of soil for healthy food. The program is cost neutral and diverts over 1,500 pounds of food from the landfill daily, preventing more than 810 tons of CO2 from polluting the atmosphere. The waste is turned into organic compost that can be used to enrich the community’s soils.

SFPS’s energy and conservation program has also significantly reduced consumption of water, natural gas and electricity and has installed 500 kW of solar photovoltaic on eight campuses.

Ecosystems Tesuque Pueblo Agriculture Department (505.983.2667)

Tesuque Farms has built an amazing seed bank of local heirloom seeds and is experimenting with low-water and space-efficient cultivation methods.

Their processing facility and several greenhouses are powered and heated by solar and “earth battery” technology.

Their new vertical-growing system for strawberries allows them to cultivate 12,000 strawberry plants in a 25x60 -ft. greenhouse, with minimal water.

They are also experimenting with fruit trees in hoop houses to protect them from early frost. These experiments will inform the entire region about how to adapt local food cultivation to changing climactic conditions.

Environmental Justice Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute (518.332.3256, www.4bridges.org) Four Bridges led the development of the Northern New Mexico Coalition Against GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The group brought awareness about the detrimental effects of GMOs to the Española mayor and city council and to area tribal governments. This initiative prevented 80 acres of GMO poplar trees from being planted and has instead inspired sustainable agricultural development.

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Triple Bottom Line AlphaGraphics Santa Fe (505.473.1300, jrobinson@alphagraphics.com)

The Triple Bottom Line award is presented to a business that balances economy, environment and equity in its practices. AlphaGraphics is the only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified printer in Santa Fe. FSC standards (www.fsc.org) help prevent clear cutting and protect indigenous peoples’ rights.

Waste Management Eldorado/285 Recycles (eldorado285recycles@mail.com, eldorado285recycles.org)

This volunteerr u n g r o u p’s mission is to encourage all residents of Eldorado and the 285 Corridor t o re d u c e t h e amount of material they send to the landfill by practicing the “5 Rs”: Refusing to buy unneeded items; Reducing unneeded packaging of what they buy; Repairing what they can, to extend its life; Reusing other people’s unwanted things in place of buying new; and Recycling whatever can’t be repaired or reused.

The group’s “Compost in Every Backyard” project has provided materials, labor and education for home worm-composting to 40 homes. It is estimated that this prevents 12 tons of food scraps from going to the landfill each year.

Green Product/Technology Fiberspan Concrete Elements (505.278.0464, www.ConcreteVigas.com)

Fi b e r s p a n Concrete Elements has created in n o v a tive, sustainable vigas, canales, headers and other elements that last at least 50 years, using a cement that takes one-third less energy to produce than regular cement. The products look like wood but last longer and hold up to the ravages of water and ice. This saves homeowners having to replace wood canales every seven to 10 years.

Green Economic Development Fruit of the Earth Organics (505.310.7917, www.fruitoftheearthorganics.com)

Fruit of the Earth Organics produces organic medical cannabis products in Santa Fe, creating more than a dozen good-paying jobs. The production process has a nearly-zero carbon footprint. It uses much less energy and water than conventional growers.

The plants grow year-round in full sunlight and are watered with spring water and rainwater catchment.

Earth-friendly packaging is used, with recyclable tins, compostable bioplastics (made from plants) and recycled paper labels. i

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Youth Led Student Wellness Action Team (bianca@earthcarenm.org)

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and he began to trust his car to the open air. When Gilbert and Evelyn eventually bought their own house, one of the sections that he focused special attention on was the garage that sheltered his precious ride.

In future years, after Elvis and his younger brother were born, the family always looked forward to their Sunday afternoon drives in the “vettie,” as little Angelo called it. Because the Corvette had only two seats, Evelyn had to hold Angelo on her lap while Elvis straddled the hump between the two front seats as they drove. Elvis always asked his dad the same question whenever they were out for a cruise, “Dad, can I drive?”

Gilbert would respond, “So, Elvis, you think you’re fuerte enough to handle a Corvette?” Elvis knew this was his cue to pull up a sleeve and cock his right arm while making a fist, to display his tiny bicep. Gilbert would run his finger over it, whistle in admiration and comment to Evelyn, “This boy of ours is built like an adobe house. I bet he’s going to be a heavyweight champion someday.” Elvis basked in his praise and hopped on his dad’s lap, his little brown hands gripping the steering wheel as they rolled down the street.

In the early 1960s, there were no seat-belt laws enforced in Santa Fe, and there were few cars on the road

They were content and happy, perhaps with limited resources but with limited desires as well. to worry about. The Romeros loved to drive all afternoon, waving at friends on the Plaza or in their front yards.

Gilbert marveled at all the new tract houses that were going up courtesy of the G.I. Bill and the Baby Boom.

The highlight of these Sunday rides was a visit to the 31 Flavors Ice Cream Parlor. Elvis and Angelo took an infinite amount of time peering through the glass panels at the buckets of ice cream with names like Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, Dulce de Leche, and Peaches and Cream. In desperation, Evelyn demanded, “You locos make up your minds before the ice cream melts

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in the buckets.” Inevitably, the boys coveted the flavor that the other had chosen, and they ended up swapping.

The family sat in one of the porcelain table nooks and watched the sun sink in the dwindling afternoon. They were content and happy, perhaps with limited resources but with limited desires as well.

Elvis came to love the Corvette as much as his father did. In the evenings after he’d finished his homework, Elvis would wander into the garage and sit in

the driver’s seat, caressing the steering wheel in the dark, taking in the magical sounds of rock n’ roll on the dashboard radio and dreaming about the day when he had his own Corvette and people looked up to him in the same way they did his dad.

