June 2013 Green Fire Times

News & Views

from the

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

Keeping Wildlands Connected and Wildlife Alive Wildland Network’s TrekWest 2013 Greenbuilt Tour: The Green Revue Mora County Community Rights Law June 2013

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Water’s edge

a new monthly water forum on KSFR 101.1 FM We will hear the voices of poets, activists, policy people, elected officials, mayordomos, indigenous people, lawyers, hydrologists — all talking about our water situation in New Mexico and what can be done about it.

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Vol. 5, No. 6 • June 2013 Issue No. 50 Publisher Green Fire Publishing, LLC

Skip Whitson

Associate Publisher

Barbara E. Brown

Managing Editor Seth Roffman Art Director Anna C. Hansen, Dakini Design Copy Editor Stephen Klinger Contributing Writers

Juan Estévan Arellano, Phyllis Ashmead, Bryan Bird, Pete David, Kathleen Dudley, Katherine Eagleson, Susan Guyette, JanWillem Jansens, Earl James, Charlie O’Leary, Joanna Prukop, Seth Roffman, Kim Vacariu

Contributing Photographers

Kristen M. Caldon, Katherine Eagleson, Anna C. Hansen, Jan-Willem Jansens, Billy Johnson, Laura Robbins, Seth Roffman, David M. Solis, Brenda Strohmeyer, Kim Vacariu, Mark L. Watson

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c/o The Sun Companies PO Box 5588 Santa Fe, NM 87502-5588 Ph: 505.471.5177 Fax: 505.473.4458 info@sunbooks.com www.GreenFireTimes.com © 2013 Green Fire Publishing, LLC 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 north-central NM. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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Winner of The 2010 Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project

Contents Wildlife Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Refueling Stations along Fly Zones and Pathways. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 9 Wildlands Adventurer’s 5,000 Mile “TrekWest” Includes Northern NM. . .. 11 Keeping Wild Lands Connected and Wildlife Alive . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 13 New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Transmission Corridors Impact Wildlife. . . 15 Del Are Llano: Hunting in NM’s Acequia Communities Goes Way Back . . . . 17 Everyday Green: All My Relations . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 19 Renewing a Landscape in the Southwest Jémez Mountains . . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20 Beaver and Their Dams . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Timing Is Everything. . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2013 Greenbuilt Tour: The Green Revue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chill Factor: Cool Roofs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 OP-ED – Mora County Community Rights Law: Self-Determination . . .. . . 31 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 What’s Going On. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

C onnecting T o W here Y our F ood C omes F rom

“Y

ou are what you eat.” This popular statement holds true for humans and (other) animals. What animals eat connects them to their habitat. When there is not enough to eat they roam around in search of better places. Therefore, connections between habitat areas are essential for wildlife survival.

Similarly, our infrastructure of highways and rail lines is crucial to bringing us our food; electricity lines and optic fiber cables bring us our information, our Internet connections, our email orders and our money. So, “you are what you’re connected to” as well.

This edition of Green Fire Times explores the connections across the landscape that are crucial for the survival of wild animals. Through a variety of articles and stories we offer you a look into how the natural world “hangs together” through the connections between animals and places. The articles talk about pathways and fly zones which connect animals to their food, water, mates, nesting areas and winter shelter; and about the ecology of open space corridors for wildlife, the politics behind it, the conflicts with power lines and highways, the role of beavers and pollinators, and the ways Native people continue to live with wildlife. The focus of this month’s GFT is timed with the June trek of adventurer and activist John Davis through northern New Mexico.

His TrekWest from México to Canada (page 11) aims to shed light on our need to be stewards of open space connections across the landscape, so that we can continue to say that animals and humans are what they eat and what they are connected to!

Jan-Willem Jansens, Guest Associate Editor Coordinator of New Mexico Wildways and Director of Ecotone

COVER: T he Bosque, one of four panels of a Community Mural in Placitas, NM. Hundreds of children and adults worked on the mural at the Placitas Recycling Center over a period of four years.

The project was spearheaded by Laura Robbins and Cirrelda Snider-Bryan.

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.

