October 2013 Green Fire Times by Sun Publishing

News & Views

from the

Sustainable Southwest

Quivira Coalition: Inspiring Adaptation Drought As Inspiration • Our Coming Food Crisis Thinking Like a Creek • Habitat Restoration October 2013

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

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Vol. 5, No. 10 • October 2013 Issue No. 54 Publisher Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Skip Whitson

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Sam Hinkle, Jack Loeffler, Alejandro López, Jose Lucero, Jeannie Magill, Gary Paul Nabhan, Craig O’Hare, Jonathan Overpeck, Seth Roffman, Gary Snyder, Robert Staffanson, Julie Sullivan, Courtney White, Tobin Williams

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Contents

Inspiring Adaptation. . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 7 What Is the Quivira Coalition?. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 8 2013 Quivira Conference . . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 9 What Does Drought Mean for the Future?. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 10 Drought As Inspiration . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 11 Meet Mr. Hadley: A Brief Atmospheric Understanding of the Southwest . . . 13 Global Warming – What’s the Big Deal? . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 14 Our Coming Food Crisis. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 16 Cows and Apples: A Dirt Girl’s Journey. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 17 To Farm Is to Be Married . . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 18 Getting in the Wood . . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20 Thinking Like a Creek . . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 22 Balloon Mapping: A Habitat Restoration Project . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 24 Healing the Carbon Cycle with Cattle . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 26 Milking the Rhino . . .. . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 29 A Visit to the Flying D Bison Ranch . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 30 Some Profound Recent Ecological and Social Changes in My Community . . 33 Thinking Like A Watershed. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 35 The Carbon Economy Series . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 37 Book Profiles . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 39 PNM’s Support of Solar . . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 42 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 30, 39, 42, 45 What’s Going On. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 46

Circulation 25,000 copies

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Green Fire Times

Green Fire Times provides useful information for anyone—community members, business people, students, visitors—interested in discovering the wealth of opportunities and resources available in our region. Knowledgeable writers provide articles on subjects ranging from green businesses, products, services, entrepreneurship, jobs, design, building, energy and investing—to sustainable agriculture, arts & culture, ecotourism, education, regional food, water, the healing arts, local heroes, native perspectives, natural resources, recycling and more. Sun Companies publications seek to provide our readers with informative articles that support a more sustainable planet. To our publisher this means maximizing personal as well as environmental health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol. GFT is widely distributed throughout northcentral NM. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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Riparian restoration specialist Bill Zeedyk (l) with Quivira staff. Project planning at Comanche Creek, Valle Vidal, NM

COVER:

rio chama, northern new mexico

•

photo by anna c. hansen

Green Fire Times is not to be confused with the Green Fire Report, an in-house quarterly publication of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. The NMELC can be accessed online at: www.nmelc.org

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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Inspiring Adaptation

Courtney White

“ The Westerner is less a person than a continuing adaptation. The West is less a place than a process.”

– Wallace Stegner

Storm over Montana ranch

rom prehistoric times to the present, human societies have successfully adapted to the challenges of a changing West, including periods of bad drought, limitations created by scarce resources, and shifting cultural and economic pressures. However, the American West is entering an era of unprecedented change bought on by new climate realities that will test our capacity for adaptation as well as challenge the resilience of the region’s native flora and fauna. It is therefore paramount that we find and share inspiring ideas and practical strategies that help all of the region’s inhabitants adapt to a rapidly changing world.

Short-term and long-term solutions But what is adaptation anyway? What I’ve learned over the past year is that there are two types of adaptation: short-tem and long-term. In the short-term, adaptation is a type of first responder—i.e., individuals, groups, communities and cities who see the early effects of a warming world, sense an emergency in the making and are taking action. First responders aren’t particularly interested in why the emergency happened in the first place. Their job is to deliver aid, fix things that are broken, troubleshoot and deal with the mess generally. Their focus is on the acute side of the spectrum: hotter weather, bigger storms and more frost-free days. Triage here includes maintaining human well-being day-to-day, dealing with natural disasters, repairing infrastructure, adjusting to distorted rhythms of nature and coping with the cost of it all. And it’s not just about humans. Heat-induced stress or a lack of food brought on by drought conditions is beginning to impact a wide variety of wildlife species as well. On the long-term or chronic side of the adaptation spectrum are: the compounding effects of prolonged drought on water supplies and plant productivity, an increase in

RESILIENCE is the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. In ecology, it refers to the capacity of plant and animal populations to handle disruption and degradation caused by fire, flood, drought, insect infestation or other disturbance. Resilience also describes a community’s ability to adjust to change, such as shifting economic conditions, or a steady rise in temperatures. www.GreenFireTimes.com

intensity and quantity of wildfire, expanded tree- and wildlife mortality, and reduced values associated with nature. Adapting to these latter challenges will be much more difficult and complex, partly because they are so unprecedented. They will also require a different sort of professional response—the difference, say, between an emergency-room doctor and a research physician or a medical disaster planner. As Wallace Stegner noted, none of this should be news to westerners, especially the indigenous populations of the region. The West and water scarcity have gone hand-in-hand for centuries. Recently, however, we’ve managed to inoculate ourselves against climatic seesaws. We built reservoirs on the meager rivers to trap the water; we dug wells into the ground and attached electric pumps in order to draw out precious water from the deep; and lately, we’ve inserted long metal straws into the Río Grande and have begun sucking on their ends like someone trying to siphon gasoline from a car’s tank with a plastic hose. It’s worked, at least temporarily. We’ve become so accustomed to this state of affairs, however, that we’ve let our guard down and eroded our ability to respond to the short-term emergencies or to take long-term threats seriously. The latter requires planning and transformational changes to business-asusual. Are we willing to try? Tweaks won’t do it—a water conservation plan here, a ‘green’ building there, a research study in this place, a task force in that place—not in the longrun, anyway. Fortunately, there are a lot of scientists, ranchers, farmers, conservationists, urban planners and others who are working on short-term and long-term solutions and have bright ideas and important tools to share from their adaptation toolbox. We’ve assembled a wonderful group of them in this year’s Quivira Conference, this November in Albuquerque. I encourage everyone to come be inspired! i

At the Quivira conference, Dennis Moroney, an Arizona rancher, will describe how his family has made the shift from a traditional cow/calf ranch to an extremely diversified agrarian enterprise.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

What is THE

? Quivira is the mythical name the Spanish used to designate “unknown territory” on the colonial maps of the Southwest in the 1600s. In 1997, the Quivira Coalition’s founders, two conservationists and a rancher, thought it appropriate to use, as they were heading into unexplored land by trying to get ranchers and environmentalists to talk and work together. The Quivira Coalition today is a Santa Fe-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building economic and ecological resilience in western working landscapes. The group does so via four broad initiatives: improving land health; sharing knowledge and innovation; building local capacity, and strengthening diverse relationships. Quivira’s projects include: an annual conference, a ranch apprenticeship program, a long-running riparian restoration effort in northern New Mexico on behalf of the Río Grande cutthroat trout, a capacity-building collaboration with the Ojo Encino Chapter of the Navajo Nation, various outreach activities, and the promotion of the idea of a carbon ranch, which aims to mitigate climate change through food and land stewardship. In 1997, Quivira’s goal was to expand an emerging “radical center” among ranchers, conservationists, scientists and public land managers by focusing on progressive cattle management, collaboration, riparian and upland restoration and improved land health. The original mission was “to demonstrate that ecologically sensitive ranch management and economically robust ranches can be compatible.” Quivira called this approach “The New Ranch” and described it as a movement that “operates on the principle that the natural processes that sustain wildlife habitat, biological diversity and functioning watersheds are the same processes that make land productive for livestock.” The principles of The New Ranch were disseminated through workshops, lectures, publications, grants, consultations, collaborative land and water demonstration projects, a journal, the New Ranch Network, a small loan program and an annual conference. From 1997 to the present, at least one million acres of rangeland, 30 linear miles of riparian drainages and 15,000 people have directly benefited from the Quivira’s collaborative efforts. Quivira has also organized over 100 educational events on topics as diverse as drought management, riparian restoration, fixing ranch roads, conservation easements, reading the landscape, monitoring, water harvesting, low-stress livestock handling, grassbanks and grassfed beef; published numerous newsletters, journals, bulletins, field guides, and books, including a rangeland health monitoring protocol. Its most recent publication is a 258-page manual on riparian restoration, Let the Water Do the Work, published in October, 2009. More importantly, the Quivira Coalition lit sparks across the West that have grown over time into small bonfires of change. Its work has convinced ranchers to adopt conservation practices, environmentalists to value ranching, agencies to be more open to innovations, scientists to get more involved, and the public to support all of the above. One response to the multiple challenges of the 21st century is to increase ecological and economic resilience of communities and landscapes. The dictionary defines resilience as “the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” In ecology, it refers to the capacity of plant and animal populations to handle disruption and degradation caused by fire, flood, drought, insect infestation or other disturbance. Resilience also describes a community’s ability to adjust to change, such as shifting economic conditions, or a steady rise in temperatures. To help address these concerns, in the fall of 2007 the Quivira Coalition board adopted a new mission statement: to build resilience by fostering ecological, economic and social health on western landscapes through education, innovation, collaboration and progressive public and private land stewardship.

Quivira staff (L-R) Back row: Virginie Pointeau, Courtney White, Avery C Anderson, Kit Brewer. Front: Tamara Gadzia, Mollie Walton, Catherine Baca, Deanna Einspahr

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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2013 Quivira Conference

Inspiring Adaptation

November 13-15 • Albuquerque, Nm Registration Deadline: Nov. 5

The Quivira Coalition’s annual conference serves as an important forum for scientists, ranchers, farmers, conservationists, urban planners and others. Now in its 12th year, the conference draws 500 people from all over the West who come looking to facilitate important partnerships and create an upbeat forum for productive dialogue. The event includes plenary sessions, workshops, exhibitors, book signings, an awards banquet and the New Agrarian Career Connection. This year’s presenters include a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, winners of a MacArthur “Genius” grant, a Pew Fellow in Conservation and Environment, a winner of the Stewart L. Udall Award for Conservation, a Guggenheim Fellow, two Society for Range Management Award winners, and six Clarence Burch and Radical Center Award winners from the Q uivira Coalition. Featured speakers include renowned essayist, lecturer and Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder and bioregional aural historian, author and producer Jack Loeffler. Gary Snyder Jack Loeffler a partial list of conference speakers includes: •R enata Brillinger, executive director of the California Climate and Agriculture Network, a leader in the effort to advance policies that support sustainable agriculture as a response to climate change • William Burnidge, program director for the Colorado Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, who works on groundwater sustainability, energy planning and the development of a “triple-bottom-line” planning platform for land management •D arren John Doherty, managing director of HeenanDoherty in Australia, whose mission is to ensure the regenerative enhancement of the biosphere’s ecosystem •D r. Deborah Finch, program manager and supervisory biologist with the Rocky Mountain Station of the US Forest Service and editor of Climate Change in Grasslands, Shrublands and Deserts of the Interior American West •A my Haak, resource information director for Trout Unlimited National, in Idaho, who will present case studies of conservation strategies, including the headwaters of the Río Grande •D ennis Moroney, an Arizona rancher, will describe the way his family has made the shift from a traditional cow/calf ranch to an extremely diversified agrarian enterprise • Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, author, lecturer, food and farming advocate, rural lifeways folklorist professor at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, will summarize what he has learned from nearly 40 years of experience in arid landscapes •D r. Jonathan Overpeck, co-director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona, has been a climate scientist for over 30 years, working on understanding climate variability, as well as options for dealing with climate challenges •R odrigo Rodríguez, coordinator of the SW Organizing Project’s community food justice initiative, “Project Feed the Hood” will discuss the group’s efforts to change policies at the local and regional levels to help the urban poor adapt to food and water scarcity concerns • Tom Sidewell of the JX Ranch in Tucumcari, NM, one of the best drought managers in the region, will share his management philosophy and practices • Tim Sullivan, state director for the Nature Conservancy’s Colorado Chapter, helps ranchers and landowner-led organizations adapt to challenges facing agriculture and conservation • Pati Martinson and Terrie Bad Hand, co-directors of Taos County Economic Development Corporation, have been leaders in food security and communitybased economic development • Bill Zeedyk specializes in the restoration of wetland and riparian habitats using low-tech, hands-on methods and native materials. He will share new restoration strategies for adapting to hotter and drier conditions.

Quivira Coaltion • 505.820.2544 admin@quiviracoalition.org • www.quiviracoalition.org

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

What Does the Drought Mean for the Future?

Jonathan Overpeck

rought means many things to many people, but to most, it means not getting enough rain to meet your needs. Not enough rain to maintain healthy range or forest conditions, supply enough water, produce a good harvest, or sustain other needs. Drought can also be a rainfall deficient from some “normal” conditions. In the Southwest, we have plenty of drought experience. The region has been in drought much of the last 14 years, including several years of unprecedented drought—first early in the 21st century, and then eclipsed by the burning dryness of the last two years. Burning dryness because we’ve literally seen unprecedented wildfire, but also because Southwest droughts of the last two decades have been hotter than any time since we started keeping track. Droughts are tough on our water supply, forests, range and much more. They seldom leave human and natural systems better off than before the drought, but each drought does provide clues about what might lie ahead, and what we can do about it. As a climate scientist who tries to read and understand everything about drought, especially in the Southwest, I see key lessons emerging from the hardships of our current drought.

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Third, although a megadrought lasting decades can happen naturally, they are still pretty rare. We lack a good understanding of why they persist so long, and thus we can’t even say whether the drought we’ve been in will end next year or 20 years from now. Best bet is that it will persist at least another year, as we continue to wait for a strong El Niño or some other driver of big winter rain and snow to hopefully push our region back out of drought.

2006

Fourth, the story is more complex because of the influence humans have on the climate system. There is now almost no doubt among climate scientists that global warming is real, and that it is driven mostly by humans releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Global warming is the reason the Southwest has been warming so dramatically, and another reason why our recent droughts have been so severe. The last 14 years have been dry, but they have also been hotter than any comparable period for many centuries.

Increase in annual mean temperature This last lesson is perhaps the most important. As the Earth’s f r o m 1 8 8 4 t h r o u g h 2 0 0 6 ; N A S A / atmosphere warms up, it can hold more water, and it will G I S S . Fu l l a n i m a t i o n : h t t p : / / therefore demand more water from wherever it can get it; w w w. n a s a . g o v / c e n t e r s / g o d d a r d / soil and plants are a prime source. We can measure this, and news/topstory/2006/2006_warm.htm

First, droughts can happen for a variety of reasons and have a variety of impacts. In the Southwest, droughts just happen—they happen when ocean temperature patterns line up right, and they seem to do this all too often. The science of drought tells us a great deal about causes, but not enough to say when the next drought will hit, or exactly where, or how bad. But, one thing you can take to the bank—there will be more drought. No doubt about it. Second, a lot of folks want to ignore the issue of human-caused climate change. On one hand, that’s okay, because droughts can happen naturally, and it’s a solid no-regrets strategy to always be planning for the next drought. Our recent drought, as bad as it has been, is nothing compared to some of the droughts the Southwest has seen over the last 2000 years. There is little doubt that the tree-ring records are correct in telling us that droughts lasting several decades can happen. Imagine that. One of the most severe droughts affecting the headwaters of the Río Grande—and more—lasted 51 years, with only one year of above normal rainfall. Hard to imagine that.

we see it happening as the Earth gets warmer. And everyone reading this probably knows firsthand what happens on those really hot, dry days to soil and plants that don’t get enough water: they wilt, and in some cases, they die. This lesson is key because we know why it’s warming, and why drought impacts are getting worse—it’s like finally understanding why a prized animal is sick, and knowing that there is a cure if we want to pay for it.