The men on Cerro Gordo Road congregated outside their homes on warm summer nights, huddled around transistor radios, listening as heavyweight champ Cassius Clay knocked out one seemingly invincible foe after another. They loved him, not only because he was a great fighter, but because he had so much style. He was a champion of the people, Chicanos included. They loved the clever things he said to Howard Cosell after his victories, like, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” or “When you’re as great as I am, it’s hard to be humble.”

That Cassius Clay had real cojones.

Everybody was also excited about the new, young president who was elected in 1960. John F. Kennedy spoke about equality and opportunity for all Americans. There was something about him and his beautiful wife, Jackie, that you could trust. He had kids running around the White House just like regular folks, and, to top it all off, he was a Catholic. Yes, things looked pretty hopeful for a while.

Of course, it all came to a screeching halt on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas,

Green Fire Times • May 2015

Texas. There was talk at school that somebody had tried to shoot the president.

When Elvis arrived home, his mom and some neighbors were transfixed on a 12-inch black and white TV. Mrs. Aranda f rom next door was weeping and exclaimed, “Sin verguënza, Mis Dios, what is this world coming to?” The TV announcer, Walter Cronkite, was crying, too, as he took off his thick, black-framed glasses, rubbed his temple and croaked out that President Kennedy was dead.

Over the next few days as the terrible drama unfolded, the Romero family sat glued in front of the television. It finally ended with their hero, along with what seemed like their innocence, being buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Elvis’s young psyche was forever changed by these events. He began to understand that there might be evil in the world, and, along with sunlight, there existed shadows. On the night President Kennedy was assassinated, for the first time in his life, Elvis was afraid of the dark. The black outside his bedroom window was suddenly ominous, like there was a sinister presence lurking. He pulled the covers over his head and fell into a troubled sleep. These events and others taking place in the larger world had a profound influence on Elvis and all of the kids growing up in his little town.

Elvis’s childhood was pretty typical for a Santa Fe muchacho. Aside from going to school, Elvis and his best friend, Rudy, spent most of their time riding bikes with high handlebars and banana seats around the narrow, winding streets of the city until the sun went down.

There was a belief amongst the adults that the children were being looked after by everyone in the community.

Santa Fe was a safe town to grow up in, and bad things only happened in places far away. The grown-ups possessed a sense of fatalism that provided a certain perspective when the occasional tragic

© Anna C. Hansen (2)

Elvis Romero

event did occur, such as a child being hit by a car or dying young due to an unfortunate disease. The good people of Santa Fe believed that it was all part of God’s plan, and even though some things were hard to comprehend, God had a greater purpose for everything that happened in the world. Perhaps a child was being called to heaven because there weren’t enough angels, or the beloved’s passing was a lesson to the living about the transitory nature of life and how important it was to appreciate every day to its fullest.

These attitudes served to give the children a great deal of freedom. There were few boundaries as they cut across yards and parking lots in marauding gangs of shiny bikes. All of the kids had playing cards attached with clothespins to the spokes of their wheels. This produced a deafening clicking noise that sounded like an invasion of motorcycle outlaws descending on the quiet neighborhoods.

Elvis and Rudy were especially fond of riding their bikes after the thunderstorms that blessed the town during the summer months. The day often began with glorious sunshine, and as the morning progressed, big, billowing clouds formed and turned darker. By about one or two o’clock in the afternoon, thunder rumbled in the distance, and soon the skies let loose with torrents of cold rain that lasted for about thirty minutes before the clouds scattered and bright, yellow sunshine returned. This pattern repeated itself almost every day during July and August, the time of the year that Santa Fe folks called the monsoon season.

After it rained, streets filled with small puddles of water that evaporated continued on page 31

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Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Some of the Bills that Passed the 2015 New Mexico Legislature that Were Signed or Vetoed by Governor Susana Martínez maps and recommendations. The commission will coordinate with the many stakeholders along the Río Grande, including cities, counties, tribes, federal agencies, conservancy districts and private citizens.

© Anna C. Hansen

• A new state-tribal gambling compact was sent to federal officials for their approval.

The compact, endorsed by the state Legislature and signed by five tribes, is a 22year agreement. The tribes that signed are the Navajo Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, Mescalero Apache Tribe, Acoma Pueblo and Jemez Pueblo, which has not yet opened a casino. Other New Mexico tribes are expected to eventually sign on to the compact.

VETOED SIGNED

• S enate Bill 112 allows agricultural producers to continue to receive a break on their property taxes during periods of prolonged drought. County assessors will be able to continue classifying land as agricultural, even if it’s not in production, as long as the USDA has declared at least moderate drought in any part of the county.

The law requires that basic infrastructure such as irrigation ditches and fences are maintained, even if no crops are being produced or livestock grazed.

• S B 279 extends the sustainable building tax credit through 2027. The credit is worth up to $6,000 against state income-tax liability for builders of homes that meet green standards that improve both energy and water efficiency. The annual allotment for single-family homes has been getting used up within months of becoming available. The credit has an annual cap of $4 million for single-family home construction and $1 million for commercial construction. Eligible projects must be completed or certified by either Build Green New Mexico or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

• S B 565 extends a 30 percent film tax credit for stand-alone television pilot episodes, making it easier for feature-film productions to qualify for the 30 percent labor credit by expanding the definition of “qualified facilities” to include outdoor movie ranches. The bill will also encourage local hiring by increasing the percentage of crew—not actors—that must reside in New Mexico in order for a production to be eligible for a tax credit.

• H ouse Bill 216 allows film companies to assign their tax rebates to banks on a onetime basis in order to get upfront loans.

• H B 560 prohibits civil asset forfeiture, sometimes called “policing for profit.” This will stop police from taking someone’s assets unless there is a conviction linking the money or property to the crime.