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Wildlife Corridors Connecting Wildlife with Human Values

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hen was the last time you saw a road-killed rabbit, porcupine, deer or other wild animal? Or, when was the last time you saw a report on television of another bear-sighting in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Española or another New Mexico community? Each occurrence of one of these events is indicative of a wildlife habitat connectivity issue. Wild animals use travel corridors to move from one core living area to another in search of their basic survival needs: food, water, shelter and space in which to live and reproduce in their natural environments. These habitat linkages are vital to maintaining healthy, viable populations of all types of wildlife. Over time these important wildlife passageways and corridors in many parts of New Mexico have been cut off or severely restricted for many wildlife species.

In our state and across the US, wildlife habitat connectivity has become an increasingly serious concern. At its February 2013 meeting the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council listed wildlife habitat connectivity—because it is especially impacted by the effects of climate change—as one of its top priorities.

This council, to which I was appointed in 2010 and reappointed in 2012, is a Federal Advisory Committee set up to advise the secretaries of the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture on important policy issues concerning the future of wildlife conservation and hunting traditions

in America. Through its advisory role the council hopes to influence public policy- and management actions on federal public lands and in federal programs involved with wildlife conservation. We are increasingly focusing our attention and advice on wildlife habitat fragmentation, especially on lands managed by the US Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service (NPS), and federal programs managed by the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Farm Services Agency.

At the state-, national- and global levels, scientists of many kinds recognize and are trying to interpret the many signs and measurements that indicate our Earth’s climate is changing in ways that impact native plant- and wildlife survival and movement patterns. Wildlife scientists and habitat managers are striving to understand these changes and learn how to help wildlife adapt to shifting habitat conditions. Prevailing drought conditions in NM only increase the need to understand why and how public and private land managers can help mitigate these impacts through on-the-ground management actions. Protecting and restoring wildlife travel corridors that connect pockets of wildlife habitat is an important strategy to support the resilience and adaptability of our native wildlife species.

In NM this means state agencies like the Department of Game and Fish and the Department of Transportation being proactively involved in projects to address wildlife corridor conservation. A specific tangible example that citizen Interstate 40 cuts through the critical wildlife corridor between invol vement the Sandia and Manzano Mountains east of Albuquerque. clearly helped

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instigate is the Tijeras Canyon Safe Wildlife Passage project east of Albuquerque. In a statewide assessment, Tijeras Canyon was identified as a highpriority wildlife corridor because it connects habitats in the Sandia and Manzano mountains, a travel route important to bears, moun- Deer-crossing tain lions, mule deer warning and and other wildlife. flashing lights are triggered when Through partnering, wildlife get near the Tijeras Canyon the highway.

Safe Passage Coalition, made up of The Tijeras Canyon deer organizations, agen- crossing warning cies and individu- lights are solarals, works to pro- powered. vide safe crossings for wildlife, while also making travel key habitats and special areas on prisafer for people. vate lands. While conservation easeNot quite so obvious are the needs that ments can be used to protect imporexist in core areas on the millions of tant wildlife travel corridors, such as acres of public lands that exist in NM, riparian areas along streams and rivers, and where they interface with private they also help support rural ways of lands and private land developments. life important to many communities As federal land managers like those in our state. State and federal laws and in the USFS, BLM and NPS adapt to policies (e.g., tax credits) that support dealing with new federal policies bethe use of conservation easements to ing implemented to address climate maintain and conserve wildlife habichange impacts, these agencies will tat, open space and agricultural lands need to increase their focus on habitat will serve an even more important role connectivity issues. Old plans to proas the effects of drought and climate tect and manage certain key habitats change are manifested. for wildlife may no longer be adequate In keeping with many, many local culto protect and restore vital pockets of tural, social and economic interests of habitat and the corridors that link northern NM, concern for and coopthem. Existing agency tools, like travel erative actions to protect and restore management plans, and agency poliwildlife habitat connectivity—wildcies, like those promoting adaptive life corridors—is essential to mainmanagement practices, will need to taining what so many New Mexicans be applied with a more sensitive eye enjoy: a diverse and healthy wildlife toward maintaining habitat viability, resource with the freedom to roam resilience and connectivity.