Key lessons emerging from the hardships

What’s ahead then? More drought—sure bet. Hotter drought—ditto. The climate baseline is changing so that the old “normal” will look wetter and wetter as we move further into a progressively drier future. The best science also says that continued warming will bring less snow and less flow in our big rivers. The last two years have started to give us a clear vision of what climate change will mean to the Southwest. Hotter, drier and more drought-prone. And as I’ve already noted, if you know the cause, you know how to stop it if you want. The first step is to take climate change seriously and decide what we can and can’t adapt to. Then we have to talk about how to limit the climate change we can’t adapt to. With the drought, we all have a better idea of what’s at stake. We will still get good years—wet years—but they will be more and more the exception. A better bet is to expect more drought and plan for it. And, if you don’t like the idea of an increasingly hot and dry Southwest, then join in conversations about what to do about climate change: it is fixable, and the fixes will likely mean more jobs in the sunshine—and wind-rich Southwest. i Jonathan Overpeck, professor of Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, Tucson is the opening speaker at the 2013 Quivira Conference.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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D ro u g h t a s I n s p i r at i o n

J ulie S ullivan

New Agrarian Program apprentice Amber Reed and George Whitten with dog Chico in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, San Luís Valley, Colorado

nce upon a time there was a small house on a small ranch in the middle of a big valley. Halfway to the sky and surrounded by tall mountains, the valley was often cold, sometimes hot, and almost always dry. A man and a woman lived there, with their cats, dogs, horses and cows. They worked hard and knew what they worked for: happy land, happy cows, happy people, happy everything. The peoples who had lived and traveled through this valley for eons knew that water could fling itself up into the sky if you dug a hole in the right place. This underground water was so close to the surface that a sea of grasses thick with nourishing seed heads grew across the valley. A harsh place, the valley was also generous. One year the rain hardly fell. The same the next. And the next. Would it ever rain again? The man and the woman tried all sorts of things to figure out what they could do differently to live in an even drier place. They walked the land, and watched and listened. They changed their vision statement. They tried Appreciative Inquiry. Gross Profit Analysis. Gross Happiness Analysis. High-Density Mob Grazing. Direct Marketing.

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Still, it didn’t rain. Everyday they looked at the sky and hoped, but all they saw was the same pale blue sky. The farmers with their big center-pivot sprinklers kept pumping the water from the ground, further drying up the land until the cottonwoods and heirloom apple trees, even the tenacious plants that need little water to thrive, were turning to dust and blowing to Kansas. So the man and the woman decided to seek for wisdom in the unknown.

“Inspiration resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine and reconsider.” – Paul Hawken

the cause, climatic instability is the new norm. In 2003, during the last “worst drought in 700 years,” George and I learned that our survival depends on our ability to turn outward rather than hunker down with what we already know and close ourselves off from everyone else who is in trouble. We learned that hardship forces change, but that if we embrace the upheaval, we are more likely to find inspiration, mentors and allies. As Paul Hawken states in Blessed Unrest, “Inspiration is not garnered from the recitation of what is flawed; it resides, rather, in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine and reconsider.”

George and I inadvertently did this when we fell in love. I grew up in a small city, began acting lessons at seven, spent every summer day at the beach, and wanted to be a dryad (a tree spirit). George grew up on the family sheep continued on page 12

We’re in This Together

The old-timers say they’ve never seen weather like this: record heat, drought and flood. Wells are drying up, and the aquifer has dropped 2 million acre-feet below the original water table.

Perhaps the most important thing we realized back in 2003 was that everything we do is about relationship. We work with the cows, the sun, the gr ass, pr ivate landowners, federal agencies. We are dependent on earthworms, dung beetles and ecological processes.

Agricultural practices, the result of generations of collective experience with a particular piece of land, no longer work. How are we to raise food while we enhance the health of our land when the weather rages in unpredictable extremes? Whatever

Relationship is a basic building principle of living organisms. Life is made up of complex webs that create larger complex systems of interconnected elements. Organisms continually respond to their neighbors, assembling themselves into a diversity of life forms

Change is upon us

that develop intelligence by responding to the new information this diversity offers. The more relationships, the more possibilities for successful adaptation. If we are to find solutions to the problems we face, we need to do as nature does, evolve in relationship with people and ideas that stretch us beyond our comfort zone.

George Whitten and Julie Sullivan

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Drought as Inspiration

continued from page 11

ranch in the high lonesome San Luís Valley, playing in the dirt, building “Freeze Bugs” from old car parts, and walking behind the sheep from the valley floor to the high country every summer. I never had a date in high school because I was shy. He didn’t have one because he went to school smelling like the milk cow. I protested the Vietnam War; he wanted to enlist.

While there aren’t magic beans or magic pasture plans that offer us a sure-fire way to survive, there are a few things that give us hope.

Everywhere in nature, you find examples of diverse species living together in mutually supportive relationships. George and I are the same species, but the differences were and continue to be real. Yet we have found that our creativity, strength and momentum as a team is far greater than we ever had individually.

Nature has already solved many of the problems we are dealing with—energy, food production, climate stability— with millions of examples, evolved in context, tested over eons and shown to be safe for generations into the future.

Navigating Terra Incognita

We don’t think anyone knows how to navigate the changes that are upon us. It’s as if we are explorers facing Terra Incognita—sailing across seas with no charts, no guarantees that we’ll find a safe harbor out in the unknown. I’d prefer a little more certainty, myself.

People learn quickly when they realize that their happiness depends on new skills and information. We learn best when engaged with others who are also learning.

The teacher is among us; she always has been.

The Third Kind of Solution

Hardship forces us f rom known practices, leading to inspired solutions we would never consider in easier times. In his essay “Solving for Pattern,” Wendell Berry implored us to look for “the third kind of solution.” The first kind of solution is that which,

George Whitten and Julie Sullivan walk 2-year-old cattle into the corral to sort off some that are going to another pasture.

while solving the initial problem, causes a series of new and additional problems. Sprinkler irrigation is a case in point: sprinklers solved the problem of inconsistent rainfall but led to dewatering the aquifer, water tables so reduced that streams don’t run, and adversarial relations between oncefriends. The second kind of solution worsens the initial problem—a big tractor lets you cultivate more ground, leading to the need for a bigger tractor, requiring more production to pay for it. A bad solution, Berry says, is bad because it compromises the larger patterns in which it is contained—“the health of the soil, of plants and animals, of farm and farmer, of farm family and farm community, all involved in the same interested interlocking pattern— or pattern of patterns.” The third kind of solution “is good because it is in harmony with those larger patterns.” It recognizes limitations, improves the symmetries in living systems—human relationships as well as ecological processes, solves multiple problems with one action, and doesn’t enrich one person at the expense of another. The Land Institute’s Wes Jackson calls agriculture “humanity’s original sin,” and believes that, as agriculture is responsible for much of the harm humans have done to our world, it has a leading role to play in rectifying these wrongs. Combining Jackson’s call to action with Berry’s definition of a good solution, how are we creating that third kind of solution?

Green Fire Times • October 2013

George began altering his land practices in the 1980s, reducing the amount of irrigation water and fossil fuel needed by his ranch while increasing its biodiversity. In 2003 we began taking on interns, and in 2008 hired our first yearlong apprentice and began working with the Quivira Coalition to create the New Agrarian Program. We’ve graduated four New Agrarian apprentices, and our fifth is halfway through his year with us. These young people support our ranch with hard work and passion for a life on the land. They ask questions that don’t occur to us because they haven’t grown up in agriculture. They give us hope in return for the skills and opportunity they need.

Everything we do is about relationship. Sweet Grass Co-op is a group of smallscale ranchers in northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado who together raise and market 100-percent grass-fed and grass-finished cattle and support each other in finding regenerative land management practices that improve our regional landscape while providing wholesome food to our communities. We currently supply fresh grass-fed meat for La Montañita Co-op and Cid’s Market in New Mexico, and a number of other customers. We partner with organic farmers in the San Luís Valley, encouraging the planting of forage-appropriate cover crops that 1) increase soil fertility continued on page 38

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Meet Mr. Hadley: A Brief Atmospheric Understanding of the Southwest Sam Hinkle

ver heard of a Hadley Cell? Know what it does? Perhaps it’s time to become familiar with it, because it plays a critical role in our lives and will become even more critical in coming years. A Hadley Cell is a type of atmospheric bombardment from the tropics. Living in the Southwest, you are no doubt familiar with its effects, including drought and destructive rain events. But are you familiar with why this aerial barrage happens in the first place? I’m not talking about the monsoons, by the way, though the destructiveness of such storms may be exacerbated by the bombardment. B a s i c a l l y, t h e Southwestern states lie just north of a part of the Earth that experiences a constant supply of dry air from a global air circuit called the Hadley Cell. The cell is driven by differing air temperatures. Air heats up near the equator, and the warm air holds more moisture as it rises. But as the warm air rises into the colder atmosphere, it begins to cool, reducing its ability to hold moisture. As a result, the moisture condenses in the air and eventually falls to the Earth as precipitation. The Hadley Cell air, now cold and dry, continues in its cycle, falling to the Earth at about 30 degrees North and South latitude.

the Southwest will experience increased aridity. Droughts will occur with increased severity and frequency. It is likely that the droughts of today will become the norms of tomorrow. Second, the Southwest will experience greater variability of precipitation. A general rule for what Southwesterners may see is dry events getting drier and wet events getting wetter. That means more concentrated rainfall that could lead to more powerful, destructive and frequent flooding. We have already started to see such events occur in towns like Magdalena, NM, having lost its source of water, and Manitou Springs, Colo., flooding beneath the viscous byproduct of brief, powerful rain events and recent, bare fire scars. But now we are back to the things we know: the drying, the flooding, the drought. New knowledge of the artillery that is drying this region does not change what happens when it hits the ground, but may, at least, give us an expectation of what to prepare for—a base from which we can mount a mitigation effort. In the meantime, while the bombing continues, we can take some advice from our friends, the Brits: keep calm, and carry on. For anyone interested in further research and more detailed accounts of the impacts of Hadley Cell expansion and desertification, check out Bill DeBuys book, A Great Aridness. You can also visit the website: http://www.boqueteweather.com/climate_article. htm#winds Sam Hinkle was an intern with the Quivira Coalition during the summer of 2013.

Earth’s hot and dry deserts are located at and around these latitudes: The Sahara; the Atacama; the Outback country of Australia; and in North America, the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave deserts. The American Southwest, just above these dry latitudes, is either a part of these deserts or largely influenced by their presence, giving rise to arid and semi-arid climates. That system is not an issue in and of itself, of course. However, current research shows that the Hadley Cell is expanding.That is, the drop point for that cold dry air is moving to higher latitudes. Consider, for a visual, a north-central Mexican landscape in southern Colorado. Luckily, according to research conducted by local author Bill DeBuys, the Hadley Cell expansion seems to be occurring slowly enough that it is unlikely that any of us will see a landscape change of that magnitude in our lifetimes. That being said, it is reasonable to expect the cell’s expansion will make itself known in two ways. First,

Dry times on Quivira’s Red Canyon Reserve, near Socorro, New Mexico

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

Global Warming — What’s the Big Deal?

lobal warming ?

What’s the problem? Personally, I don’t like cold weather and wouldn’t mind average temperatures being a few degrees higher than they are now. Unfortunately, global warming isn’t just about average global temperatures rising a few degrees by the end of this century. In fact, “global warming” misses the mark entirely when it comes to conveying the seriousness and urgency regarding what we’re collectively doing to the stability, and therefore livability, of our planet’s climate. “Climate chaos” may be more accurate.

Safeguarding the livability of our plant’s climate.

Global climate models all point to the same concern: that the release and accumulation of greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, but including other gases as well) in the atmosphere will cause all weather events to become much more intense and extreme in the future. This includes not just heat waves, droughts and catastrophic forest fires, but hurricanes, blizzards, severe cold fronts, floods, sustained high winds, and so on. If this occurs, will our physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, tall buildings, sea walls, etc.) be able to handle it? Will farmers be able to grow anywhere near the amount of food per acre that they currently do to feed the world’s seven billion people? What if “Superstorm Sandys” start to hit the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast every two to three years?

People tend to take the relative stability of Earth’s climate for granted. I’ve spoken to climate skeptics who argue that the atmosphere is so vast that human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions couldn’t possibly disrupt the planet’s climate. But think about it. Earth’s atmosphere is a thin veneer or lens surrounding our globe. The livable (breathable) portion of the atmosphere is only about three miles thick on a planet that’s about 8000 miles wide. Common sense suggests that billions of people burning coal, oil and natural gas during the last 300 years and continuing today, could, indeed, dramatically alter the climate’s chemistry and functioning. Historic climate data and sophisticated computer climate models confirm this. Climate deniers argue that taking measures to reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions will negatively impact our economy. To the contrary, allowing catastrophic climate change to happen will create severe negative economic impacts (not to mention immense human suffering) that will dwarf any negative impacts that deniers claim will occur by reducing GHGs. In fact, economic studies indicate that deploying a combination of cost-effective energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies to reduce GHGs will maintain affordability for energy consumers and stimulate a new, vibrant clean-energy economy. Is there 100 percent certainty that human-caused GHG pollution will result in climate chaos? No, there is not. By comparison, there’s not 100 percent certainty that one’s teenager daughter

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Photo courtesy US Forest Service, Española District

Craig O’Hare

The Las Conchas Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest burned more than 150,000 acres in 2011.

who starts smoking three packs of cigarettes a day will die of lung cancer or emphysema before she’s 40. But it’s probably not a good idea. Given the devastating severity of global climate disruption, the prudent, conservative course of action is to prevent it from happening. Some have suggested that if and when the climate starts to get “really bad,” we can simply reduce GHGs at that time to bring things back to “normal.” Unfortunately, Earth’s complex climate doesn’t work like that. Climate models indicate that the accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere may reach a certain “threshold” or “tipping point, ” beyond which the severe climate changes become irreversible. Preventing atmospheric GHGs from reaching that threshold is, therefore, critical and urgent.

When it comes to safeguarding the livability of our planet’s climate, I’m a conservative. There’s enough evidence in historic climate data, combined with climate model projections, to indicate that we may indeed be severely altering the Earth’s climate. Renewable energy, like solar power, and energy-efficiency technologies exist today to reduce our GHG emissions by over 80 percent by 2030, all while promoting a robust economy. The time to act boldly and aggressively is now. Our children and their children are counting on us. i C ra i g O ’ H a r e i s on the board of the NM Partnership for Responsible Business and has a degree in Business Economics.

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Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013

Our Coming Food Crisis

Gary Paul Nabhan

It didn’t, but such speculation missed the real concern posed by the heat wave, which covered an area larger than New England. The problem isn’t spiking temperatures but a new reality in which long stretches of triple-digit days are common—threatening not only the lives of the millions of people who live there but also a cornerstone of the American food supply. People living outside the region seldom recognize its immense contribution to American agriculture: roughly 40 percent of the net farm income for the country normally comes from the 17 Western states; cattle and sheep production make up a significant part of that, as do salad greens, dry beans, onions, melons, hops, barley, wheat and citrus fruits. The current heat wave will undeniably diminish both the quality and quantity of these foods. The most vulnerable crops are those that were already in flower and fruit when temperatures surged, from apricots and

barley to wheat and zucchini. Idaho farmers have documented how their potato yields have been knocked back because their heat-stressed plants are not developing their normal number of tubers. Across much of the region, temperatures on the surface of food and forage crops hit 105 degrees, at least 10 degrees higher than the threshold for most temperate-zone crops. What’s more, when food and forage crops, as well as livestock, have had to endure temperatures 10 to 20 degrees higher than the longterm averages, they require far more water than usual. The Western drought, which has persisted for the last few years, has already diminished both surface water and groundwater supplies and increased energy costs because of all the water that has to be pumped in from elsewhere. If these costs are passed on to consumers, we can again expect food prices, especially for beef and lamb, to rise, just as they did in 2012, the hottest year in American history. So extensive was last year’s drought that more than 1,500 counties—about half of all the counties in the country—were declared national drought disaster areas, and 90 percent of those were hit by heat waves as well. The answer so far has been to help affected farmers with payouts from crop insurance plans. But while we can all sympathize with affected farmers, such assistance is merely a temporary response to a long-term problem. Fortunately, there are dozens of timetested strategies that our best farmers and ranchers have begun to use. The problem is that several agribusiness advocacy organizations have done their best to block any federal effort to promote them, including leaving them out of the current farm bill, or of climate-change legislation at all. One strategy would be to promote the use of locally produced compost to increase the moisture-holding capacity of fields, orchards and vineyards. In addition to locking carbon in the soil,

Green Fire Times • October 2013

©Gary Nabhan

his summer the tiny town of Furnace Creek, Calif. once again graced the nation’s front pages. Situated in Death Valley, it last made news in 1913, when it set the record for the world’s hottest recorded temperature, at 134 degrees. A century later, on June 29th, a heat wave blanketing the Western states pushed the mercury there to 130 degrees, provoking the news media to speculate that Furnace Creek could soon break its own mark.