• H B 563 creates the Río Grande Trail Commission to study the best paths for a new Río Grande Trail. The commission is required to hold public meetings across the state, set up a website and publish meeting information online with proposed

Elvis Romero

continued from page

• S B 94 sought to permit licensed farmers to grow industrial hemp in accordance with a state-sponsored research program. The measure enjoyed significant bipartisan support, having been approved 54-12 in the House and 33-8 by the Senate. It had been widely praised as an economic-development initiative. The federal farm bill has authorized states to research hemp for industrial uses.

• S B 296 would have expanded an existing tax credit for home or business owners to include those who lease solar thermal or photovoltaic systems rather than buy them.

• S B 391 would have allowed extension of a solar-energy tax credit for residents, small businesses and agriculture until the end of 2024. Proponents of the bill said that Martínez’s pocket veto is damaging to business development in a state that wants to attract more solar companies to capitalize on its abundant sunshine.

• H B 38 would have set up a restoration fund from a coalition of diverse partners and would have provided a forest and watershed board to provide input on projects funded by state government. The bill had passed the House and Senate with overwhelming support.

• H B 122 would have provided intelligent oversight for the increasing turf wars between traditional and nontraditional medical practitioners.

• Pay raises for health workers and public defenders • $ 750,000 for magistrate courts statewide, needed to pay critical expenses over the next few months • $250,000 for Indian education services at the University of New Mexico • $150,000 for the Native American Health Center at UNM • $100,000 for the Indian Jewelry Market in Gallup • $75,000 for a liver institute in Gallup • $ 45,000 for a self-help, home-construction pilot project administered by the Indian Affairs Department • $300,000 to protect the silvery minnow at Eagle Nest Dam

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quickly. But before they disappeared, Elvis and Rudy grabbed their bikes and hit the pavement. It was great fun splashing through the rainbow-colored pools that were formed by a mixture of rainwater and car oil running down the street gutters.

Riding directly through the puddles, they sent streams of iridescent droplets out from both sides of their tires.

“Ala Mocina, Rudy, watch out!” Elvis laughed as he rammed through a puddle of standing water, spraying his friend from head to toe. “Jodido!” Rudy shot back as he clipped Elvis’s back tire, sending him skidding to the pavement.

The showers were not only a treat for the amigos’ eyes but equally for their noses.

There was no smell as intoxicating as that of rain soaking into the brown earth.

Sometimes, if the rain was particularly intense and lasted long enough, the dry arroyos suddenly filled with torrents of rushing brown water, and folks stood on the banks watching in awe as the abundant tides flowed through the normally parched city. [Part 1 of an intermittent series] i

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Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Urban Sprawl

continued from page 12

could afford to pay $1,500 per month.”

Other residents said that they predict that the owners will become desperate and offer the units at a lower rent, and it will eventually become a tenement.

Who will really benefit from this project? How will this project benefit the city of Santa Fe? Where are the data regarding housing demand? Where is the realistic traffic-impact study for this project? What are the real road/street conditions? Who is going to pay for road repairs, health and safety infrastructure?

Developers? Taxpayers? We need to ask these questions before any decisions can be made.

now are running out of water. Other cities, like Boulder, Colorado, where decades ago they developed a long-range plan for growth in order to preserve the beauty and character of their small city, have grown wiser and not allowed their city to be swallowed up by urban sprawl.

Who will really benefit from this project?

I believe we need to keep the Ecoversity land for sustainable agricultural use as Frances Hardwood envisioned and wanted. We can reserve the land for the “Frances Harwood School of Sustainable Agriculture and Ranching,” with an attached living museum to attract tourism to the “breadbasket of Santa Fe on the historic Camino Real,” as this area—for centuries—produced products that sustained La Villa Real de San Francisco de Asís de la Santa Fe. Maybe the school could serve young children at risk, where they could learn respect for the environment and develop self-esteem that will help them contribute to the community.

The neighborhood associations should call for a moratorium on plan amendments and rezoning to allow all Santa Fe residents to voice their concerns regarding infill development in or near their neighborhoods. The leaders of the city of Santa Fe should open roundtable sessions to look at the job outlook and plan for future job growth in a cooperative and democratic manner.

New studies need to be done on the Santa Fe economy, housing demand, traffic and infrastructure, especially as they relate to newly annexed land and neighborhoods.

Another thing neighborhoods can do is create “Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts” in order to avoid land speculation and uncontrolled development to protect their neighborhoods. Residents feel powerless when people with money, political influence and power try to get their way, working against the true needs of the communities.

Blue Buffalo LLC/Tierra Concepts has been scheduled to go before the Santa Fe City Council on June 24 to respond to the recommended denial from the Planning Commission for this project.

Go to the city of Santa Fe web site (www. santafenm.gov) to see the agenda posted on June 19 to confirm the time of the hearing. I urge all of you to attend this meeting and express your concerns. If you cannot attend, I encourage you to write emails or send letters to the council. i

We don’t want to have short-sighted planning as in Deming, New Mexico, where they grew without looking realistically at their water resources and

Montserrat Vallès Albesa, a community and environmental advocate, is a La Cieneguita del Camino Real neighborhood resident.

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505-470-1969

Hearing Examiner Rejects PNM’s Replacement Power Proposals

A recommended decision put forth last month by the Hearing Examiner responsible for advising the state Public Regulation Commission on PNM’s replacement power proposal for shutting down two units at the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) found that the proposal “is not fair, just and reasonable and in the public interest.” Ashley Schannauer cited concerns regarding the reliability of the aging SJGS, the future ownership of the plant after a contract expires in 2022, and uncertainty about where the plant will get its coal and how much it will cost after a supply agreement expires in 2017.