New Mexico’s unique landscapes. i In the private sector, important tools Joanna Prukop, who lives in Santa Fe, is a and strategies are also available to wildlife biologist, former cabinet secretary help address habitat fragmentation of the NM Energy, Minerals and Natural and connectivity concerns. ConResources Department and president of Prukop Consulting, LLC. 505.690.9962, servation easements and the role of joprukop@earthlink.net land trusts in NM offer an important opportunity to protect and conserve

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© Photos courtesy Mark L. Watson (NM Department of Game & Fish) (3)

Joanna Prukop

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Refueling Stations along Fly Zones and Pathways

Wildlife Corridors

Katherine Eagleson

Rufous hummingbird

American white pelicans move through NM every spring. They migrate along river valleys, over deserts and mountains. They stop at aquatic

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sites to forage and loaf along the way. Some have been known to stay all summer at El Vado Lake. Areas where I have seen them on the lake in the past are now completely dried up.

A few years ago we were inundated at The Wildlife Center with American white pelicans and a variety of other migratory waterfowl that had become contaminated when they landed on brine ponds near Carlsbad, where they stopped to rest and refuel. We saved many of them and sent them on their way. Those ponds continued to be an attractive nuisance for migrating pelicans. It is not only important to maintain healthy habitats essential to successful migration but also to minimize hazards. In recent years the mine that owns the brine ponds has made considerable progress in discouraging waterfowl from landing.

They found that cannon blasts were soon ineffective as birds got used to the blasts without consequences. Humans now haze birds off of the ponds.

NM is an important migratory corridor.

I need to give kudos to electric utilities that have made great strides in minimizing electrocution as a hazard to large raptors. The osprey comes first to mind. In Raptors of New Mexico, Dale Stahlecker writes that between 1920 and 1990 there were few reports of osprey nesting in NM. They have regularly migrated through the state, but only since the 1990s have we seen substantial nesting activity. We can now boast of a healthy breeding population in Río Arriba County, regularly hosting 18 nesting pair. In NM, as in many parts of its wide range, artificial nesting platforms have contributed significantly to breeding success. Electric poles have long been an attractive nest site. We have a rescued osprey at The Wildlife Center that was burned as a nestling when its nest caught fire. However, in the last 10 years electric utilities have done a terrific job of retrofitting poles to eliminate large-raptor electrocution.

These safe poles near our waterways now provide a kind of corridor.

Continued success of osprey in NM will depend on adequate fish populations and man-made nesting platforms sufficiently distant from human activities.

In the last three weeks I have spotted American avocet, Forester’s tern, Franklin’s gull, and this morning, snowy egrets on or near Abiquiú Lake. Most of these birds are only passing through to more northerly destinations to breed.

American white pelicans, snowy egret at Abiquiú Lake NM is an important migratory corridor proving habitats essential for breedfor a wide range of bird species that ing and migrating species. include warblers, hawks, shore birds, gallinaceous species (curlew), longWe will be challenged as deepening spurs and sparrows. They have already drought conditions shrink riparian made impressive journeys and need habitat, and energy exploration and our protected habitats to manage the development render landscapes unrest of their trip. The Wildlife Center suitable for wildlife, and as human has partnered with the Army Corps activities siphon off more water and of Engineers to erect a platform for further fragment habitats. osprey at Abiquiú Lake. Citizen scientists are monitoring this and other So, keep your bird feeders full until nests at this important habitat along the bears show up. It does get comthe Chama corridor. We have also plicated then. Every time you turn partnered with the Corps this spring on a faucet, think about how you to place American kestrel nest boxes can minimize water use. And think at the lake, and have another 20 boxes of your yard as both a refuge and a scattered throughout Santa Fe and corridor—a refueling stop on a lifeRío Arriba counties. We also have or-death journey. i plans to protect areas of the lake from Katherine Eagleson disturbance during nesting season. is executive director of The Corps is developing a plan that The Wildlife Center, located near Española, includes having The Wildlife Center NM. The center works construct a wetland on the Chama to protect NM’s wildbelow the dam. Engaging the comlife and their habitats. munity in science-based activities is 505.753.9505, www. our best chance of protecting and imthewildlifecenter.org

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© Katherine Eagleson (3)

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enerally, when we think of wildlife corridors, we think of natural bridges joining larger habitats. The “bridges” allow mammals to move safely across, under or through human developments that have fragmented wildlife habitats. There are other ways to think about corridors.