Southern Arizona farm

composting buffers crop roots from heat and drought while increasing forage and food-crop yields. By simply increasing organic matter in their fields from 1 percent to 5 percent, farmers can increase water storage in the root zones from 33 pounds per cubic meter to 195 pounds. And we have a great source of compostable waste: cities. Since much of the green waste in this country is now simply generating methane emissions from landfills, cities should be mandated to transition to green-waste sorting and composting, which could then be distributed to nearby farms. Second, we need to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles to using smalland medium-scale rainwater harvesting and gray water (that is, waste water excluding toilet water) on private lands, rather than funneling all runoff to huge, costly and vulnerable reservoirs behind downstream dams. Both urban and rural food production can be greatly enhanced through proven techniques of harvesting rain and biologically filtering gray water for irrigation. However, many state and local laws restrict what farmers can do with such water.

biofuel production from annual crops. Perennial crops not only keep 7.5 to 9.4 times more carbon in the soil than annual crops, but their production also reduces the amount of fossil fuels needed to till the soil every year. We also need to address the looming seed crisis. Because of recent episodes of drought, fire and floods, we are facing the largest shortfall in the availability of native grass, forage legume, tree and shrub seeds in American history. Yet current budget-cutting proposals threaten to significantly reduce the number of federal plant material centers, which promote conservation best practices. If our rangelands, forests and farms are to recover from the devastating heat, continued on page 18

Moreover, the farm bill should include funds from the Strikeforce Initiative of the Department of Agriculture to help farmers transition to forms of perennial agriculture—initially focusing on edible tree crops and perennial grass pastures—rather than providing more subsidies to

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Cows and Apples: A Dirt Girl’s Journey

Martha Skelley

Baca National Wildlife Refuge, San Luís Valley, Colorado

y mother calls me her “dirt gir l” because of my ear ly and continued fondness for soil. Understanding the living and breathing medium underneath our feet has led me to want to protect it and enrich its natural processes while feeding people.

Farming in the Appalachian hills captured my heart and mind. As a result, I worked for two-and-a-half years, largely with cattle, but also with swine and poultry.

While leading the cattle crew, I began looking for apprenticeships that focused on raising beef and other livestock. I came across Q uivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program at San Juan Ranch in Colorado. In February of 2012 I moved west to work for 12 months for George Whitten and Julie Sullivan in the San Luís Valley. There I Martha Skelley moving the mother herd across the Río Grande learned many hard truths of agriculture: I did not know in high school that no rain equals no grass, to name one. my fascination with soils, ecology and We overcame climatic stresses by being environmental science would lead me mobile and moving cattle to properties to raising cattle and learning holistic along the Río Grande. Learning new tree-health skills in the Southwest, but landscapes and adapting grazing it has, and much of my agrarian calling methods to fit management objectives started in college. Warren Wilson was often fun and hard work. I came College, near Asheville, NC, set me west with the wish to learn about water up for the journey I am on today. The rights, aridity and ranching, and I got a college’s educational philosophy, the good dose of all three, and much more. Triad: work, service and academics, While the Quivira Coalition and their appealed to me. Every student works New Agrarian Program exposed me for the college in some capacity, be to raising cattle on large landscapes, it serving food in the dining hall, it also unveiled my need to follow my building guitars for the fine-woodother agricultural interest—fruit trees. working crew, or raising swine, cattle While fruit trees and cattle might and poultry down on the college farm.

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seem like an odd combination, I do seek to one day to have an operation that combines the two. The Quivira Coalition helped me discover Tooley’s Trees near Truchas, NM. Gordon Tooley and Margaret Yancey have taken me on as an intern, and I am learning about producing high-quality nursery stock for retail and wholesale. Tooley’s Trees specializes in heirloom and heritage fruit tree varieties and other native or endemic species that do well in New Mexico climates and soils. Gordon and Margaret’s holistic tree/orchard health philosophy starts with the life within the soil (bacteria, fungi and invertebrates—just to name a few) and ways to feed the biota, which then make available nutrients to trees and other plants. Their desire to mend

and feed soils has taken their once hard-packed earth to easy shovelfuls of rich organic and nutrient-diverse soils.

We need to empower a new generation of farmers and ranchers. My new agrarian mentorships have been vital to my journey. I would not be where I am today without the encouragement and opportunities offered by my bosses. Their gifts of teaching and sharing open up doors and allow apprentices access to a life that has more often been passed down than left open for anyone to join. American agriculture has taken an interesting twist from its roots of continued on page 19

The 2013 New Agrarian Career Connection

Quivira recognizes the urgent need to connect experienced land owners/ managers and conservation leaders with the next generation of people who will be responsible for growing our food and stewarding our planet. Quivira’s 3rd Annual New Agrarian Career Connection will take place on the second evening of the 2013 Quivira Conference (Nov. 14). The purpose of the event is to provide an opportunity for conversations among like-minded people to explore apprenticeships and partnerships and learn about land transfer opportunities— thereby helping to ensure the future of American agriculture. This event will be open to all and free of charge.

Patrice Tueu, an apprentice at James Ranch Artesian Dairy, Durango, Colorado

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Food Crisis continued from page 16 drought and wildfires of the last three years, they need to be seeded with appropriate native forage and ground-cover species to heal from the wounds of climatic catastrophes. To that end, the farm bill should direct more money to the underfinanced seed collection and distribution programs. Finally, the National Plant Germplasm System, the Department of Agriculture’s national reserve of crop seeds, should be charged with evaluating hundreds of thousands of seed collections for drought- and heat tolerance, as well as other climatic adaptations — and given the financing to do so. Thousands of heirloom vegetables and heritage grains already in federal and state collections could be rapidly screened and then used by farmers for a fraction of what it costs a biotech firm to develop, patent and market a single “climate-friendly” crop.

farmers and ranchers if they keep them at risk of further suffering from heat extremes and extended drought. And no one can reasonably argue that the current system offers farmers any long-term protection. Last year some farmers made more from insurance payments than from selling their products, meaning we are dangerously close to subsidizing farmers for not adapting to changing climate conditions.

Investing in climatechange adaptation will be far more cost-effective than doling out crop insurance payments.

License #13-00119974

Investing in climate-change adaptation will be far more cost-effective than doling out $11.6 billion in crop insurance payments, as the government did last year, for farmers hit with diminished yields or all-out crop failures. Unfortunately, some agribusiness organizations fear that if they admit that accelerating climate change is already affecting farmers, it will shackle them with more regulations. But those organizations are hardly serving their member

It’s now up to our political and business leaders to get their heads out of the hot sand and do something tangible to implement climate-change policy and practices before farmers, ranchers and consumers are further affected. Climate adaptation is the game every food producer and eater must now play. A little investment coming too late will not help us adapt in time to this new reality. i This article was originally published as an op-ed in The New York Times on July 7, 2013. Gary Paul Nabhan is a research scientist at the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona and the author of “Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land: Lessons From Desert Farmers in Adapting to Climate Uncertainty.”

To Farm Is to Be Married

We are not alone in our struggle to achieve food security in the face of climate change. We are all in this together, growing food in partnership with diverse seeds, breeds, soil microbes, pollinators and other beneficial insects. But we need to acknowledge our interdependence with these other lives, because our fates are intertwined. In a sense, we are married to them, cohabitate with them, and cannot physically or spiritually live separate from them. That is why I suggested that everyone at the 2013 Seed Savers Exchange Campout in Decorah, Iowa stand up to renew their vows to be a good partner and steward to the seeds and other lives that can help us survive such unpredictable times. Here are those vows, so that you too may renew your covenant with this blessed earth:

I, (name), a gardener, farmer, seed saver, and eater, wish to renew our sacred vows to take care, love and serve the astonishing diversity of life on this earth. Through sickness and in health (I bet you knew that line was coming), in times of crisis and times of joy, to sow the seeds of food justice, to sow the seeds of food security, to sow the seeds of food democracy, to sow the seeds of true food sovereignty, through our own actions and our own eating patterns so that we may all eat what we have truly sown. I reaffirm our covenant with this earth, to humbly be one more way that seeds themselves regenerate into more seeds to nourish all of us. Love one another and go and sow in peace.

– Gary Nabhan

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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Dirt Girl continued from page 17

Martha working with Gordon Tooley of Tooley’s Trees, Truchas, New Mexico

family farming; with less than 1 percent of our population now involved in food production, we need to empower a new generation of farmers and ranchers. These young people need access to mentorship, starting capital and affordable land. The next generation of agrarians also needs to be able to read their land, see what it offers, and learn to give back what they take from it.

Anyone with their hands in the soil has observed the climatic changes over the past decade. Knowing the future is filled with unknowns, especially when it comes to weather and changing climatic conditions, I, and other new agrarians, must be keen to building an adaptable agricultural skill set. Diverse knowledge of soils, plants, animals and weather is fundamental to this adaptability. As I was delving into why I want to live my life connected to the land and feeding others, I found the following quote in the introduction to The Essential Agrarian Reader by Norman Wirzba: “Agrarianism tests success and failure not by projected income statements or by economic growth, but by health and vitality of a region’s entire human and non-human neighborhood.” Dr. Wirzba reminds us it is the responsibility of the community—the “neighborhood”—to care for the living and non-living elements; it is not just a landowner’s responsibility. Dr. Wirzba goes on to state that agrarianism is “the most complex and far-reaching accounting system ever known.” This accounting system includes the ever-present watersheds and soils that our neighborhood relies upon, as well as the communal desire for species diversity, joy, creativity and respect for all sources of life. Agriculture should equal community. Today communities need to actively look for ways to cultivate opportunities for new agrarians. Since many communityoriented new agrarians did not grow up on a farm or ranch where mechanical and earth-reading skills were passed down for generations, we will need to share not just tools and equipment, but knowledge and know-how, and lend each other a hand when we have a skill another does not. There is a force of young and old who want to get back to the soil and plants, and it takes encouragement, mentorship and fortitude to see it all grow. While we do this, let us feed our friends and neighbors of our whole community. Even if you are a front-porch, pottedplant gardener, a backyard gardener, have one acre or several thousand acres, or buy your food at the grocery store, you are a member of the “neighborhood” of this Earth, and a part of her processes. i

Julie Sullivan and Martha Skelley

Martha Skelley is currently an apprentice with Tooley’s Trees in Truchas, NM. After graduating from Quivira’s New Agrarian Program, she found this opportunity to further her education at the 2012 Quivira Conference New Agrarian Career Connection event.

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013

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Getting in the Wood

by Gary Snyder

T he sour smell, blue stain,  water squirts out round the wedge, Lifting quarters of rounds  covered with ants  “a living glove of ants upon my hand ”  the poll of the sledge a bit peened over  so the wedge springs off and tumbles  ringing like high-pitched bells  into the complex duff of twigs  poison oak, bark, sawdust,  shards of logs,

And the sweat drips down.  Smell of cr ushed ants.  T he lean and heave on the peavey  that breaks free the last of a bucked  three-foot round,  it lies flat on smashed oaklings– Wedge and sledge, peavey and maul, little axe, canteen, pigg yback can  of saw-mix gas and oil for the chain,  knapsack of files and goggles and rags, All to gather the dead and the down. the young men throw splits on the piles  bodies hardening, learning the pace  and the smell of tools from this delve  in the winter  death-topple of elderly oak.  Four cords. From The Gary Snyder Reader Vol. II, Counterpoint Press

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

Thinking Like a Creek

Courtney White

Comanche Point in the Valle Vidal area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico

uring my travels, I heard a story about a man who had put short fences across a cattle trail in the sandy bottom of a canyon in Navajo country so that cattle were forced to meander in an S-pattern as they walked, encouraging the water to meander too and thus slow erosion. I thought this idea was wonderfully heretical. That’s because the standard solution for degraded creeks is to spend a bunch of money on cement, riprap and diesel-driven machines. Putting fences in the way of cattle and letting them do the work? How cool. The man was Bill Zeedyk, a retired biologist with the US Forest Service reincarnated as a riparian restoration specialist. Was the story true, I asked him? It was, he assured me. Recognizing that water running down a straight trail will cut a deeper and deeper incision in soft soil with each storm, Bill talked the local Navajo ranchers into placing fences at intervals along the trail so that the cows would be forced to create a meander pattern in

Bill Zeedyk

the soil precisely where Bill thought nature would do so in their absence. Water likes to meander—it’s nature’s way of dissipating energy—and it will gravitate toward doing so do even if it’s temporarily trapped in a cattle-caused rut (or a human-caused hiking trail). His fence idea was a way to move the process along.

A toolbox designed to “heal nature with nature” What happened after the fences were put it in? The water table came up as vegetation grew back, Bill replied, because the water was now traveling more slowly as a result and had a chance to percolate into the ground, rather than run off like before. Eroded banks began to revegetate as the water table rose and more water appeared in the bottom of the canyon, which encouraged riparian plant growth. “Nature did all the heavy lifting,” he said, before adding a warm, knowing smile. “It worked too, until someone stole the fences.” Over the years, Bill has developed a very effective set of low-cost techniques that reduce erosion, return riparian areas to a healthier functioning condition and restore wet meadows. This is important because a big part of the West exists in an eroded condition, generally the result of historically poor land management. This point was brought home to me in force one day when I walked under a barbed-wire fence that stretched across a gully on a New Mexico ranch. The fence was five feet above my head. The rancher told me that the fence was built in 1937 and the fence posts originally rested on the ground!

Green Fire Times • October 2013

To heal this type of damage, Bill has put together a toolbox designed to “heal nature with nature” that includes: • o ne-rock dams/weirs—gradecontrol structures composed of wooden pickets or rocks that are literally one-rock high and simulate a ‘riffle’ effect in creeks. • baffles/deflectors — wedge-shaped structures that steer water flow. • vanes — a row of posts that project upstream to deflect water away from eroding banks. • headcut control structures/rock bowls — to slow or stop the relentless march of erosion up a creek and trap water so vegetation can grow. • w o r m di t c hes — t o r e d i r e c t water away from headcuts in wet meadows. The goal of these structures is to stop downcutting in creeks, often by

‘inducing’ an incised stream to return to a “dynamically stable” channel through the power of small flood events. Bill calls it Induced Meandering. When a creek loses its riparian vegetation— grasses, sedges, rushes, willows and other water-loving plants—it tends to straighten out and cut downward because the speed of water is now greater, causing the scouring power of sediment to increase. Over time, this downcutting results in the creek becoming entrenched below its original floodplain, which causes all sorts of ecological havoc, including a drop in the water table. Eventually, the creek will create a new floodplain at this lower level by remeandering itself, but that’s a process that often takes decades. Bill’s idea is to goose the process along by forcing the creek to remeander itself, his vanes, baffles, and riffle weirs carefully calculated and emplaced. And once water begins to slow down, guess what begins to grow? Willows, sedges and rushes!