Schannauer said that the utility’s proposal could saddle New Mexico ratepayers with a lot of risk. He advised the PRC commissioners to deny PNM’s request to absorb the excess capacity in one of the two remaining units and substantially reduce the amount the utility can charge for nuclear energy it wants to bring onto the grid. He also said the commissioners should ask PNM to find alternative energy sources.

In response, PNM is expected to file extensive “exceptions,” or objections. The commissioners may vote this month to accept or reject the hearing examiner’s advice.

Earlier this year, PNM acknowledged that, due to an accounting error, the cost estimate for its plan to continue burning coal at the SJGS along with other fuels had increased by over $1 billion. This was after the utility had already introduced a rate proposal that would result in more than $100 per year increase to the average home’s bill. support for pnm’s plan plummets Of the nine parties that originally supported PNM’s SJGS proposal, over half have withdrawn their support. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has publicly opposed the plan. Farmington, home city of the plant, has announced that it would not acquire an increased stake in the plant due to concerns about the plant’s reliability and costs that would be passed on to the community.

On April 6, the Albuquerque City Council passed a resolution formally opposing PNM’s plans and urging the New Mexico Industrial Consumers, of which Albuquerque is a member, to withdraw its support.

Renewable-energy advocates say that PNM’s proposal would lock the utility into burning coal at the plant for years to come, subjecting air, land, water and people to soot, smog, arsenic and mercury pollution. Additionally, groups such as the Sierra Club say that dumping more money into an outdated coal plant would prevent New Mexico from taking advantage of enormous clean-energy potential. They say that the state could meet its energy needs more than 70 times over just with wind.

Hearing Examiner Rejects PNM’s Rate Hike Plan

New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Hearing Examiner Carolyn Glick has rejected PNM’s $107 million rate-hike plan as “incomplete.” Glick agreed with the two intervenors in the case, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority and New Energy Economy, who challenged PNM’s filing as noncompliant with legal requirements to provide a transparent basis for the figures they project to legitimize rate hikes. Glick’s Recommended Decision, released on April 17, found that “PNM has not explained, supported and justified the [cost] estimates as required by the Future Test Year rule. Under these circumstances, it is reasonable to dismiss PNM’s application.”

PNM said it would file “exceptions” to Glick’s recommendations. The utility could ask the PRC to go ahead with a vote on its 12 percent rate-increase request or refile its request with more documentation.

NM Attorney General Opposes PNM Solar Fee

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas is opposing a proposal by Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state’s largest utility, to charge a new grid “access fee” for customers installing new solar-power systems. PNM wants to charge those customers $21 to $36 per month. The utility says that the rate request is fair because solar customers should pay a share of costs for maintaining the electric grid. A coalition of clean-energy and environmental groups say that PNM has exaggerated the costs and ignored the benefits of photovoltaic systems.

Balderas has joined the coalition in filing a motion in support of dismissing PNM’s request. The petition also has the support of the PRC’s utility division staff. Balderas is also asking the state Public Regulation Commission to evaluate the costs and benefits to the utilities and the grid of distributed-generation, customer-owned solar panels, or wind turbines on homes and businesses.

“New Mexico needs an accountable plan that guarantees energy security and affordable clean energy for all New Mexicans, and that’s why I am asking the PRC to initiate this investigation into New Mexico’s utility system,” Balderas said. “New Mexicans deserve affordable clean energy in places like Mora and Hidalgo County, not just in Las Cruces and Santa Fe.”

Green Fire Times • May 2015

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Green Fire Times • May 2015

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NEWSBITEs USGS: Oil & Gas Drilling Causes Earthquakes in New Mexico

New Mexico is among a dozen once-stable regions in the United States experiencing an increasing number of earthquakes, and scientists say that the underground injection of chemical-laced wastewater from oil and gas drilling is the reason. They say that the process can activate dormant faults, including those that have not moved in millions of years.

According to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), earthquakes of magnitudes 2.5 and greater have been detected in the Ratón Basin in the northern part of the state and in the south near Carlsbad. The Ratón Basin saw a huge increase in the number of earthquakes, beginning in 2001, after oil extraction jumped two years earlier. A 5.2 magnitude quake was recorded in 2011 near the Colorado state line, close to some of the largest wastewater-injection wells in the area.

The USGS’s National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project mapped 50 years of earthquake activity in 17 “induced seismicity zones” across eight states. The areas highlighted are all located near deep fluid-injection wells or other industrial activities.

The USGS will begin incorporating manmade earthquake risks into disaster maps used in building codes, insurance rates, emergency preparedness plans and other applications.

As the oil and gas industry and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) keeps booming, researchers think the small quakes will become more frequent and will pose a much greater risk to people living nearby.

In response to these reports, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association emphasized that the industry is a major part of the state’s economy. The association has recently launched a $250,000 public-relations campaign in New Mexico.

Another new study, this one from Johns Hopkins University, found that buildings throughout Pennsylvania, located in suburban and rural areas near fracking sites, have an overall radon concentration 39 percent higher than those located in nonfracking areas. The study found that a major increase in radon correlated with Pennsylvania’s fracking boom, suggesting that fracking may be releasing radon from bedrock that sits on gas-rich shale. Radon is an odorless radioactive gas formed by the decay of uranium in rock, soil and water. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer worldwide, after smoking.

Clean Water Advocates Compromise with the Dairy Industry

New Mexico’s dairy farms, which are mostly located in the southern part of the state, account for $1.4 billion in economic impact statewide, according to New Mexico State University. Those dairies generate a lot of waste and are subject to the dairy rule, which governs the industry’s disposal of wastewater. The state Environment Department is charged with enforcing the rule.

Last month, thanks to six days of negotiations prior to what was expected to be a week of hearings, the state’s dairy industry and clean-water advocates reached a settlement with the state in only 4-1/2 hours. Points of contention had included the number and locations of monitoring wells, the frequency of inspection reports and the use of synthetic liners in wastewater lagoons. The agreement permits, in certain circumstances, the use of a two-foot clay liner, which is about half the cost of plastic.