Migratory birds need safe refuges and refueling stops on their sometimes thousand-mile journeys. Think of the rufous hummingbird, which ventures farther north than any other hummingbird and is the smallest longdistance migrant. I have seen them by the dozens in Có s rdova, Alaska in early May. They dive-bomb every other hummingbird at my feeders in August here in New Mexico. The rufous hummingbird travels from México up the Pacific Coast in the spring and migrates down the Rocky Mountains in mid- to late summer.

They need plenty of refueling stops.

When they come through NM after their short breeding season in the north, they will have added up to 72 percent of their body weight in fat to make the journey. They need to refuel in NM before making the final push to México. Hummingbird feeders can be an important food source during periods of low flower productivity.

Our current drought not only affects flower productivity but also insect populations, an important food item for hummingbirds. Hummingbird feeders provide a kind of way-station along the corridor.

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Wildlands Adventurer’s 5,000 Mile “TrekWest” includes Northern New Mexico Journey invites citizens to support wildlife corridors Kim Vacariu and Jan-Willem Jansens

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ilderness explorer and outdoor adventurer John Davis is hiking and biking this month through northern New Mexico’s highlands on the fourth leg of “TrekWest 2013,” a long-distance journey to promote the importance of wildlife corridors in maintaining human and wildlife communities. He will be trekking through our area with a major public presentation in Albuquerque at the South Broadway Cultural Center on June 20. His big goal: completing a 5,000mile human-powered expedition from Hermosillo, Sonora, México to Fernie, British Columbia by October, 2013.

In 2011, during a similar “TrekEast” adventure, Davis became the first person to continuously hike, bike and paddle 7,500 backcountry miles from the Florida Keys to Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. His TrekWest journey once again finds him enduring extreme weather and terrain and spending more than 10 months outdoors in the wild. His trail is taking him along the spine of the Rocky Mountains, following the “Western Wildway,” a scientifically mapped North American habitat corridor.

Davis will reach northern NM’s highlands in mid-June after spending the previous 30 days trekking through

southeastern Utah’s canyons and paddling the Green River with his partners from Grand Canyon Wildlands council and Wild Utah Project. Previously, Davis has ridden horseback in a traditional cabalgata (cavalcade, procession) with partners from the Northern Jaguar Project and Naturalia through the Northern Jaguar Reserve, crossing the sierra into Chihuahua via trails and bike, explaining along the way the need for connected, restored landscapes. His journey continued through the new wolf reintroduction area near the Sierra San Luís and on to Cajón Bonito and the borderland ranches of Cuenca Los Ojos Foundation. The Méxican portion of the trek culminated in an eye-opening border crossing at Naco, Sonora, where a 150foot banner depicting a traveling jaguar was paraded through the streets. The crossing event drew media attention to the problems posed to wildlife passage by the heavily fortified border wall.

The northern New Mexico portion of TrekWest is co-sponsored

by Wildlands Network and New Mexico Wildways (NMW)—a recently formed group of conservation organizations working to implement wildlife habitat connectivity across the Galisteo Basin. NMW is a member of the Western Wildway Network, a collaboration of 22 of the West’s most respected conservation organizations—all with a focus on protecting and restoring regional wildlife habitat corridors that, once connected, will represent a continental pathway for wide-ranging wildlife called the Western Wildway.

© Kristen M. Caldon

Often described as a “John Muir meets triathlete,” Davis is a man of conservation passion and what has often been described as extraordinary stamina. “My dream is for a connected and protected Western Wildway™—a true lifeline for

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animals that need safe passage across large landscapes,” says Davis. “If we’re successful, our children will be able to gaze out at our western wildlands, silently observe the elegance of a wolf or smile just knowing the West is still wild in the way nature intended. It all starts with logging onto trekwest.org and signing our pledge saying ‘yes to wildlife corridors!’”