Representation of the Induced Meandering Process (Zeedyk and Clothier, 2009)

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“My aim is to armor eroded streambanks the old fashioned way,” said Bill, “with green,growing plants, not with cement and rock gabions [retention baskets or cages].”

“As a species, we humans want immediate results. But nature often has the last word,” said Bill. “It took 150 years to get the land into this condition; it’s going to take at least as long to get it repaired.” The key is to learn how to read the landscape—to become literate in the language of ecological health.

The employment of one-rock dams typifies Bill’s naturalistic approach. The conventional response of landowners to eroded, downcut streams and arroyos has been to build check dams in the middle of the watercourse. The old idea was to trap sediment behind a dam, which would give vegetation a place to take root as moisture is captured and stored. The trouble is, check dams work against nature’s long-term plans.

One-rock dams, by contrast, don’t collapse—because they are only one rock high. Instead, they slow water down, capture sediment, store a bit of moisture and give vegetation a place to take root. It just takes more time to see the effect.

These fence posts at a New Mexico ranch rested on the ground in 1937.

“All check dams, big or small, are doomed to fail,” said Bill. “That’s because nature has a lot more time than we do. As water does its work, especially during floods, the dam will undercut and eventually collapse, sending all that sediment downstream and making things worse than if you did nothing at all.” “The trick is to think like a creek,” he continued. “As someone once told me long ago, creeks don’t like to be lakes, even tiny ones. Over time, they’ll be creeks again.”

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“All ecological change is a matter of process. I try to learn the process and let nature do the work,” said Bill, “but you’ve got to understand the process, because if you don’t, you can’t fix the problem.” Over 15 years and across a dozen states, Bill has implemented hundreds of restoration projects, healing miles of riparian areas— all by thinking like a creek! i Courtney White co-founded the Quivira Coalition. Courtney@quiviracoalition.org

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Balloon Mapping A Habitat Restoration Project

ince 2002, the Quivira Coalition has partnered with numerous organizations and agencies to lead a habitat restoration project on Comanche Creek, a 27,000-acre watershed located in the Valle Vidal Unit of the Carson National Forest. The goal of this long-term project is to implement a restoration plan for the greater Comanche Creek Watershed that includes providing sustainable habitat for the threatened Río Grande cutthroat trout. Heavy land use in the last century—logging, mining and overstocking with cattle and sheep—has led to the formation of large headcuts and channel downcutting in the upper tributaries that flow down into the Comanche Creek mainstem. As the stream flow erodes the streambed and moves sediment, streams “downcut” as water moves too swiftly through the system. Downcut channels move water through the system faster, which causes less water to be After a lot of trial and error this summer, we think we have the stored in the banks balloon mapping method down. First, we have a list of balloonof the streams and mapping enemies, which include wind, hail, tree branches, the surrounding pickup truck rides and the ever-rising cost of helium. wet meadows. These this creates a feedback loop, and the system keeps drying. areas become drier It may seem a stretch to call this process desertification in a and less productive lush, high-mountain system, but it is. (fewer and less vigorous plants), and less water is stored in their soils.

Restoring watersheds, not just individual streams

Less water stored in the surrounding areas means less wetland vegetation, which means further erosion A downcutting stream channel with and water moving eroding banks creates a positive through the system feedback loop of degradation. even faster. Over time,

A desertifying system is obviously not good for fish. By 2000, populations of native Río Grande cutthroat trout had been reduced to 10 percent of their historic range in the American Southwest. Trout Unlimited (a national, nonprofit conservation organization) proposes a strategy that emphasizes “restoring entire watersheds, not just individual streams,” and a “sustained conservation and recovery effort.” Quivira has taken this instruction to heart.

Above: This is the resolution of a small portion of Comanche Creek from Google Earth.

This is the resolution of Comanche Creek from this summer’s balloon mapping. With clear images like this one, we will be able to identify and prioritize areas in need of restoration treatments. It took a lot of pictures to build the detailed creek images. The high-resolution image was made by “stitching” the four best images together from 187 digital images.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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It takes more care to tie an inflated weather balloon in the back of a truck than it does to dress your dog for the prom.

The camera mounted on the balloon requires constant checking to change the camera aperture as the sun moves higher in the sky.

It takes three people to walk the balloon along the creek.

Because of the New Mexico winds, we quickly determined that the best mapping time was between 6 and 8 am.

In order to help accomplish this goal for Comanche Creek Watershed, we have been on the ground for 12 years in the Valle Vidal system, and we have kept detailed records of the observed change during that period; however, 27,000 acres is a lot of ground to cover, and we have not been able to document the conditions in all the tributariesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;until now.

restoration tools and went to work, leaving the balloon mapping until the next morning. These detailed images, captured between 6 and 8 am, allow us to have a baseline map of watershed conditions in tributaries where we have not had the opportunity to work on the ground. They will also help us to track our restoration efforts to date and evaluate the successes and failures in tributaries and along the Comanche Creek mainstem and to continue to improve our restoration techniques. Finally, balloon mapping will also result in the prioritization of sites whose restoration would most positively impact RGCT habitat. i

This year, with funding from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Fish Passage Program, we began highresolution digital mapping of streams in the Comanche Creek Watershed. Our method of choice is a 5.5-ft.-diameter weather balloon with a digital camera capturing pictures of the creek from approximately 50 feet up in the air. By 8 am, the wind often stopped us, and we grabbed our

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For more on the lessons learned from out summer of balloon mapping, visit the Quivira website later this fall.

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013

Healing the Carbon Cycle with Cattle

Courtney White

Tom Sidwell standing on restored grasslands on the JX Ranch, near Tucumcari, New Mexico

n 2004, Tom and Mimi Sidwell bought the 7,000-acre JX Ranch, south of Tucumcari, New Mexico, and set about doing what they know best: earning a profit by restoring the land to health and stewarding it sustainably.

downward spiral as the ranch crossed ecological and economic thresholds. In the case of the JX, the water-, nutrient-, mineral- and energy cycles unraveled across the ranch, causing the land to disassemble and eventually fall apart.

As with many ranches in the arid Southwest, the JX had been hard-used over the decades. Poor land and water management had caused the grass cover to diminish in quantity and quality, exposing soil to the erosive effects of wind, rain and sunlight, which also diminished the organic content of the soil significantly, especially its carbon. Eroded gullies had formed across the ranch, small at first, but growing larger with each thundershower, cutting down through the soft soil, biting into the land more deeply, eating away at its vitality. Water tables fell correspondingly, starving plants and animals alike of precious nutrients, forage and energy.

Enter the Sidwells. With 30 years of experience in managing land, they saw the deteriorated condition of the JX not as a liability but as an opportunity. Tom began by dividing the entire ranch into 16 pastures, up from the original five, using solar-powered electric fencing. After installing a water system to feed all 16 pastures, he picked cattle that could do well in dry country, grouped them into one herd, and set about carefully rotating them through the pastures, never grazing a single pasture for more than 7-10 days, typically, in order to give the land plenty of recovery time. Next, he began clearing out the juniper and mesquite trees on the ranch with a bulldozer, which allowed native grasses to come back.

Profits fell too for the ranch’s previous owners. Many had followed a typical business plan: stretch the land’s ecological capacity to the breaking point—add more cattle when the economic times turned tough and pray for rain when dry times arrived, as they always did. The result was the same—a

As grass returned—a result of the animals’ hooves breaking up the capped topsoil, allowing seed-to-soil contact— Tom lengthened the period of rest between pulses of cattle grazing in each pasture from 60 days to 105 days across the whole ranch. More rest

Green Fire Times • October 2013

meant more grass, which meant Tom could graze more cattle to stimulate more grass production. In fact, Tom increased the overall livestock capacity of the JX by 25 percent in only six years, significantly impacting the ranch’s bottom line.

10 years, the JX has seen an increase in diversity of grass species, including cool-season grasses and a decrease in the amount of bare soil across the ranch. Simultaneously, there was an increase in the pounds of meat per acre produced on the ranch.

The typical stocking rate in this part of New Mexico is one cow to 50 acres. The Sidwells have brought it down to one to 36 acres, and hope to get it down to one to 30 acres someday. Ultimately, Tom hopes to have the ranch divided into 23 pastures. The reason for his optimism is simple: the native grasses are coming back, even in dry years. Over the past

The key to the Sidwells’ success? Goals and planning. That doesn’t sound terribly novel, but it’s how the Sidwells do it that separates them from the large majority of other ranchers. They take a holistic approach, planning the management of the ranch’s resources as a whole and not just parts of a whole, as is traditionally done. It’s

Mimi and Tom Sidwell

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the classic Triple Bottom Line: land health, human well-being and financial prosperity. They accomplish this by monitoring and re-planning based upon what the monitoring tells them. When Tom does the annual planning for the ranch, he takes into account not only the needs of the livestock but also the physiological needs of the vegetation and wildlife. Tom considers soil health to be the key to the ranch’s environmental health, so he plans to leave standing vegetation and litter on the soil surface to decrease the impact of raindrops on bare soil, slow runoff to allow water infiltration into the soil, provide cover for wildlife, and feed the microorganisms in the soil. He also plans for drought. That’s why the JX has standing vegetation and litter on the soil, as I saw, because Tom adjusts his livestock numbers before the drought takes off, instead of during or after the drought has set in, as is traditionally done. “I plan for the drought,” Tom said with a wry smile, “and so far, everything is going according to plan.” There is an important collateral benefit to all their planning: the Sidwells’ cattle are healing the carbon cycle. By growing grass on previously bare soil, by extending plant roots deeper and by increasing plant size and vitality, the Sidwells are sequestering more CO2 in the ranch’s soil than the previous owners had. It’s an ancient equation: more plants mean more green leaves, which mean more roots, which mean more carbon exuded, which means more CO2 can be sequestered in the soil, where it will stay. Tom wasn’t monitoring for soil carbon, but everything he was doing had a positive carbon effect, evidenced by the increased health and productivity of their ranch. There’s another benefit to carbon-rich soil: it improves water infiltration and storage, due to its sponge-like quality. Recent research indicates that one part carbon-rich soil can retain as much as four parts water. This has important positive consequences for the recharge of aquifers and base flows to rivers and streams, which are the lifebloods of towns and cities. It’s also important to people who make their living off the land, as Tom and Mimi Sidwell can tell you. In 2010, they were pleased to discover that a spring near their house had come

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back to life. For years, it had flowed at a miserly rate of ¼-gallon per minute, but after clearing out the juniper trees above the spring and managing the cattle for increased grass cover, the well began to pump 1.5 gallons a minute, 24 hours a day! In 2011, the Sidwells’ skills were put to the test when less than three inches of rain fell on the JX over a period of 12 months (the area average is 16 inches per year). In response, Tom sold nearly the entire cattle herd in order to give his grass a rest. He had enough forage from 2010 to run higher cattle numbers, but asked himself, “What would a bison

Earning a profit by restoring the land herd do?” They would have avoided a droughty area, he decided. It was a gamble, but it paid off in 2012 when it began raining again, although the total amount was 10 inches below normal. “It was enough to make a little grass,” he told me. “We had some mortality on our grass and a lot more bare ground than before the drought, but I think the roots are strong and healthy, and recovery will be quick.” The Sidwells decided to purchase cattle and are now nearly 30 percent stocked and back in business. In contrast, all of their neighbors kept cattle on their land through 2011 and had to destock due to a lack of grass— just as the Sidwells began restocking!

760-391-0216 visit: bioponicsinstitute.com 505-470-7200 or SFCC 505-428-1388

“Grazing and drought planning are a godsend,” said Tom, “and we go forward with a smile and confidence because we know we can survive this drought.” i

Courtney White co-founded the Quivira Coalition. Today his work with Quivira concentrates on building economic and ecological resilience on working landscapes, with an emphasis on carbon ranching and the new agrarian movement. Courtney@quiviracoalition.org

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Appointments in the comfort of your own home. Dr. Audrey Shannon, DVM, has training in both Western veterinary medicine and in traditional Chinese veterinary medicine. Her integrated holistic approach focuses on acupuncture and acupressure, with nutritional and herbal therapy to ensure your animalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s optimal health and well-being. Treatment is available for dogs, cats, and horses.

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Milking the Rhino A Revolution in Grassroots Wildlife Conservation is Turning Poachers into Protectors Jeannie Magill

he award-winning documentary Milking the Rhino turns the camera around f rom the place it usually sits when filming the African bush, to the people living there coping with the challenges and beauty of the local wildlife and topography. The last African documentary you probably saw was filled with tall grasses, bilbao trees and lush jungles teaming with exotic wildlife. But in post-colonial Africa, the reality is that people live in close proximity to this wildlife. Most African wildlife parks are based on our Yellowstone. In all cases in Africa, however, people have been forcibly removed to create the park.

Milking the Rhino explores wildlife and land conser vation f rom the perspective of these two indigenous peoples. These ethnic groups are finding t h e m s e l ve s s om e t i m e s clashing with the myth of “wild Africa,” which brings millions of tourists to the continent every year, and also works to preser ve the myth for economic benefit. Wildlife competes for grazing land with the community’s domestic cattle.

A neighbor of the Il Ngwesi, Milking the Rhino examines the Ian Craig, has turned his environmental work of two of the grandparents’ cattle ranch into a wildlife world’s oldest cattle cultures, the preserve open to tourists. He convinced Il Ngwesi Maasai of north central the Il Ngwesi to practice a new Kenya and the Himba people in the conservation paradigm, Communityremote northwest corner of Namibia, Based Conservation, or Communityoverlooking Angola. Decades ago, Based Natural Resource Management these proud people were removed from (CBNRM), by turning 80 percent their ancient homelands, where they of their land over to wildlife. They use managed, rotational grazing for their c attle, which rejuvenates their land, attracts wildlife to return and provides better grazing for their cattle, especially in times of drought. The Il Ngwesi built a beautiful eco-lodge Himba family, Marienfluss Valley, Namibia. The woman is painted o v e r l o o k i n g red with ochre and butterfat so that she matches the cattle. a waterhole that attracts coexisted in harmony with wildlife elephants, gazelle, zebras, giraffes for millennia on land without borders. and various primates. Slowly, the Conservationists, using the “fenceslodge brings in tourists to view the and-fines” approach to preserving wildlife and share the lifestyle of these wildlife, disrupted traditional lifestyles, engaging Maasai. As one Il Ngwesi making the wildlife park the property of chief said, “We’re milking the wildlife. the White Man and turning everyday We’re milking the rhino.” The financial food-gathering into a criminal act of gain the community is attaining from poaching for these people. tourism, along with the increased health of their cattle because of their

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Rhino in Namibia

new grazing techniques, is empowering these once-colonized people, keeping their culture and language alive and providing a hopeful, positive future for their children. Youth are choosing to stay in the rural setting now rather than migrate to towns looking for nonexistent employment. Concurrently in Namibia, Milking the Rhino shows a non-governmental organization officer, John Kasaona, tr ying to spread the gospel of conservation to the Himba and Herrero people that live in a self-consecrated conser vation conser vancy in the Kunene region of the Marienfluss Valley. For the most part, these are uneducated people who cannot read or write. Kasaona’s NGO has helped them write a constitution for the conservancy that is required by the federal government. The NGO has also helped these communities establish conservation goals and practices. When a local, upscale safari operator asked if they could build a lodge overlooking the Kunene River with a view of Angola, the NGO helped negotiate a contract giving the community members 8 percent per bed night per tourist for use of their land. The safari company works with the Himba and Herrero people, teaching them how to operate the lodge. In 10 years time, if the indigenous people want to take over the lodge completely, they can

benefit from the proceeds 100 percent. If they don’t want to do this, the safari company will continue to run the lodge and work with the community. Like the Maasai, these people’s cattle are thriving using rotational, managed grazing, which in turn is encouraging wildlife to return to the area and attract tourists. Unlike Kenya, the Namibian government works on wildlife quotas with the local people so they can hunt for their own use or sell wildlife to other conservancies. Milking the Rhino is a balanced film that shows the true effects of drought on the land, the cattle and the lives of these people. There are no simple solutions to the issues raised. The documentary captures the nuances and historical factors that other films about wildlife in Africa often miss. Traditional lifestyles are being changed by contact with Westerners and the income they bring. African audiences unanimously tell me, “You’ve gotten it right. Milking the Rhino is honest.” That means more to me than the global awards and the nine-year contract with ITVS/PBS television we’ve been given. Namibia looks very much like New Mexico. Like New Mexican ranchers, the Il Ngwesi Maasai and the Himba are working with drought and cattle. In Namibia, John Kasaona tells his continued on page 32

Green Fire Times • October 2013

A Visit to the Flying D Bison Ranch Editor’s Note: Robert Staffanson, 92, is the founder and president of the American Indian Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Bozeman, Montana. Since 1977, the Institute has sponsored the International Elders & Youth Council, held each year in a different location in Indian county. Traditional elders and youth from the Four Directions gather to speak about the welfare of mankind and the world, and to re-energize in the name of cultural survival. The Institute also cosponsors gatherings and forums with the Traditional Circle of Elders and Youth.

Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth 24th Anniversary encampment, Flying D Bison Ranch, Montana

Jose Lucero, of the Tewa Pueblo of Santa Clara in New Mexico, is on the governing council of the Traditional Circle. In June, 2013 Lucero and Staffanson visited the Flying D bison ranch in Montana, where the institute had held its 25th anniversary gathering. The Flying D is a former cattle ranch that was acquired by Ted Turner in 1989. Its 119,000 acres are situated between the Gallatin and Madison rivers in strikingly beautiful country bordering the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. Turner turned it into bison range, holding between three- and four-thousand head, as well as substantial numbers of elk, moose, deer, bear and wolves. On the next page is Staffanson’s account of their experience in a letter to the Traditional Circle, along with Lucero’s translation of his communication with the buffalo.

NEWSBITEs

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report Released

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of 840 of the world’s top climate scientists, released the first part of a much anticipated report late last month. It opens with the message that we are seeing changes in the climate system unprecedented in records spanning hundreds of years. The scientists warned that, based on a series of conservative assessments, unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control within decades, humanity will face increasingly profound challenges. The report went well beyond previous analyses of the emissions problem and endorsed a “carbon budget” for humanity—an upper limit on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from industrial activities and forest destruction. There are three major differences in the new report from the previous one in 2007: 1) There is now a 95 percent level of certainty that most of the warming of the past 60 years is due to human activity. 2) Projections of sea level rise are about 50 percent higher than previously estimated; the combination of intense storms with an unusually high sea level is very destructive. 3) The window of opportunity to avoid dangerous warming is closing rapidly. In regard to the slowdown in the rise of surface temperature over the last 15 years, seized on by skeptics to cast doubt on the science of climate change, the report says that it does not reflect long-term climate trends and that surface temperature is just one of many expressions of climate change.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Ranking

According to a new report from the American Council on Renewable Energy, New Mexico ranks eighth among 13 Western states for installed renewable energy power. Washington, California and Oregon top the list. The Western Region Report says that in 2012 New Mexico created 1,070 megawatts of power from renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric. The report says that the 6 percent Renewable Energy Tax Credit and the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard were factors in the growth of renewable energy in New Mexico, and about $650 million in RE projects were created in the past two years.

Power Plants are New Mexico’s Largest Source of Global Warming Pollution

A new report from the advocacy group Environment New Mexico says that power plants are New Mexico’s single largest source of carbon pollution, and that the state’s power plants produce as much carbon each year as six million cars. The report, America’s Dirtiest Power Plants, was released last month as the Obama administration was about to release its new set of rules requiring limits on CO 2 emissions for coal-fired as well as gas-fired turbines. “With events like droughts and wildfires becoming more frequent and severe, New Mexico is already feeling the impacts of global warming,” said Zachary Sharp, professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Things will only get worse for us and our children if we fail to take swift and bold action now.” To read the report, visit: www.environmentnewmexicocenter.org/reports/

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Jose Lucero’s Buffalo Song Robert Staffanson

ose and I went to visit the bison early on a clear, cool beautiful morning. We found the herd on both sides of a country road running through part of the ranch. Countless bison were on surrounding hillsides and up a connecting valley as far as an eye could see. We drove slowly, stopping to see the play of spring calves and the action of an undisturbed herd. At an appropriate place we stopped, left the car and stood motionless, watching the animals. Our presence was accepted. After a time, I returned to sit in the car. Jose sang a Pueblo buffalo song. I watched in awe as at least 30 cows and calves made a semi-circle around him, watching and listening. Legend says that in the beginning animals and humans could talk together. They still can do that, although discourse is not in words but in language of spirit—direct spirit-to-spirit communication. Science would call it “telepathy,” communication through means other than the senses. Animals and young children have it, but we lose it as we become more sophisticated and dependent upon language. Some, however, retain it. Conditions on the part of human beings are an open, humble and accepting mind and spirit. I saw communication taking place so deep that wild animals came together around Jose. What took place in our encounter with the bison cannot be explained; there are no words. I can say I returned drained of emotion but with an energized spirit that stays with me. I can also say that at my age the encounter has more meaning than it would have had earlier, and that it reflects on my respect and deep affection for all of you.

Legend says that in the beginning animals and humans could talk together.

Communication with the Buffalo A message delivered by Jose Lucero

hank you for accepting a portion of my Pueblo buffalo song, which I sang to you this morning at your paradise home on the Flying D Ranch. The gift of response and responsibility was immediately received upon arriving at the Spanish Twin Peaks campground. From the Buffalo Nation to the two-legged (human beings):

Our sentinels welcome you at the entrance. We all welcome you (the majority of us) from all sides. We were not afraid of you, as love is not fear. Love is the spirit of all life. You saw us nurturing our young and mothers and elders today. They were not going hungry and were cared for. This love and caring must be done for your people. Teach your young people and love them first. We are not at war, odds, nor are we cynical, envious or greedy, but confirm our spiritual path and occasionally walk together with the Bear Nation as we follow our original instructions given from the Great Spirit or Creator. Your people must talk to one another so we can all co-exist and respect all of creation. As you were leaving our paradise home our leaders (2) said thank you for your visit. We follow our true protective leaders as we move from one area to another. Thank our guardian Buffalo Bull Chief (Ted Turner) for providing a safe sanctuary for us presently. We ask him to carry our message further by his means of communication. Lastly, tell your daughter María Helena to never forget her dream about us, that in the future, as life’s changing events come about, we will lead your people to the mountain she dreamed of for safety and continuance of the life of love to those who listen and focus their attention on their surroundings and help others in need at home. Way da (we love you). www.GreenFireTimes.com

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Milking the Rhino continued from page 29 people, “Cows are not the problem; poor management is.” People are part of the solution to rejuvenating the land through good, ecological management plans. Land degradation due to uncontrolled, continuous grazing in NM, Colorado, Il Ngwesi or the Marienfluss Valley in Namibia, has the same effect in each location. The Il Ngwesi and Himba people are realizing that if plants are bitten too frequently, especially in dry times, they can use up their root reserves and die. This is true in NM as well. Helen Giochohi, president of the Af rican Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, Kenya, also refers to good stewardship in Milking the Rhino. This is a very specific, local response to the land and all that is living on it. Community is important to stewardship. Without the community element, the Il Ngwesi and Himba would not be able to move forward into the 21st century with a working model of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM).

The method of combining families’ herds into one big herd has reduced the human/wildlife conflict for Africans. In Africa, having herders managing and rotating the cattle provides jobs. Could this be replicated in the southwestern United States? In both locations, fencing that can hinder wildlife movement and migration is unnecessary. The rural communities in both Africa and the western US can provide an economic advantage, social benefits and biodiversity by using rotational, managed grazing and Holistic Management principles that include a whole system approach of financial, land and biological planning. This helps increase the health of the soil and impedes erosion while improving livestock and biodiversity.

Jeannie Magill with Marabu stork in Kenya

Green Fire Times • October 2013

In Courtney W hite’s wonderful book, Revolution on the Range, he states, “Communities of people are no different than grasslands in the need for diversity, resiliency, opportunities and self-reliance if it is to survive the unexpected challenges of the present and future.” The Africans in Milking the Rhino are asking how can wildlife pay. Our ranchers are also wondering how their pastures and rangelands can pay. Using rotational, managed grazing is working in Africa. It’s also working for some ranchers in New Mexico, as White so beautifully describes in his book. I conceived Milking the Rhino as an educational tool to bring the concept of CBNRM to people all over the globe, incorporating Africans as educators on the world stage. In Revolution on the Range, White states that outreach efforts will bring this new, exciting, sustainable paradigm of ranching, managed grazing and CBNRM into the minds of average people, politicians, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations. He continues, “This awareness is necessary for the work to progress, be effective, and be altered and modified as it evolves.” I agree. Each community has social dynamics and land that makes reaching its needs and goals unique. Global climate change needs to be addressed by people with social and governmental structures that can use these goals and practices in efforts to combat global warming on a local scale. We need to understand local ecology, what modifies it, and monitor and evaluate what we are doing to see if we are increasing the carrying capacity of our pastures and rangelands while improving livestock and all living things dependent upon our land. i Milking the Rhino’s coproducer Jeannie Magill owned and operated a company specializing in educational safaris to Kenya. She was a visiting scholar with Northwestern University’s Program of Af rican Studies and has chaired panel discussions f or the A f r ic an Tra de Association Congress. For more information, email jmagill18@comcast.net or visit www.milkingtherhino. org

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Development

Some Profound Recent Ecological and Social Changes in My Community Alejandro López

Don Vidal, our next-door neighbor, would sometimes visit us in our kitchen in the mornings while my dad hoed in the chile field. He would report on what he had seen in the heavens the night before. Because my mother, responsible for several children, did not stay up late, she only dedicated her reading of the evening skies to assessing, with great accuracy, whether there would be rain or snow. Concerning snow, she would say “Cuando yo estaba chiquita en Las Truchas caiban (caían) unos nevales que ni abrir las puertas podía uno. (When I was

Santa Cruz, in northern New Mexico

a little girl growing up in Las Truchas it would snow so much that you couldn’t even open the doors.)” Forty years later, growing up in the valley of the Río Grande at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (the 1950s), it still snowed so much (10-18 inches was common) that we were mandated by our father to shovel tunnel-like paths from our house to the corrals, through

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which we traveled to go feed and water the farm animals. In the summer it would rain so much that the normally dry arroyos would turn into raging rivers that dragged boulders and tree trunks, together with tons of murky sediment, in scenes reminiscent of Hollywood disaster movies. Stalled in our car at the edge of an arroyo after having gone to visit our relatives in Chimayó, we would wait, sometimes for hours, for the current to subside, wondering if God might not be angry at us as our local priest had suggested, referencing the great deluge in the times of Noah. Fifty years later (now), with but meager yearly snowfalls, soaring summer temperatures and barren Afghani-like landscapes in the Española Valley, devoid even of the toughest of weeds, I have no doubt but that Mother Earth is upset, and with good cause. Even in my once-sleepy village of Santa Cruz, where until recently houses were h i d d e n b e h i n d orchards and cornfields, and animals g r a z e d contentedly in the fields, the spiritual disquietude of modern humans is evident everywhere. In the last few years the surrounding foothills have been severely scarred and even leveled for housing and landfills and by all-terrain vehicles. The acequias have been lined with cement, the old cottonwoods and apple orchards uprooted, and parcels of agricultural land have been “developed” with expensive cheap tract housing and rows of dilapidated trailers. The once-

ot so long ago, as children growing up in rural northern New Mexico, instead of going online or tuning into the radio or television for news of the world—particularly for our news and information about the natural world that engulfed us—we listened attentively and with great interest to our Spanishspeaking elders. Aside from the big picture that they possessed of how things were and had been, they also knew about all sorts of intriguing phenomena. Back then, even a pause in their speech seemed ponderous, and one eagerly awaited their next utterance.

Somos el Maíz farm in Santa Cruz, New Mexico

quiet road, on which as many people used to walk as drive, has turned into a congested racetrack filled, yes, by cars, but just as often by heavy machinery on the way to perform their next job of eviscerating the earth. By the time the daily sirens begin to blare for the evening in the early afternoon, low-flying planes and helicopters have for hours already been producing their own brand of noise pollution, invading what little privacy remains—for reasons totally unknown to the inhabitants below. Gone are the native cherry trees, the native apples, peaches and plums, the wild asparagus, the wild spinach, the wild purslane and mint. Pervasive upon the land is the ubiquitous Siberian elm, the Russian thistle, ragweed and a multitude of other invasive, non-native species of water-thirsty plants. Gone are the ecologically important jackrabbits, the lizards, toads and frogs, the lightning bugs, butterflies, ladybugs, praying mantis, blue jays, magpies and pheasants. Present everywhere are stray dogs and cats and the ubiquitous, unsightly road kill. Everywhere are fallow fields, decaying cement-plastered adobe buildings, fallen fences, litter, and broken-down cars. Everywhere are phantoms of human beings connected to counterfeit forms of life support—the gambling machines at the casinos, the intoxicating beverages from the liquor store and the polished bloated fruits and vegetables from the grocery store. Add to this, the pseudopower of fast cars with tinted windows, the driver talking on his cell phone while

cruising through town tossing wrappers from his latest fast-food meal out the window, and you have the most recent version of the American dream gone awry. Omnipresent in my community in northern New Mexico and others too, are invisible rivers of prescriptionand hard drugs which, far from being medication, are a sure ticket out of what has become an increasingly barren, tormented and insane world. In a few weeks, the Quivira Coalition Conference will be held in Albuquerque. Featured will be regional and national experts on climate change, species adaptation, food security, the future of water and the role that human beings play in the maintenance or destruction of their ecosystems. Ought we not listen to their prophetic voices, voices which do not always spell out a world of increasing ruin, but which do emphatically sound warning notes to the effect that we need to set out on a radically different course than the one we have been on? Many of the speakers maintain that, like Roger Montoya and his La Tierra Montessori School in Alcalde, we need to cultivate in future generations a new consciousness of benevolence toward the Earth and of kindness and cooperation with one other. i Alejandro López, a professional photographer and writer from northern New Mexico, will be providing English to Spanish interpretation services for the Quivira Coalition Conference in Albuquerque,Nov.13-15.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013

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Thinking Like a Watershed

Consciousness as Commons

Jack Loeffler

This can be likened to the difference between thinking like a watershed and balancing your checkbook. When thinking like a watershed, the mind is engaged in perceiving many interrelated factors simultaneously and in constant motion such as we see within the flow of Nature. When balancing your checkbook, the mind is engaged in a step-by-step procedure motivated by hoping that economic well-being will be the outcome. Thinking like a watershed requires perceiving from within a sphere of reference of myriad associated factors that are constantly interacting. Balancing a checkbook is a practice of reductionist procedure—in my case, reductio ad absurdum. In truth, global corporate capitalism has wrought an artificial culture of practice that is unsustainable because of its sole focus on unending accumulation of wealth that excludes recognition of our species’ place in Nature.That may seem simplistic, but it really isn’t. Metaphorically, it’s as though today’s global cultural mind has been shorn from its rootedness in Nature.This is why entomologist Edward O. Wilson’s concept of consilience, or jumping together of scientific disciplines within the milieu of Western Arts and Humanities, is incomplete as the result of exclusion of Indigenous Mind in his menu. Indigenous Mind is that aspect of collective human consciousness that is shaped more by the flow of Nature through homeland than by a list of facts about the nature of homeland. Global corporate capitalism as a culture of practice must ultimately fail due to unsustainability within the natural world

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of finite resources. Capitalist economics can only continue to work on a small scale, from within regional and local human communities—not the prevailing global scale that is resulting in rapid depletion of natural resources that concurrently leads to vast accumulation of personal wealth by corporate hierarchs who dominate the economic field as “money-kings,” masters of empire. Right now,global economics as a corporate capitalist phenomenon is plundering the commons, the planet-wide ecosystem of common-pool resources upon which every species, including our own, relies for survival. Selling Navajo Reservation, or Montana strip-mined coal for financial profit to China to fire up electrical generating stations is disastrous on many fronts, including contributing enormous quantities of already over-abundant CO2 into the planetary atmosphere, an atmosphere that doesn’t abide over China alone, but is slowly darkening the skies over New Mexico and everywhere else. Meanwhile, money changes hands, big money—dangerous fruit of turning habitat into money for its own sake.