It also requires dairies to be responsible for cleaning up pollution they cause.

The proposed agreement potentially brings to an end several years of litigation over regulations. This month, the Water Quality Control Commission will vote on whether to approve the agreement.

Santa Fe County Seeks to Transfer Top of the World’s Water Rights

In the late 1990s, Santa Fe County bought nearly 600 acre-feet of water rights from Top of the World Farm near Costilla in northern Taos County and tried to move those rights south. That proposal met a torrent of opposition. Then, in 2006, the county spent $5 million to buy the farm and its remaining water rights, to be used to bolster the Aamodt water rights settlement, which was created to protect groundwater and irrigators in the Pojoaque Basin by building a pipeline system that would divert water from the Río Grande and send it 80 miles downstream to serve residential and commercial users north of Santa Fe.

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In January 2015, Santa Fe County and four neighboring pueblos asked the state for permission to transfer 1,752 acre-feet of water rights tied to wells at the farm. Santa Fe County projects that its share of the water rights will not be needed for decades. In the meantime, the county has leased the rights to a company owned by Taos County residents Ed and Trudy Healy, who bought the Top of the World property from the county in March.

The transfer would mean Top of the World could no longer pump water from the Sunshine Valley aquifer. That would essentially dry up the farm, which cultivated hundreds of acres of diverse crops in the 1950s and continued production of barley and alfalfa into recent years. Some argue that halting groundwater pumping would improve the aquifer health and create a healthier river corridor, which runs through the adjacent newly established Río Grande del Norte National Monument.

Last month, the Taos County Commission unanimously voted to protest the proposed transfer. The commissioners are concerned that allowing the transfer would open the door for developers in urban areas to buy other highly valued water rights in northern New Mexico, including water the traditional acequia systems rely on. They think that Top of the World water rights should remain in Taos to support potential economic development.

Nonprofits Receive USDA Grant to Promote Healthy Food Choices

Several Santa Fe-based nonprofit organizations will benefit from a $100,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to make it easier for low-income people to have access to fresh, healthy food. The grant is part of the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive that was part of last year’s farm bill. The funding will also support established programs that provide education related to healthy eating for families who receive food assistance.

The New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association and the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s MoGro (mobile grocery) program were awarded the funding through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Farmers’ markets around New Mexico accept SNAP payments and offer discounts to SNAP recipients. The Santa Fe Community Foundation’s Healthy SNAP Program provides fresh produce to members of Santo Domingo and Jemez pueblos. La Familia Medical Center clients will also benefit from the funding. La Familia offers integrated cooking and nutrition workshops in collaboration with a dietician and health workers.

World Health Organization agency Links Pesticide to cancer

In the highest-profile critique to date of a product the U.S. agriculture industry has long touted as a safe way to protect genetically engineered food crops and lawns, a global health agency has labeled Roundup®—Monsanto’s trademark weed killer—as a potential carcinogen. In March, the World Health Agency’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate, which Monsanto sells under the commercial name Roundup®, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The agency’s assertion was based on a review of hundreds of studies and increasing concerns about the chemical over many years.

Monsanto has angrily refuted the claim and has mounted a broad counter-campaign in an effort to cast doubt on the agency’s research and have the classification retracted.

Since moving into biotech agriculture in the 1980s, Monsanto has come to dominate the agricultural seed business. The company inserts genes into seeds in order to enable them to withstand the company’s patented pesticide. “Roundup Ready” seeds hit the market in 1996. The crops have become pervasive in industrial agriculture, but it is not known how much of it is in our food because the government doesn’t regularly test produce for it. Genetically modified crops (GMOs) were planted on 93 percent of corn acres and 94 percent of soybeans in the U.S. last year. Monsanto and other biotech companies have spent many millions of dollars to combat efforts to label foods made with GMOs. Another problem for Monsanto is that many farmers who use glyphosate are now battling hard-to-kill weeds and bugs that have evolved to resist sprays of glyphosate and the insect-killing proteins produced by some biotech crops.

Green Fire Times • May 2015

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What's Going On! Events / Announcements state of NM Indian Affairs Dept. Open to nonchamber members. Info: 505.766.9545.

Registration: www.nmnaec.com

May 12, 8:30-9:30 am Rally to Oppose PNM’s Replacement Power Plan Alvarado Square, 4th & Silver

ALBUQUERQUE

MAY 6, 5:30-7 pm Green Drinks Hotel Andaluz, 125 Second St. NW

Network with people interested in doing business locally, clean-energy alternatives and creating sustainable opportunities in our communities. Featuring the Think Local Guide release and Dennis Houston on How to Expand Your Business. Presented the first Wednesday of each month by the ABQ and Rio Rancho Green Chamber. info@nm greenchamber.com, www.greendrinks.org

May 7-9 NM History Conference Embassy Suites Hotel, I-25 and Lomas

More than 70 speakers on a wide variety of topics. 5/7, 6:30-9 pm: Opening session and reception at the ABQ Museum of Art and History, 2000 Mountain Rd. NW; 5/9, 6-8:30 pm: awards banquet at Embassy Suites.