Davis explains the urgency of his mission: “Development, climate change and highways are fragmenting western wildlands, and are thus deadly threats to both the landscapes and wildlife cherished by anyone who knows the West.” He hopes to experience firsthand—and share with his virtual followers on

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube— the issues that prevent wildlife from going the distances they need to find mates, homes and food.

Putting the ‘wild’ back in the West

Trekking a spectacular route through deserts, mountains and grasslands, Davis’ journey will provide a view of the wild as seen through the eyes of the animals that play an irreplaceable role in managing ecosystems and landscapes. Davis will tell the amazing and often heart-wrenching stories of cougars, ocelots, grizzlies, wolves, jaguars and other wildlife in their daily attempts to survive. continued on page 12

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Wildlands Adventure continued from page 13

© Kim Vacariu

his cross-country efforts, assisting him in collecting scientific data, photographing species and showcasing their habitat protection projects.

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Social media followers can access Davis’ observations in real time throughout the journey via daily blog postings, tweets, and other image postings of the sights, sounds, wildlife and people he encounters in the West’s most iconic—and wild—places. In addition, maps of his trek, barrier locations and connectivity projects will be easily accessible from the John Davis at the start of his 40-mile Chiricahuas trek.

Wildlands Network-hosted website, But Davis is not all about sharing bad news; he www.trekwest.org believes finding solutions is the most important component of his adventure. Says the trekker, To learn more about Davis, visit Island Press at “I will explore wildlife corridors that can be re- www.islandpress.org to read Big, Wild and Constored, connected and protected in order to save nected, his soon-to-be-released e-book depicting what we all love—our landscapes, parks and wild- the challenges and barriers he faced during his life—into the distant future. And I will introduce 2011 trek in the East, and the essential eastthe conservation heroes already connecting those ern landscapes he recommends for urgent conlandscapes.” He also hopes to expand a growing nection and protection. Trek followers can also network of individuals and organizations com- visit Facebook, Twitter and mitted to connecting the West’s best wild places. YouTube to join the grow“By connecting the interests of a diverse base of ing network of people who people who rely on healthy landscapes for their want to put the “wild” back lifestyles, well-being and incomes, creative solu- in the West! i tions that keep wildlands functioning can result,” Kim Vacariu is western director of the Wildlands Network. he concludes.

TrekWest will be a group adventure in many ways. Supporters will join Davis as co-trekkers along the trail. Event sponsor Wildlands Network and its many regional partner organizations in the Western Wildway Network, including Sky Island Alliance, also will be supporting

kim@wildlandsnetwork.org

Jan-Willem Jansens is coordinator of New Mexico Wildways and director of Ecotone, which offers conservation planning for landscapes in transition.

505.470.2531, jwjansens@ gmail.com.

The Spine of the Continent Lyons Press

Mary Ellen Hannibal offers a gripping and informative look at the founding of bioconservation, the scientists and controversies behind environmental science, and the ambitious, necessary extension of theoretical knowledge into practical application with the formation of connected wildlife corridors from Canada to México. Giving equal time to anecdotes and interviews, Hannibal supports her engaging and swift narrative with hard facts. This book is far more engrossing and dramatic than the title suggests; it goes beyond the politics of wildlife protection to present a real history of America’s habitat, the animals within it, the people who study them, and the disparate motivations behind responsible conservation. Deep dives into the ecology of species both native—beavers, wolves, jaguar, and pika—and not native—cows—reveal the interdependence of humans and their wilder counterparts in the woods and plains. A thoroughly satisfying gem, readers will find themselves in the company of America’s best minds ( Jared Diamond, Michael Soule) and heroes (Sherri Tippie), as Hannibal travels through landscapes chronicling the efforts underway to keep North America habitable for the plants and animals that first lived here and the people who now call it home. This is what scientific writing should be: fascinating and true. – Publishers Weekly

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Conservation

KEEPING WILD LANDS CONNECTED and WILDLIFE ALIVE Jan-Willem Jansens and Charlie O’Leary

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unters, naturalists and biologists know that many animals migrate and hang out along edges between landscapes or ecosystems. This is not unlike how humans prefer to sit or walk at the edge of a space. Edges offer certain benefits, such as shade, better views, hiding places and more diversity, which is often essential to feel safe, sheltered and comfortable.