Global economics is plundering the ecosystem.

Economics is but one of many factors within human conduct, and must not continue to be regarded as the primary driver. Unless economics as the dominant cultural paradigm is checked by a concerted overriding human will of global coherence, there will be enormous human and other species’ die-off in the decades and centuries to come. Nature will reassemble survivors in smaller site-specific groups that will either reharmonize with remaining sustainable habitats, or not. This seems inevitable. And obvious. John Wesley Powell’s opposition to interbasin transfers of water provides a great insight into the error of readjusting the flow of Nature to suit perceived human needs. For decades, thousands of acre-feet of water from the Greater Colorado River watershed have been diverted annually beneath the Continental Divide into the greater Río Grande watershed through

ecentralized habitat-specific cultural coherence—how’s that for a thought?—yet I can imagine it. Cultures that emerge from habitat— including Tanoan, Athabascan, Hispano and Anglo ranch culture in New Mexico—have a more natural depth of perspective to be plumbed than the peripatetic uprooted global cultural consciousness that perceives the planet but not the Earth, and that is adhered by economics rather than recognition of our species’ place in Nature. We must return to a Nature-based cultural perspective, or else...

A stream in northern New Mexico

the San Juan/Chama diversion. This creates a false sense of water prosperity in the Río Grande watershed that lasts only until the Colorado River watershed is so diminished that it can no longer yield the promised waters, by which time the human population of the Río Grande watershed has exceeded its natural carrying capacity. Ecosystems, bioregions and watersheds must remain self-sustaining in order to endure. Community-based cultures of practice are wieldy within the continuum of Nature.They are commensurate within Nature’s habitat-specific organizing principles.They breed mutual cooperation within cultures of homeland to which present-day global corporate capitalism is antithetic. American “Indian Reservations” are potential seedpods of human survivability by virtue of vestigial traditional “naturistic” perspectives as applied to homeland habitat. As are acequia-based Hispano communities. And ranch communities that overlay vast grasslands, themselves endangered ecosystems. Ultimately we have to understand that human over-population and concurrent over-extraction of natural common-pool resources with accompanying pollution lie at the heart of many of today’s crises, thus invigorating a doomsday scenario that clouds our future as one of many species. We are thwarted in reacting to human over-population by both corporate and religious governance of cultural mores. “Growth for the sake of growth” mentality within the corporate world of economics, in conjunction with the biblical apothegm, “Go ye forth and fructify,”creates a tough cultural paradigm to overturn. Yet, if we don’t turn it around

by human volition, Nature will take its own stand. Here in New Mexico, the fifth-largest state with the least amount of surface water, we presently have a human population of just over two million humans. We have cowboys and Indians, vaqueros y acequieros. We have urban centers including Albuquerque—the 53rd largest metropolitan area in the United States—with a surrounding population of over 900,000. We have national forests, designated wilderness areas, national parks, state parks, historic sites. We have a powerful rural human population that understands intrinsically that we are shaped by our aridity. Thanks to our rural populations, who still tap continued on page 36

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Green Fire Times • October 2013

Consciousness

continued from page 35

into the natural wisdom of homeland, in conjunction with a few enlightened scientists and environmentalists who have resisted being held in thrall by corporate funding, and those of us who simply love Nature for its own sake, we just may be able to re-sculpt our approach to the future, even though “growth for the sake of growth” continues to spur on developers of every ilk. Already, urban populations are pitted against rural populations over water rights and access to other common-pool resources that the corporate mentality would privatize for profit. Fortunately, common consciousness is evolving to meet this growing crisis, a crisis better suited to be solved through mutual cooperation and respect than through antagonism and mutual misery. Can we gradually adapt to a system of steady-state economics that is locally and regionally governed, that hearkens to the harvest of homeland as the sustaining characteristic? Can we finally recognize that consumerism for its own sake is an unnatural act? Can we listen to the

Green Fire Times • October 2013

heartbeat of homeland and recognize that its pulse alone sustains us all? These are aspirations of intrinsic worth, especially as we enter this new age where we finally acknowledge that global warming and climate instability are continually reshaping the flow of Nature. In my opinion, to adapt to changing natural conditions, we must intelligently determine the level of human cultural attainment that Nature can afford of us, beyond which our “anthropogenic” highway shoots over the edge of the abyss. Think about decentralized habitatspecific cultural coherence. Recognize possible local alliances based on mutual cooperation. Invigorate homeland-based cultures of practice that share common awareness of our place in Nature. And recognize that being alive on our living planet Earth has resulted in the evolution of human consciousness, itself a commons of rare and extraordinary magnitude, a commons to be nurtured by the flow of Nature, and thus revered. “Bioregional aural historian” Jack Loeffler, along with Gary Snyder, is a featured speaker at the 2013 Quivira Conference.

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Education

The Carbon Economy Series

CES sponsors include Arete Consulting Group, Green Fire Times, Inn of the Governors, La Montañita Co-op, Los Alamos National Bank, Santa Fe Community College, Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen and Joe’s Dining. The CES is seeking additional partners, sponsors, underwriters and volunteers. For more information, call 505.819.3828 or visit http://carboneconomyseries.com

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCE October 12, 9:30 am-5 pm: Fire Crafting M atthew Brummett (http://mattbrummett.com) will teach several techniques of this ancestral survival skill, along with fire safety.

The theme of the 2013-2014 series is Building Resiliency in Our Personal Lives, in Our Community and in the World. Well-known experts in a variety of fields will teach how people can develop resiliency in relation to food, water, soil, energy, business, health and climate change. Iginia Boccalandro, founder of the 3-year-old nonprofit says, “In response to the changing climate, the challenging economy, the ravaged environment and the rapid transition we are being asked to make, these workshops are designed to foster personal growth, strength, perseverance and tenacity.” And, she added, “to teach the world how to shrink our carbon footprint.”

January 2014: Carbon Economy Series Summit (Albuquerque) Keynote speaker Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms will teach a preconference intensive seminar on integrated farming for food production and the power of mentoring. There will be two days of short, powerful plenary sessions with local exper ts covering a myriad of subjects such as: bees, seeds, wise water management, soil food web, Permaculture design, energy efficiency, Pueblo agriculture and zero-waste. There will also be a sustainability trade show and a farm-to-table gourmet fundraising dinner with Joel Salatin to help provide scholarships. February: Wise Water Management March: The Soil Food Web Biological solutions to increasing fertility, reducing water usage and growing healthy crops.

he Carbon Economy Series of ecological education and sustainable living workshops returns to Santa Fe Community College this month. And, for the first time, in January the CES will also host a 3-day Carbon Economy Summit in Albuquerque.

CES Fire Crafting Course – Oct. 12

It is astounding to realize that the skill set that allowed humans to survive for almost 200,000 years is being lost—things like the ability to find shelter and water, cook and make fire. Fire-making gave humans an evolutionary advantage: warmth, the ability to eat a much broader spectrum of foods, a weapon, and much later, a way to clear land for agriculture and use metals.

November 8, 9 am-12:30 pm: The Greening of the Workforce Bea Boccalandro will show how corporations and businesses can be green and socially responsible, how employees can be healthy, fulfilled and productive, how high-impact corporate community involvement is benefitting society and how Santa Fe can benefit.

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Making fire, generating the speed for friction to ignite a tinder bundle, requires strength, coordination, concentration and technique. It’s also a fun, useful and potentially lifesaving thing to learn. Primitive-skills instructor Matthew Brummett has extensive field experience and knowledge of Southwestern plants and terrain. Parents, uncles and aunts with children 14 and over, siblings, co-workers and couples are invited to enroll together in Brummett’s one-day course for a reduced price. Partial scholarships are available for students.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Drought as Inspiration and rebuild soil structure, 2) reduce erosion and troublesome insects without the use of chemicals, and 3) provide high-quality forage for calves and finishing cattle. These farmers are trailblazing local solutions that restore our regional ecosystem and strengthen the local economy. While drought has provided the impetus, these partnerships may have lasting impacts beyond soil health and livestock on grass: we may mend the division between the pastoral and agrarian worlds.

continued from page 12

are the only heroes. The demon of drought, the challenge of climate change, is ours to address—it is the work we are all called to, those in agriculture and those who eat. A hero isn’t necessarily smarter or braver than anyone else; she is simply the one who chooses—chooses to answer the call. We may choose badly; we have been choosing badly, as a species. An honest apprenticeship to Nature will help us remember, in our genes and souls, how to explore, invent and adapt in order to make a living

Walking alongside the mother herd about a month before calving season, talking about land management and cattle management practices.

Our society ignores limits if it can. But limits have their purpose: without the limiting structure of a riverbank, a river would be a shallow spreading pool. Duke Ellington, hearing that his trumpet player could play only a handful of notes, incorporated the limits into his compositions, and from this adaptation his distinctive sound arose. We all will benefit by becoming “biomimics”: using the basic functions and patterns of nature, including limitation, as our creative muse and the yardstick by which we measure the integrity of our choices. As simple as these might sound, they become profound when considered as foundations for our social, political, economic, agricultural and personal choices. We’re asking new questions: Is it time to change to sheep or goats, animals adapted to drier lands? How will the microhabitats in the meadows shift, and how can we shift with them? A recent apprentice, Martha Skelley, designed a future land plan for our farm and ranch, merging Permaculture principles with Holistic Decision Making. Sparked by her plan, Drew Cole, our current apprentice, is helping to implement Martha’s plan, adding his interest in sustainable architecture and his experience on farms in Italy that have been in active production for several hundred years.

Daring Greatly

In the “once-upon-a-time” of our own lives, we

Green Fire Times • October 2013

and a livelihood. We can find our way through Terra Incognito by remembering that we are a part of a larger living system, and remembering older ways of agrarian and pastoral practice, as well as discovering new ways. When the hero or heroine sets out in a folk tale in search of answers and assistance, there is no guarantee that she’ll find what she seeks. The only thing we do know is how fully the hero engages in the quest: whether she accepts the challenge the world presents to her, as well as the challenge to grow as a person and, if she fails, as Theodore Roosevelt once said, at least she fails by “daring greatly.” i

The Creativity of Limitation

Julie Sullivan This article is adapted from a presentation for the 2012 Quivira Coalition Conference given by Ms. Sullivan and her husband, George Whitten, who own and operate the San Juan Ranch near Saguache, Colo. They can be reached at moovcows@gmail.com

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Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land: Lessons from Desert Farmers on Adapting to Climate Uncertainty

What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? How Money Really Does Grow on Trees

By Gary Paul Nabhan Foreword by Bill McKibben

By Tony Juniper Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales

Chelsea Green, 272 pages

With climatic uncertainty now “the new normal,” many farmers, gardeners and orchardists are desperately seeking ways to adapt. In Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land, ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan, one of the world’s experts on the agricultural traditions of arid lands, shares many engaging examples of how people of different cultures and ecosystems manage. Some of the many strategies discussed: • Building greater moisture-holding capacity and nutrients in soils; • Protecting fields from damaging winds, drought and floods; • Reducing heat stress on crops and livestock; • Harvesting water from uplands to use in rain gardens and terraces filled with perennial crops; • Selecting fruits, nuts, succulents and herbaceous perennials that are best suited to warmer, drier climates; and, • Keeping pollinators in pace and in place with arid-adapted crop plants.

“Emulating and refining these adaptations may help us secure food in the face of climate change,” writes Nabhan, who is the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona. This book is replete with detailed descriptions and diagrams showing how to implement desert-adapted practices. It also includes colorful “parables from the field” that exemplify how desert farmers think about increasing the carrying capacity and resilience of the lands and waters they steward. This unique book is useful not only for farmers and permaculturists in the arid reaches of the Southwest. Its techniques and prophetic vision for achieving food security in the face of climate change may well need to be implemented across most of North America over the next half-century, and are already applicable in most of the semiarid West, Great Plains and adjacent regions of México.

Synergetic Press, 314 pages

In this impactful new book, prominent British environmentalist/sustainability advocate Tony Juniper points out that everything we think nature does for us—providing water, pollinating plants, generating oxygen, restore soils and much more—is free, but it isn’t. Nature’s economic value can be measured, and if we realized what that value truly is we would see that ecosystems pay dividends to human society, and we would stop treating our planet’s natural systems so destructively. In recent years, environmental debate worldwide has been dominated by climate change, carbon emissions and the greenhouse effect. But a number of academic, technical, political, business and NGO initiatives are also increasingly focusing on “natural capital,” “ecosystem services” and “biodiversity,” things nature does for us. In a book that is as full of hope as it is despair, Juniper’s insights on environmental threats and solutions, backed by robust findings, form a pragmatic argument. Moving from cold statistics to captivating stories and enlightening tales to build his case, Juniper also shows how our urban society has lost sight of the connections between seemingly unconnected processes of the natural world and the security of our foods, our water, our health and our happiness. As a result of its immediacy, this is a book that could open the eyes of policymakers and individuals who need to be awakened to these things. For some, it may change the way they think about life, the planet and the economy. What Has Nature Ever Done for Us has won GOLD in the Independent Publisher’s Living Now Award for Best Green Living book.

Chama Peak Land Alliance Brings Together Communities in Colorado and New Mexico In late August, the Chama Peak Land Alliance, a group of conservation-minded landowners in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, hosted a community event in Los Ojos, NM at the Ganados del Valle organic farm (www.ganadosdelvalle.org). The goal was to celebrate and support the region’s lands, headwaters and communities.

forces are unraveling this tapestry, undermining our land-based communities and the ecological environments upon which we all depend. Initiatives like Ganados del Valle and the Chama Peak Land Alliance represent essential place-based answers to those forces,” said Lesli Allison, executive director for the Alliance.

The Chama Peak Land Alliance (www.chamapeak.org) is a community-based organization of landowners working collaboratively to practice and promote ecologically and economically sound land management in the southern San Juan Mountains. The region is a vitally important headwaters landscape for both Colorado Estévan Arellano and New Mexico. “The tapestry of land, history and culture in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado is unparalleled. Large-scale political, economic and environmental

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After a tour of the farm, a panel of speakers from the region shared lessons learned from their work and offered ideas on “Weaving a Vibrant Future,” guided by wise use of culture, land use, education and technology. A locally produced lunch was followed by a community mapping exercise highlighting valued landscapes and community resources.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013

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OP-ED

PNM’s Support of Solar Part of Transparent Public Record

Ron Darnell

NM’s record of supporting solar is strong. A recent column in the Green Fire Times provided readers with information about our position on solar energy that was inaccurate. We’d like to share our position.