Wide range of registration rates. Teachers K-12 free. Students free. Presented by the Historical Society of NM and the ABQ Historical Society. Info: hsnminfo@gmail.com, program: hsnm.org

May 8-10, 16-17, 8 am-5 pm Women Only PV Design and Installation Class ABQ Center for Peace and Justice 202 Harvard SE

Hands-on learning with photovoltaics taught by Marlene Brown and Taiyoko Sadewic. First weekend: $600; both weekends: $1,000. nmcpn.org@gmail.com, https:// sites.google.com/site/nmcpnorg/home

May 9, 10:30 am-4 pm Festival of Asian Cultures NM Veterans Memorial Park 1100 Louisiana Blvd. SE

Participating groups include Cambodian, Chinese, East Indian, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Middle Eastern, Nepali, Tahitian, Thai, and Vietnamese. Free. Sponsored in part

by NM Arts and the City of ABQ Urban Enhancement Trust Fund. 505.293.2322, aaanm2015@aol.com, www.facebook.com/ events/434520863364159/

May 11 Santolina Development Hearing

County Commission hearing on the proposed 22-square-mile west-side development plan.

May 11-13 Native American Economic Summit

9th annual event showcases successful Native American and nonnative entrepreneurs.

Topics: government contracting opportunities, housing, financing and N.A. women politicians and leaders. High school student competition. Presented by the American Indian Chamber of Commerce–NM and the

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Groups opposed to PNM’s plan to replace two units of the San Juan Generating Station with coal, natural gas, nuclear and a relatively small amount of solar, while having ratepayers absorb costs and liabilities, will hold a demonstration to coincide with PNM’s shareholder meeting.

May 16, June 30, July 25, Aug 22 Landscape Irrigation and Drip Irrigation Central NM Community College Workforce Training Center 5600 Eagle Rock NE, Room 101

Free Water Smart classes sponsored by the ABQ Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. 9-10 am: irrigation landscape classes; 10:30-11:45: drip irrigation classes. Advance registration not required. 505.888.1772

May 30 Composting Workshops Bernalillo County Extension Office, 1510 Menaul Ext. Blvd. NW

Learn the science, materials and methods of drought-proofing your garden. 9 am-12 pm: Home composting basics; 1:30-3 pm: Composting with worms. Free. Registration: 505.929.0414, register@nmcomposters.org

Through May 31 El Agua es Vida: Acequias in Northern New Mexico

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, UNM Groundbreaking, multidisciplinary exhibit.

Free. 505.277.4405, maxwellmuseum.unm.edu

Daily, 10 am-6 pm Wildlife West 87 N. Frontage Rd., Edgewood (30 miles east of ABQ)

122-acre park/attraction with educational programs dedicated to native wildlife and ecology. $7/$6/$4/ children under 5 free. www.wildlifewest.org

Daily Our Land, Our Culture, Our Story Indian Pueblo Cultural Center 2401 12th St. NW

Historical overview of the Pueblo world and contemporary artwork and craftsmanship of each of the 19 pueblos.Weekend Native dances. 866.855.7902

SANTA FE

May 2, 9:30 am-4 pm Folk Art Flea Market Museum of International Folk Art

Free. 505.476.1201, www.international folkart.org/folkartflea.html

May 4, 6 pm AZTLáN in the Southwest: Archaeology and History Hotel Santa Fe

Southwest Seminars lecture by Stephen H. Lekson, University of Colorado professor of anthropology and author of A History of the Ancient Southwest. $12. 505.466.2775, Southwest seminar@aol.com, SouthwestSeminars.org

Green Fire Times • May 2015

May 5, 6:30 pm A Conversation with Robert Redford The Lensic

A conversation about activism, arts and the environment with Redford and Mayor Javier Gonzales. $30/$15 students with I.D. Benefits the SF Green Chamber of Commerce.

505.988.1234, ticketssantafe.org

May 6, 9-11 am Prospect Research for Smaller Organizations SF Community Foundation

A nonprofit technical assistance workshop.

Sliding scale: $15-$45. Registration: www. santafecf.org

May 8-10 Julie Brette Adams SF Playhouse, 142 E. DeVargas

Acclaimed contemporary dancer/choreographer. 8 pm Fri-Sat; 2 pm Sun. $15/$20.

505.986.1801, www.onewomandancing.com

May 9, 10 am-10 pm CommUNITY Day Santa Fe Plaza

El Día de la Gente. Nonprofit organizations and government agencies will have information tables and giveaways until 3 pm and local talent will perform until 10 pm. Exhibit applications: 505.955.6979, bjmossman@ santafenm.gov, www.santafenm.gov

May 9, 10 am-7 pm IAIA Spring Powwow IAIA Campus, 83 Avan Nu Po Rd.

Institute of American Indian Arts contest powwow and drum contest. Food, arts and crafts vendors. Grand entry at 11 am. Free.

505.424.2339, nburgess@iaia.edu

May 9-10 Kindred Spirits Open House 3749A Highway 14

Animal sanctuary for senior dogs, horses and poultry. Demonstrations by wellness caregivers. 505.471.5366, www.kindredspirtsnm.org

May 9-15 Bike to Work Week

5/9, 9:30 am, Southside Library: Southside Community Cruise; 5/15, 7:30-8:15 am: Bike to Breakfast on the Plaza; 4:45 pm: City/County/State Double Convoy Challenge (mass rides to railyard); 4-7 pm: Railyard Plaza Fiesta at the water tower. www.santafempo.org

May 10, 2 pm Santa Fe Concert Band Lawn of the Federal Building Free concert.

May 12, 8:30-10:30 am Parent Visitor Morning SF Waldorf School 26 Puesta del Sol

Elementary through High School grade parents can visit the 13-acre campus and explore Waldorf education for their children. Meet at the administrative offices in Hooper Hall.

RSVP: 505.467.6431

May 13-17 Outside Bike & Brew Festival

Mountain biking events sponsored by Outside Magazine. Outsidesantafe.com

May 14, 15 Academy for Sustainable Education Events

5/14: Eco-fashion show; 5/15: The academy will unveil its aquaponics lab, eco-amphitheater, green trail, solar charging station, Sol Beats (solar sound studio) and the Learning and Zen gardens. Tharkins@sfps.info

May 15, 6 pm San Isidro Day Agua Fría Village

Meet at the historic San Isidro Church.