PNM supported the original renewable portfolio standard legislation in 2004 and the amendments in 2007 that increased the standard. Solar continues to grow significantly on our system in New Mexico, including:

• 22 megawatts of large-scale solar plants at five locations statewide, with 21.5 megawatts being added by the end of this year;

• The nation’s first grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) installation to use batteries and smart-grid technology to help maximize the potential of solar energy launched in 2011;

• The largest customer photovoltaic program in the state, with 3,400 interconnected customers producing approximately 21 megawatts. The current requirement for customer-owned solar is 1.5 percent; PNM exceeds that requirement with a current projected percentage of 10.6 percent;

• Approval by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to add 9 megawatts of customer-owned solar from 2013 through 2016;

• A proposal filed on July 1 to add 23 more megawatts of large-scale solar by Dec. 31, 2014;

• Changes to the PNM Sky Blue program to add 1.5 MW of solar PV in the renewable mix.

• PNM sponsored customer workshops on how to add solar to your home;

• Significant PNM financial support to the Central New Mexico Community College’s renewable trades program to help build New Mexico’s renewable workforce, including solar; and

• Continued advocacy for reforms to make it easier for solar companies to connect to our transmission system, enabling renewable sales to markets outside of the PNM system.

In the review of the renewable rule before the NM Public Regulation Commission that prompted the opinion piece, PNM supported continuing to require utilities to include solar PV and DG in their renewable energy portfolios. Our goal has always been clarity in the renewable-energy guidelines for utilities so that future requests for renewable-energy expansion don’t get bogged down in complex interpretation of rules and, in fairness to customers, the cost and benefits of new resource additions are clear. PNM has been a significant contributor to the expansion of renewable energy in the state, and not just solar development. A 200-megawatt wind-energy center was built over a decade ago to serve our customers, and in January 2015 we have proposed to add another 102 megawatts of wind from the Red Mesa Wind Energy Center. Today, the state’s first utility-scale geothermal facility is also being developed to serve PNM customers. We are very interested in ongoing dialogue with those who care about energy issues. Ron Darnell is PNM’s senior vice president of public policy.

Janet Bridgers’ Response

LL of PNM’s “support ” for grid integrated wind and solar and geothermal energy mentioned by Mr. Darnell has been due to New Mexico state mandates. PNM started soliciting voluntary contributions from PNM ratepayers in 2003 for the Sky Blue Program to support wind power–without adding a single watt of additional wind power for almost 10 years. In 2012 the PRC required PNM to use Sky Blue contributions to pay for additional wind- and PV power. PNM seems to have decided that being forced to own PV systems is obnoxious, but less obnoxious than having its commercial and residential customers own them and receive checks from PNM each month. PNM buys its PV systems from out-ofstate suppliers. PNM has consistently opposed third-party-financed PV for commercial businesses, municipalities and community solar groups. PNM’s Prosperity PV/battery system was paid for with generous (third-party) federal

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stimulus funds and state incentives. PNM is using the Prosperity system to publicize its support for renewable energy, while simultaneously using the system to bolster its claim that PV power is “unreliable.” In PNM-speak, “dialogue” means listening to PNM’s talking points. PNM is paid by the state to conduct workshops on adding PV to your home. PNM did not come close to meeting NM’s 10 percent RE mandate in 2011. The company is proposing to meet it by 2014. Renewable energy is very popular in NM—PNM can’t afford to openly oppose it, but PNM has consistently exaggerated the costs of RE and minimized its benefits. PNM does not chart its own course. It is a utility regulated by the PRC. That being said, its annual budget allows for plenty of lobbying money, in addition to its advertising budgets. There is a huge disconnect between PNM’s public advertising and PR face and its lobbying face.

If the current five-member PRC does not act to expand RE in New Mexico, those of us who actively support it will have to invest the time and energy to make sure that a majority of pro-RE commissioners are elected next time. All of us who care about the future of this state (i.e., the impact of our energy choices on our arid climate) must work to overcome the political barriers at state and national levels that continue to allow coal for electric power generation. It is no exaggeration to say that future generations’ ability to live in our beautiful state depends on minimizing the regional effects of global warming as quickly as possible.

Free Solar Power! Just add: one very affordable solar system • Santa Fe County offers free solar and energy efficiency advice for homes and businesses. • “Zero cost” solar possible – loan payments that equal the reduction to your electric bill. • Tax Credits, Incentives, Rebates, and Financing FoR MoRe InFo:

992-3044

cohare@santafecountynm.gov www.santafecountynm.gov

Janet Bridgers is vice-president of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Ask us about Zirconium Implants for people with metal allergies!

Copper Mining Rule Rewritten It is now legal for copper mines to pollute groundwater in New Mexico. As a result of a decision made by the state Water Quality Control Commission Aug. 10 to adopt proposals set forth by a joint effort between the state Environment Department and Freeport-McMoRan, a copper mining company with operations in southern New Mexico, copper mines may pollute the groundwater under their mine as much as they like, as long as they return the contaminant levels to a state standard before the mine closes. Tannis Fox, secretary to the Attorney General, contests that the new rule violates current state law set forth under the Water Quality Act, and Bruce Frederick, the attorney of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC), who represents the interests of numerous nonprofits against the new rule, says he expects his clients to appeal the decision. The rules are the latest product of a decade of entrenched disputes over how to safely manage contaminants at mining sites. The NMELC claims that Environment Secretary Flynn overruled the recommendations of his staff, instead working hand-in-glove with FreeportMcMoRan. Flynn denies this and claims that the new copper rule is more protective than the previous regulation. Susan Martin, of the Río Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, claimed in an op-ed in The New Mexican on Sept. 9 that Flynn’s previous job was as an attorney for the firm that represents none other than FreeportMcMoRan. In 2012, Frederick’s request that Flynn be removed from the process of amending the water quality regulation was ignored. Freeport-McMoRan maintains that the previous process of applying for permits and variances introduced an unnecessary element of uncertainty to the future prospects of a mine and that a carefully crafted rule will allow mine operators to factor consistent groundwater protection into its growth and investment strategies. The new rule expressly permits the contamination of groundwater, and represents a victory for FreeportMcMoRan in its decade-long battle against environmental protection. T he new rule waives water quality standards for all contaminants, not just those ordinarily produced in copper mining. Byproducts of the copper mining process include acid-producing rocks and heavy metals. Environmentalists worry that other industries will soon claim “the right to pollute.” For more information, contact the New Mexico Environmental Law Center: www.nmelc.org

Green Fire Times • October 2013

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2885 Trades West Road (off Siler) Santa Fe, NM 87505

960-C Highway 550 Bernalillo, NM 87004

910

Consider placing an ad in this award-winning publication. Call Skip Whitson (505.471.5177) or Anna Hansen (505.982.0155) 44

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NEWSBITEs New Mexico Wind Farms to Be Built

First Urban National Wildlife Refuge In The Southwest Closer to Opening

The State Land Office has auctioned off a lease for nearly 40,000 acres of state trust land to Pacific Wind Development for El Cabo, which will be New Mexico’s largest wind farm. Officials say the project could generate about 1,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to 400,000 homes, and earn the state as much as $40 million over 45 years. The state land, in conjunction with 87,000 acres of private property, includes 5,400 acres–mostly in Torrance County with some spillover into Santa Fe and San Miguel counties–for a transmission line from the wind farm. Pacific Wind is a division of Iberdrola Renewables. Construction may start later this year.

The second phase of a three-phase acquisition of the 570-acre Price’s Dairy has been completed for the Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge. The Trust for Public Land, Bernalillo County and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have closed on the acquisition of the 41 acres, five miles south of Albuquerque, using $1.5 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). US Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), co-sponsor of a bill to reauthorize and fully dedicate funding for the LWCF, said during a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing, “The Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge will help New Mexico kids discover the incredible natural heritage of our state right in their backyard, while supporting river and habitat conservation and enhancing our thriving outdoor recreation economy.”

Another wind project on state trust land is expected to break ground this month. Attracted by New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard and abundant wind, the large German company BayWa Renewable Energy is developing the 20-megawatt Broadview project to sell power to the Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, which covers five counties in eastern New Mexico and most of Oklahoma. BayWa also owns a Santa Fe-based photovoltaic component trader, Focused Energy.

The Friends of Valle de Oro have been holding “community visioning” discussions with local groups to gather ideas about the future of the site. One of the goals is to establish a habitat for the many species of wildlife native to central New Mexico. The Valle de Oro is part of a corridor that many migratory birds pass through. To see a map of the planned refuge, visit: http://www.fws.gov/southwest/docs/Valle_de_Orofactsheet.pdf

PNM Donation Supports Local Preserve Restoration

Zona del Sol Wins Positive Energy Solar Grant

Zona del Sol, a south-side youth and family community center operated by the Santa Fe Youth & Family Center, has won a grant from Positive Energy Solar and Renesola to have a solar system installed at the facility. “The leadership and vision demonstrated by the Youth Allies at Zona del Sol won them our grant award,” said Karen Paramanandam, Positive Energy’s marketing director. The grant process began in April with seven Santa Fe nonprofits creating videos telling the story of how solar would benefit their organization. The videos were posted on Positive Energy Solar’s YouTube page and the community voted on their favorite. The three organizations with the most votes were YouthWorks, Homewise and Zona del Sol. Each of those organization’s sites was evaluated for good locations for solar, and they completed an interview with the grant committee. Zona del Sol’s proposal scored the highest. Its goals included increasing education and awareness about the benefits of solar for working families and businesses, and reducing energy costs to be able to provide more services to the community. Positive Energy Solar in Albuquerque and Las Cruces also accepts grant applications. For grant criteria and application instructions, visit www. positiveenergysolar.com

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Conference Highlights Women Working to Solve the West’s Water Woes

On Sept. 27, Audubon New Mexico hosted its 4th annual Southwest Women in Conservation luncheon at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe. The event focused on the contributions that women are making to freshwater conservation at a time when freshwater resources are drying up.

The PNM Resources Foundation has donated $10,000 to The Nature Conservancy to support ongoing conservation projects at the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, located minutes from downtown Santa Fe. “We’re grateful to the foundation for their support. PNM’s donation of land back in 2000 helped us start the Preserve,” said Terry Sullivan, the Conservancy’s state director. “The Santa Fe Canyon Preserve is one of the crown jewels of our open space network—thousands of local residents have hiked, picnicked and birdwatched on the property.” The funds will be used to support the northern leopard frog reintroduction. Threats such as the chytrid fungus and non-native bullfrogs have dramatically reduced their numbers. In an effort to save the frogs the Conservancy has released tadpoles to reestablish their populations. The Conservancy is also doing research and providing environmental education outreach activities. The grant funds will also be used to install new interpretive signs and improve popular trails, as well as to continue stream restoration. Thirteen years of restoration and conservation projects have turned what was once the site of a reservoir into a 525acre preserve, which provides surface water for the city and is home to waterfowl, wildflower, willows, deer, bear and beaver. To learn more about The Nature Conservancy and explore local preserves with an interactive map, visit www.nature.org/NewMexico

The event’s keynote talk was by one of the leading authorities on international freshwater issues, author Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and National Geographic Society Freshwater Fellow. Postel, who lives in New Mexico, is the founder of a new Colorado River Basin campaign called “Change the Course” (http://changethecourse. us/), which aims to help the iconic r iver reac h the sea again. In Sandra Postel an inter view moderated by political strategist Amanda Cooper, Postel shared her global perspective on water and what the future may hold for the arid West. She also discussed how people can be better stewards of water, and what can be done to keep water in our rivers, including the Gila River, New Mexico’s last natural free-flowing river. Amanda Cooper Audubon has recently launched the Western Rivers Action Network (http:// nm.audubon.org/rivers-and-water), a multi-state grassroots initiative. Beth Bardwell, director of freshwater conservation for Audubon NM, said the organization is working to establish a lease agreement system along the Río Grande, where water rights owners could enter into agreements with conservation groups or the Bureau of Reclamation. In exchange for lease payments, the water would be left flowing in the river. Similarly, a coalition of environmental groups led by WildEarth Guardians signed an agreement in August that lets them store water in Abiquiú Reservoir on the Río Chama and allows them to buy water from Río Grande Valley farmers to support flows in the river during drought conditions. The Martinez administration has supported a proposed $1.5-million River Stewards program, subject to approval by the state Legislature, that can be leveraged to secure additional funding. The program would fund community grants for projects to help restore water quality and habitat.

Green Fire Times • October 2013

What's Going On! Events / Announcements

in the dry climate of the high desert. Free. 505.897.8831 or register@nmcomposters.org

Oct. 11, 7-8:30 pm Eating for Your Health ABQ Peace & Justice Center corner of Silver & Harvard SE

ALBUQUERQUE

Oct. 2-3, 8 am-5 pm Middle Río Grande Urban Waters Federal Partnership ABQ Open Space, 6500 Coors Blvd. NW

Presentation by Susan Clair, NCRP/MPA on elements of a healthy lifestyle, plantbased & animal proteins, organic & conventional foods, antioxidants & systemic alkalinity, health benefits of herbs & spices, fats & sweeteners. $5 suggested donation. 505.321.8649, clair@nmia.com

Federal, tribal, state, county, local officials and interested stakeholders will discuss this partnership to reconnect urban communities with their waterways to promote economic, environmental and social benefits. 214.665.7210, cardenas.adele@epa.gov or 505.248.6622, joaquin_baca@fws.gov

Oct. 12, 3-10 pm ArrBizzaar 3: Harvest The Source, 1111 Carlisle SE

Oct. 2, 5:30-7:30 pm Green Drinks Hotel Andaluz, 125 2nd St. NW

Oct. 12-13 Cider Festival Heritage Farm, ABQ BioPark Garden

Network with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues. Presentation by Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson & Director of Economic Development Mayling Armijo. Hosted by the ABQ & Río Rancho Green Chamber of Commerce. Info: 505.244.3700, lindsay@nmgreenchamber.com

Oct. 4-6, 11-13 Río Grande Arts & Crafts Festival Corner of Paseo del Norte and I-25

280 juried artists and craftsmen, national and local. $8/kids free. www.riograndefestivals.com

Oct. 5, 12-5 pm Fall Festival Sustainability Day Río Grande Community Farm 1701 Mountain Rd. NW

Local food, renewable energy demonstrations and vendors. Hands-on farm fun and environmental education. Backyard chickens and worm composting, solar ovens and bike blenders. 505.345.4580, www. riograndefarm.org/events/maize-maze/ sustainability-day-2013/

Oct. 6, 1-4 pm Annual International Festival ABQ Sheraton Uptown

International food and entertainment. A fundraiser to support St. Felix Pantry in Río Rancho, which provides food, clothing and household items for people in need. $50. Info: 505.994.1857, manuelcfp@cableone. net, www.stfelixpantry.org

Oct. 7, 10-11 am Wildlife Habitat Garden Tour ABQ Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE

Xeric Garden Club of ABQ is giving a free tour of its native garden that supports indigenous wildlife and migratory birds. Virginia Burris, the garden’s designer, will explain how to create a habitat garden. Xericgardenclub.org

Oct. 10, 1:30-3:30 pm Backyard Composting Class Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors Blvd. NW

Learn the basics of successful composting

A celebration of the Earth and community. Cider pressing, soil & garden talk, smoothies & local food, music, art & crafts, poetry, dance. $3-$13. Facebook.com/permalove

Learn how apple cider is made, sample fresh cider, enjoy crafts and live music. 505.848.7180

Oct. 13, 11 am-4 pm Local Food Festival & Field Day Gutiérrez-Hubbell House, 6029 Isleta SW (So. Valley)

Local food, kids’ activities, music, farm info, workshops, film screenings, seed exchange. www.localfoodnm.org

Oct. 19 Pumpkin Palooza Day www.riograndefarm.org

Oct. 19, 10-11 am Basic Composting Class Osuna Nursery, 501 Osuna Rd. NE

Nov. 2 Walkin N Circles Trainers’ Challenge NM State Fair Horse Arena

A horse trainers’ competition. Two classes with rescued horses. Prizes. Open to the public. Masked Cowboy Ball at the Youth Center at the NMSF grounds starting at 8:30 pm. Tickets: 505.286.0779, saveahorse@wncr. org, www.wncr.org