Opening prayers and then a processional with music to the SF River at San Ysidro Crossing for a blessing of the river.

Reception follows at the Nancy Rodríguez Community Center.

May 16, 8 am-3 pm 2nd Annual Green Festival El Museo Cultural 555 Camino de la Familia

New renewable-energy options, electric vehicles, organic food, water conservation and harvesting, green-built design, interactive exhibits for kids and much more. 505.428.9123, glenn@nmgreenchamber.com

May 16, 2 pm; May 20, 6:45 pm Movies That Matter Violet Crown Cinemas 1606 Alcaldesa St.

Growing Cities, a documentary film that examines the role and potential of urban farming (www.growingcitiesmovie.com). Presented by the SF Farmers’ Market Institute.

Weds: $10/$8/$6; Sat: $7/$5/$6. Tickets: 505.466.5528, www.violetcrowncinemas.com

May 17 SF Century Bicycle Rides

2,600 area cyclists expected from more than 37 states. 5/12: registration closes.

505.476.9712, santafecentury.com

May 17, 2 pm Institute for Spanish Arts End-of-Year Performance SF Performing Arts Theater 1050 Old Pecos Tr.

Showcase of current students, SFPS student programs and Flamenco’s Next Generation. Tickets: 505.467.3773, www.institutespanisharts.org

May 17 Horse Shelter Auction Cerrillos, NM

Annual auction and luncheon. A chance to spend a day with the horses at the ranch. $75.

505.471.6179, www.thehorseshelter.org

May 19, 9-11 am Basic Concepts in Strategic Planning SF Community Foundation

An organizational workshop. Sliding scale: $15-$45. Registration: www.santafecf.org

May 21, 5:30-7:30 pm Creativity and Resiliency of NM Women and Girls GF Contemporary Gallery 707 Canyon Rd.

Fundraiser/reception hosted by the NM Community Foundation. Featured speaker: artist Roxanne Swentzell, reading by Isabel Ribe. Prizes, food. Tickets: $35.

505.820.6860, gmartinez@nmcf.org

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May 22 Application Deadline SFCC Foundation Scholarships

Students can apply for scholarships to SF Community College based on financial need, academic standing or a specific program, among other criteria. Fall semester begins in August. 505.428.1268

May 23-24 Native Treasures Indian Arts Festival SF Convention Center

Museum-quality Native American art show and sale. Over 200 artists. Admission: 5/23, 9-10 am: $20; 10 am-5 pm: $10; 5/24, 10 am-5 pm: free. 5/22, 5:30-7:30: Pre-show celebration. ($100.) www.nativetreasures.org

May 24, 10 am-4 pm Sustainable Kitchens and Solar Cooking Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, Cerrillos, NM

Cook in solar cookers and explore other self-sufficient cooking and preservation methods. $60. Discounts available. RSVP: 505.780.0535, amanda@ampersandproject. org

May 26, 6-7:30 pm Practical Solutions for Safe Use of Wireless Technology La Montañita Co-op Community Room, 913 W. Alameda

Discussion of potential health issues, free solutions and available products to combat electronic pollution. Last Tuesday of every month. 505.780.8283

May 29, 10 am-4 pm Executive Director Retreat SF Community Foundation

Being a Mindful Leader. $75. Registration: www.santafecf.org

May 30, 10 am-12 pm Green Writers Circle

Writers engaged in sustainability, ecology, health and environmental issues meet for training, publication resources and discussion. Topic will be “Three Paths to Publishing Your Book,” comparing the traditional publisher, self-publishing and assisted selfpublishing. Free. RSVP: sguyette@nets.com

June 19-21, 27-28 SF Studio Tour

A free, self-guided tour. 76 artists, 48 studios.

Discover original art: paintings, photography, sculpture, jewelry, ceramics and other unique works. Preview party/group show 6/19 at the SF University of Art & Design.

Info/map: www.santafestudiotour.com

First Saturday of Each Month, 10 am-12 pm SF Citizens’ Climate Lobby Various Locations

“Creating political will for a livable world” santafe@citizensclimatelobby.org

Tuesdays and Saturdays 8 am-1 pm Santa Fe Farmers’ Market 1607 Paseo de Peralta (& Guadalupe)

Northern NM farmers & ranchers offer fresh greenhouse tomatoes, greens, root veggies, cheese, teas, herbs, spices, honey, baked goods, body-care products and much more. www.santafefarmersmarket.com

Sundays, 10 am-4 pm New Mexico Artisan Market Farmers’ Market Pavilion www.artmarketsantafe.com

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Become a Site Steward Santa Fe National Forest

Monitor archaeological and historical sites on a regular basis for evidence of natural deterioration or vandalism. www.sfnfsitestewards.org

Santa Fe Creative Tourism Workshops, Classes and Experiences http://santafecreativetourism.org/

Borrow a Kill-A-Watt Device Main Library and Southside Branch

Electricity Measuring Devices may be checked out for 28 days www.santafelibrary. org or call any reference desk.

Santa Fe Recycling

Make 2015 the year to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as you can. City residential curbside customers can recycle at no additional cost and drop by 1142 Siler Road, Building A to pick up free recycling bins. At least 50 percent of curbside residential customers recycle now. Let’s take that number to 100 percent. For more information, visit http://www.santafenm.gov/ trash_and_recycling or call 505.955.2200 (city); 505.992.3010 (county); 505.424.1850 (SF Solid Waste Management Agency).

HERE & THERE May 2, 1-3 pm Santa Cruz Farm Tour 830 El Llano Rd., Española, NM

Enjoy a farm tour, local foods and connect with area farmers. Presented by the American Friends Service Committee, NM Acequia Association and Don Bustos. 505.955.9644, lasacequias.org or 505.842.7343, afsc.org/ office/albuquerque-nm

May 3-6 International Seed Library Forum Tucson, Arizona

DiversifyingCommunityAccesstoHealthyFoods.

An effort to coalesce efforts by public libraries, nonprofits, universities and food banks to increase the quality of seed resources with free or affordable access to low-income households. Registration: saboressinfronteras@gmail.com

May 5, 6-8 pm Marketing Your Small Business SBDC Sandoval County, 282 Cam. del Pueblo, Bernalillo, NM

Discussion on how to successfully market a product or service and specific marketing strategies suited to your business. $10. 505.867.5066, hhariyan@unm.edu, nmsbdc.org/Sandoval/

May 5, 7 pm Waterfalls of NM The Nature Center, Los Alamos, NM

Presentation/book signing by Doug Scott.

Free. www.losalamosnature.org

May 8 Application Deadline Paid AmeriCorps Opportunity

Join Rocky Mountain Youth Corps working on projects in NM. RMYC is looking for young adults 16-25 to work on conservation, historic preservation and trail maintenance. Dedicated people are needed to supervise crews and projects. 575.751.1420. Program descriptions and applications: www.youthcorps.org

May 9, 8 am Jémez Volcanic Field Driving Tour

U.S. Geologist Patrick Rowe will conduct a fact-filled tour with stops to learn about geologic events that formed the Pajarito Plateau and the Valles Caldera. Free. Register in advance at www.losalamosnature.org

May 9, 9 am-4 pm Zuni Mainstreet Festival Zuni Pueblo, NM

awards of $1,000 and $500. 505.244.9505, ext.

108, burban@nmvoices.org

May 9, 3-5 pm Talk and Conversation Tarnoff Art Center, Rowe, NM

10th annual all-ages festival featuring nationally touring folk, bluegrass, Celtic and Americana musicians. Headliners are Noam Pikelny & Stuart Duncan, Solas and Red Molly. Workshops, on-site camping, vendors and kids’ activities. Festival site is walking distance to hot springs. 877.472.4672, www.folkwest.com

Experience Zuni Pueblo’s rich culture and traditional song and dance. www.zunitourism.com

Roundtable discussion with Cecile Lipworth (One Billion Rising) and artists Tara Trudell and Vaness Waltz about the power of art and activism to highlight women’s rights. Part of “Women’s Work,” an art show featuring 25 female artists of NM. 505.919.8888, info@tar noffartcenter.org, www.tarnoffartcenter.org

May 9, June 13, July 18, Aug. 15, Oct. 10, 17, Nov. 14, 1-3 pm Sustainable Agriculture Workshops Owl Peak Farm, La Madera

5/9: How to grow the most food in a small garden; 6/13: Managing pests without poisons; 7/18: Cooking with Wild “Superfood”; 9/15: Making your own compost; 10/10: Sheet mulching and cover-cropping; 10/17: Grow your own tree from a cutting; 11/14: Farm cheese and yogurt making; Donations appreciated. Info/Registration: 505.583.2040, owlpeakfarm@gmail.com

MAY 14, 5:30-7 pm Green Drinks/NMSEA Little Toad Pub, 200 N. Bullard St., Silver City, NM

Monthly meeting of the Southwest NM Green Chamber of Commerce and the NM Solar Energy Association-Silver City Chapter. Held every second Thursday of the month. 575.538.1337, swGreenChamber@ gmail.com

June 5-7 Pagosa Folk & Bluegrass Festival Reservoir Hill, Pagosa Springs, CO.

Through Sept. 31 Ancient Native Farming Techniques Exhibit Colorado Plateau Intertribal Learning Center, Tuba City, ARIZ.

Exhibit showcases efforts by elders and community leaders from 12 tribes across the Colorado Plateau to preserve dry farming practices that have allowed native peoples to flourish for thousands of years. Open by appointment. alicia.tsosie@foodcorps.org, www.grandcanyontrust.org/blog/preservingour-seeds-and-farmer-knowledge

Tuesday-Friday, 10 am-1 pm and Saturday Pajarito Environmental Education Center 3540 Orange St., Los Alamos, NM

Nature center and outdoor education programs. Exhibits of flora and fauna of the Pajarito Plateau; herbarium, live amphibians, butterfly and xeric gardens. TuesdaySaturday. Free. 505.662.0460, Programs@ PajaritoEEC.org, www.pajaritoeec.org

May 16, 10 am- 5 pm Honoring the History of a Genízaro Pueblo Joe Ferran Gym, Abiquiú Plaza, NM

Conference about the history and issues related to Abiquiú Pueblo. Discussion about the 2014 archeological dig and how Abiquiú Pueblo is viewed in the Tewa world. Esteemed speakers including Tessie Naranjo, Dr. James Brooks, Dr. Charlie Carillo, Malcolm Ebright and many others. Genízaro ceremonial leaders and dancers. Presented by the Abiquiú Library and Cultural Center.

Free admission. Advance registration required. 505.685.4884, abiquiupl@gmail.com

May 19 The Western Landowners Alliance: Stewardship with Vision The Nature Center, Los Alamos, NM The WLA is a voice for conservation-minded landowners across the West. Executive Director Leslie Allison will talk about the WLA’s goals and work. Free. www.losalamosnature.org

May 26, 7 pm Wildlife Rehab: Why is it important?

The Nature Center, Los Alamos, NM

Dr. Kathleen Ramsay, founder of the NM Wildlife Center will discuss her career and why this work matters. Free. www.losalamosnature.org

May 29, 5 pm Application Deadline Amy Biehl Youth Spirit Award

For youth aged 13-18 and 19-26. NM Voices for Children honors young people in NM who have stepped up to bring positive change to their communities and/or the world at large through community service. Scholarship

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