Nov. 2 Nomination Deadline; Dec. 9 Event Engaged Citizen Awards NM Museum of Natural History and Science

A statewide award program. Categories: “Visible Accomplishments” and “Behind the Scenes” efforts resulting in increased engagement with the outdoors. 12/9 reception, awards ceremony, music. Sponsored by the NM Outdoors Coalition, a collaboration among federal and regional public lands agencies, private and nonprofit organizations. 505.435.2356, dacohen77@gmail. com, www.NewMexicoOutdoorsCoalition. wordpress.com

Nov. 6, 9:30 am-12:30 pm Business Recycling Forum: Food Scrap Management NMSU ABQ Campus, MEGA-Classroom

Forum aimed at businesses and facilities interested in saving money in trash expenses by source reduction, recycling and food scrap management. RSVP to English@recycle newmexico.com, www.recyclenewmexico. com/Food_Scraps.htm

Nov. 13-15 2013 Quivira Conference: Inspiring Adaptation Embassy Suites Hotel

Learn the basic techniques for successful composting in the high desert climate. Free. 505.897.8831, register@nmcomposters.org

Scientists, ranchers, farmers, conservationists, urban planners and others who have bright ideas and important tools to share from their adaptation toolbox. 505.820.2544, Register online: quiviracoalition.org

Oct. 19, 10 am-4 pm Marigold & Harvest Festival 8917 4th St. NW

Nov. 13, 7:30 pm Gary Snyder and Jack Loeffler Embassy Suites Hotel

2nd annual celebration of local, sustainable food. Farm walk, produce stand, live music, workshops, demonstrations, games. Free. 505.503.7124, www.farmandtablenm.org

Oct. 26, 9 am-12 pm; 1 pm-5:30 pm; 7-9 pm Matriarchal Societies Workshop Women’s Resource Center, UNM

“Using the Wisdom of Indigenous Cultures of Today to Create a Sustainable Future” Heide Goettner-Abendroth of Germany will discuss matriarchy, matriarchal politics, and how to put matriarchy into practice. Evening films. $25. Free for students and those in need. Co-sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center and the Feminist Research Institute of UNM. 505.277.3716, callirhoedreams@gmail.com, http://women.unm/edu/ calendar/events/index.html

Nov. 2, 8 am-2 pm Doggie Dash & Dawdle Balloon Fiesta Park

Pet festival to benefit Animal Humane NM. Have fun with your 4-legged friend. Registration: DoggieDashAndDawdle.org

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry and aural historian speaking on “Adaptation” at the Quivira conference. Open to the Public: $30. Tickets online: quiviracoalition.org. 505.820.2544

SANTA FE

Oct. 2, 6 pm Ann Hillerman Talk/Reception Inn at Loretto, 211 Old SF Trail

Book launch, slideshow and readings by Hillerman and students from the NM School for the Arts. Free. Valet parking: $5. Talk followed by fundraising reception at a private home. $50 benefits Friends of the SF Public Library. 505.988.1234, www.ticket santafe.org/tsf

Oct. 4, Starts at 8:30 am PNM Plan for San Juan Generating Station PERA Building, PRC Offices 1120 Paseo de Peralta

PNM presents its final plan for replacing some of the coal power at the power plant to the NM Public Regulation Commission.

Oct. 4, 7:30 pm Rumi Concert The Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St.

A feast of poetry, music, dance & story from world-class artists: Zuleikha (storydance), David Darling (Cello), Glen Velez (percussion), Coleman Barks (poetry) $25-$100. 505-988-1234, ticketsantafe.org

Oct. 4-6 Earth USA 2013 NM Museum of Art

Intl. Earthbuilding Conference. Podium presentations, poster session and workshops. Trade fair on the SF Plaza. 10/7: Tours to local sites. 505.310.3259, mike@adobein action.org, www.earthusa.org

Oct. 5, 9 am start Expanding Your Horizons Conference SF Community College

Workshops to expose girls to STEM (science, math, technology, engineering and computing) Open to girls in grades 5-8. $10. Scholarships available. www.expanding yourhorizons.org/conferences/SantaFe/

Oct. 5, 10 am Marc Simmons on Charles F. Lummis Cowboy Church of SF, 4325 Hwy.14

Noted NM historian Marc Simmons will talk about Lummis, a fierce defender of Indian rights and Spanish culture. In 1884 Lummis hiked across the NM Territory. Free. www.cowboychurchofsantafe.org

Oct. 5, 2 pm Homesick Video Screening SF Center for Spiritual Living 505 Camino de los Márquez

A documentary about living with multiple chemical sensitivities, directed by Susan Abod. Admission $8. Info: susan@susana bod.com, www.homesick-video.com

Oct. 5, 6 pm Farmers’ Market Fall Fiesta Farmers’ Market Pavillion

Celebrating local food, culture and community. 12 chefs, harvest feast, auctions, awards, live music. Benefits the SF Farmers’ Market Institute. $135. 505.983.7726, www.farmers marketinstitute.org

Oct. 5-6, 10 am-4 pm Harvest Festival El Rancho de las Golandrinas La Cienega

Old Spanish ranch and living history museum. $8/$5/Children 12 & under free. 505.471.2261, www.golondrinas.org

Oct. 8, 6 pm Piñón Awards La Fonda on the Plaza

The SF Community Foundation’s awards ceremony followed by a dinner will honor outstanding nonprofits and philanthropists in the area. Tickets: $35. 505.988.9715, www. santafecf.org/pinonawards

Oct. 8, 7 pm Paul Hawken The Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St.

Commerce, Climate and Community: An Interactive Evening. Visionary, environmentalist, entrepreneur Paul Hawken, presented by the

www.GreenFireTimes.com

SF Chapter of the NMGCC. Tickets: $30/$15. ($20/$10 SFGCC members) 505.988.1234, www. lensic.org, Info: www.santafegreenchamber.org

Oct. 11, 6-8 pm Opening Atomic Surplus Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail

Multidisciplinary group exhibit surveying the global nuclear legacy; also, Tony Price and the Black Hole, exhibit of historic ephemera from Los Alamos Black Hole salvage yard and works by the late artist Tony Price. $5 suggested donation. 505.982.1138

Oct. 12, 9 am-12 noon Plants for Santa Fe SF Community College

Plant selection with climate change considerations. Tracy Neal will review more than 100 of the best trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses for Santa Fe with photos of the plants. Registration: 505.428.1270 or www. sfcc.edu/registration/continuing_education

Oct. 12, 9:30 am-5 pm Aboriginal Living Skills SF Community College

Carbon Economy Series workshop on Fire Crafting with Matthew Brummett. Info: 505.819.3828, http://mattbrummett.com, http://carboneconomyseries.com

Oct. 12, 2-9 pm Rock 4 Food Warehouse 21

Proceeds of food donations will benefit W21, Adelante and the Food Depot. Admission: a bag of non-perishable food or $5. www.ware house21.org

Oct. 12, 5-9 pm (RSVP by Oct. 4) Commonweal Star Party Gala Galisteo Basin Preserve Cowboy Shack Trailhead

Buffet supper by the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and live bluegrass music. Astronomer Peter Lipscomb will guide a tour of the night sky along with members of the Capital City Astronomy Club. $35/$15. RSVP: 505.982.0071, ext.106 or Gretchen.grogan@ commonwealconservancy.org, www.sfct.org, www.GalisteoBasinPreserve.com

Oct. 14 Application Deadline YouthBuild

Nine-month building program for 29 men and women ages 16-24 in the SF area. Offered through YouthWorks! Interviews & tryouts begin 10/14. 505-989-1855.

Oct. 16, 1-2:30 pm Nature Hike SF Canyon Preserve

Led by Robert Martin, The Nature Conservancy’s stewardship ecologist. Reservations required. 505.946.2029, Robert_martin@tnc.org

Oct 16-19 Tiny Heroes: Celebrating the Beauty of Our Pollinators La Fonda Hotel

Art exhibit by Kathryn Alexander and friends. Runs concurrently with the Western Apicultural Society of North America conference. Opening reception with educational presentations 10/17, 5:30-7:30 pm. kathryn alexander@gmail.com

Oct. 16-20 5th SF Independent Film Festival

Opening gala 10/16, 6:30 pm. Venues and ticket costs vary. 505.988.1234, Ticketssantafe. org

www.GreenFireTimes.com

Oct. 18-21 Seeding the Dream Retreat Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, near Cerrillos, NM

A focus on sustainable living and creativity. Experience building with earth and cooking with the sun. Learn to read the land, share stories, visions and practices. A learning celebration of the potential to create positive change in our local and global communities. $300-$400 sliding scale. ampersandproject@ yahoo.com, www.ampersandproject.org

Oct. 18, 6-10 pm YouthWorks Fundraiser Farmers’ Market Pavillion

Casino night fun, food. 505-989-1855, cisco@ santafeyouthworks.org, santafeyouthworks.org

Oct. 19, 11am-4 pm IAIA Open House/Indigenous Food Celebration Institute of American Indian Arts Campus, 83 Avan Nu Po Road

Staff, students and faculty will prepare cultural favorites. Art demonstrations, Indigenous games and music. Showcase of student, staff and faculty work and programs. Free and open to the public. Info: 505.424.2310, www.iaia.edu

Oct. 19, 12-4 pm Celebration of the Horse Santa Fe Plaza

Horseback ride into the plaza followed by a celebration of song, dance, speakers and information booths in honor of the horse. Reception follows at DueWest Gallery, 4-6 pm, 217 W. San Francisco St.

Oct. 19, 1-3 pm MusicFest Canyon Road

A parade with student performing groups and dignitaries. Performances at galleries

Oct. 21-22 Indigenous Language Institute Symposium Buffalo Thunder Resort, Pojoaque

The theme: “Motivating Youth & Children to Use Their Heritage Language” Ages 12-18. $275. Some scholarships and discounts available. www.ilinative.org/iliss/ OnlineRegistration2013

Oct. 24 Food Day in Santa Fe Locations TBA

Celebration and movement for healthy, affordable and sustainable food. www.foodday.org

Nov. 2, 7-9 pm A New Community Rights Movement Unitarian Universalist Church 107 W. Barcelona

Thomas Linzey, attorney and executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, will speak about the new movement emerging across the US seeking to transition toward economic and environmental sustainability and elevate the rights of people, communities and nature above powers claimed by corporations. By donation. Info: 575.666.2529 or info@nmccr.org, www.celdf.org

Nov. 7, 6:30 pm Slow Food Annual Dinner/Silent Auction 315 Restaurant

Fundraiser to provide financial support for NM farmers attending Terra Madre biannual event in Italy. $35. Reservations: 505.986.9190, slowfoodsantafe@gmail.com

Nov. 8, 6-10 pm Celebration of Land Conservation in NM SF Farmers’ Market Pavilion

Hosted by the NMGCC, the NM Recycling Coalition and the Partnership for Responsible Business. To be considered for Nov. 15 media event recognition of your business’s effort to reduce, reuse and recycle, fill out an online application. Nominees will only be accepted from the Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Silver City, Taos and Santa Fe areas where the NM Green Chamber hosts local chapters. http://nmgreenchamber.com/

Nov. 8-10 Fuze-SW Museum of Intl. Folk Art, Museum Hill

Oct. 11,12 Southwest Jemez Mountains Restoration Project

NM Land Conservancy award presentation to Jim Winder, 4th-generation rancher. Live Western Swing music. Guest speaker Hampton Sides. Buffet dinner, silent auction. Tickets: 505.986.3801, ladkins@nmconser vancy.org, www.nmlandconservancy.org

Food & Folklore Festival. A series of keynotes, talks, panel discussions, creative interludes and food. $250/$200. 505.476.1126, Shirley.Lujan@state.nm.us, http://fuzesw. museumofnewmexico.org

Nov. 15 Recycled Art Festival Santa Fe Convention Center

Visit recyclesantafe.org for application and details. Info: 505.603.0558, skpierpont@yahoo.com

Nov. 16, 9 am-4 pm Living with Fire in Northern New Mexico Workshop SF Community College

Fire, Forests and Climate Change. Public workshop sponsored by the BLM, Forest Guild, NM Forest & Watershed Restoration Inst., NAU, The Nature Conservancy, many more. 505.438.5431

9 am-4 pm daily except Weds. Community Farm Project 1820 San Ysidro, Village of Agua Fría

Volunteers of any age needed. Eighty percent of the produce is given to the Food Depot and distributed to 120 organizations. sfcommunityfarm@gmail.com, www.santa fecommunityfarm.org

HERE & THERE

Oct. 5, 7-10 pm Bowled and Beautiful St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, 4908-B Corrales, Rd., Corrales, NM

Silent auction to raise funds for animal rescue organizations. 30 vintage wooden bowling pins turned into beautiful sculptural pieces by NM artists. Hors d’oeuvres, music. Free admission. 505.440.3208

Oct. 5-6, 10 am-5 pm El Rito Studio Tour El Rito, NM

27th annual. Traditional and contemporary media of all sorts. cp@cathleenpalumbo. com, www.elritostudiotour.org

Oct. 5-6 Taos Wool Festival Kit Carson Park, Taos, NM

An opportunity to learn about fiber art, meet fiber artists, and purchase handmade items. Demonstrations of spinning, dyeing, shearing and weaving along with workshops are scheduled. 817.992.8220, www. taoswoolfestival.org

Oct. 9, 7 pm Las Conchas and Thompson Ridge Fires: Effects on Water Quality Pajarito Environmental Education Center, 3540 Orange Street Los Alamos, New Mexico

Dr. Clifford Dahm will discuss stream water chemistry and aquatic biology. $6/$5. 505.662.0460, Programs@PajaritoEEC.org

Oct. 15 Application Deadline 2013 Recycling Business Recognition Program

Three free field trips each day led by Forest Service resource specialists to learn about planned restoration efforts. Reservations: 505.438.5431

Oct. 18-20 Food Is Medicine, Water Is Life Taos, NM

6th annual GFJI Gathering. www.growing foodandjustice.org

Oct. 19, 4 pm-2 am Earwaves on SomaFM Grand Opening 601 Frontage Rd., Budaghers, NM (btwn. SF & ABQ., former Traditions Outlet Center)

Kickoff of www.SomaFM.com, an innovative international radio program. An evening of live experimental, electronic and new music and video art by a variety of accomplished artists. Presented by Lumenscape Studios and Rubicon Arts. $10 at Hold My Ticket, $15 at the door. 415.889.0035, Dwight@DwightLoop.com

Oct. 20, 1-4 pm Camino de Paz School Open House Santa Cruz (near Española), NM

Montessori Middle School (grades, 7,8 and 9). Meet students, parents, staff; tour the farm/school campus. 505.231.2819, www. caminodepaz.net

Oct. 25-26 8th Annual Traditional Agriculture & Sustainable Living Conference Salazar Center for the Performing Arts, NNMC, Española, NM

Keynote speakers: Dr. Vandana Shiva, PhD, Dr. Greg Cajete, PhD. Panel discussions, workshops, demonstrations, entertainment and more. Presented by the Pueblo of Tesuque, Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute and the Sostenga program of NNMC. www.4bridges.org/conference-information

Oct. 28-30 Sustainable, Responsible Investing Conference

Colorado Springs, CO Impact Investing in Clean Tech, Harnessing the Green Power of Markets. 888.774.2663, www.SRIconference.com

Nov. 3, 6-8 pm A New Community Rights Movement Taos County AG Center 202 Chamisa Rd., Ste. B Nov. 4, 6-8 pm Ilfeld Auditorium Highlands University Campus Las Vegas, NM

(See information under Santa Fe , Nov 2 )

Green Fire Times • October 2013

Green Fire Times â&#x20AC;˘ October 2013