This phenomenon is called the “edge effect.” In nature, edges are transition zones between two different ecological areas or landscape types. Due to the continuity and diverse ecological benefits of edges in the landscape, they serve as crucial habitat and pathways for many wildlife species.

Where and how wild animals want to roam and where they hang out depends largely on the animals’ needs and to what extent their needs are being met by the quality of their habitat.

Scientific research has revealed that well-functioning wildlife habitat will allow for a more diverse mix of species if that area is larger and wider and if it is connected with other habitats.

Ecologists call such principal habitat areas “cores” or “hubs.” The connective zones are called “linkages” or “corridors.” For certain animals their core habitats are in fact “islands” in a “sea” of less-suitable habitat. Birds follow linkages in the air (avian fly zones) to reach other “island” areas. Land animals seek specific sheltered overland pathways between core areas, for example along stream corridors and in landscape edges, to avoid open or developed areas where they are vulnerable.

Impacts of Isolation

Human settlement drastically impacts the size and shape of the home territory of wild animals. When core areas shrink in size or get narrower, certain animals will experience crowding and will compete with each other for space, mates, water, food and shelter.

If development, roads, fences, or lack of shelter or water prevent animals

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from roaming toward other core areas, animals will either stay where they are, running an increased risk of starving or dying in competitive conflicts, or they will venture out, risking their lives on highways, due to predators (including humans), or as a result of starvation and thirst.

The number of animals and the number of species in an isolated core area is usually smaller than in connected areas.

As a result of such processes, numerous animal species have disappeared or gone extinct in the last few centuries, and many more continue to be threatened with extinction today.

Estimates by Wildlands Network in 2011 indicate that nationwide nearly 365 million vertebrates are being killed every year on our roadways; nearly one million every day. On four million miles of roads, this means a daily mortality of one vertebrate every four miles. Annually, about 30,000 people are injured in collisions between large animals and vehicles, 300 of them fatally.

Numerous species are threatened with extinction These estimates from Wildlands Network resulted from an epic trek in 2011 from Key Largo, Fla. to Quebec, Canada, by Wildlands Network founder and nationally renowned adventurer and outdoorsman John Davis. His 7,600-mile voyage, dubbed TrekEast, led Davis along the most important wilderness areas and nature preserves on the East Coast of the US. One of the most unexpected and gruesome findings on his trek was the rampant road kill he encountered everywhere he went. Roads have frag-

mented the land to such an extent that the wonderful preserves and conservation areas on the East Coast that still serve as core habitat for wildlife are virtually severed from each other for most non-flying vertebrates. Animals that venture to roam beyond these core habitats run a tremendous risk of falling victim to the death trap of our road system.

Roadblocks on the Western Wildway

While ecological core areas in the West are much larger and less fragmented by roads and developed areas than on the East Coast, there are many reasons for concern in our region. The many miles of four-lane highways with concrete safety barriers and lane dividers are formidable wildlife barriers that tend to trap animals and increase the risk of collisions.

Mexico, established in 2003, has only seen a few success stories of effective wildlife crossing solutions. The most notable one is the highway crossing of I-40 in Tijeras Canyon, east of Albuquerque. This corridor segment connecting the Sandias and the Manzanita Mountains was the most studied corridor in the state due to work spearheaded by the Tijeras Canyon Sage Passage Coalition. Yet, despite excellent work done by NM Priority Wildlife Linkages and staff from the NM Department of Game & Fish, the Department of Transportation, and many dedicated individuals from the private sector and conservation groups, in the decade since 2003 there continued on page 14

© Courtesy Santa Fe Conservation Trust

Edge Effect, Core Areas and Linkages

A preliminary list of 30 critical wildlife-vehicle collision accident corridors in New

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has been a great lack of funds and political commitment in NM to address animal-vehicle collision problems in a more dedicated and comprehensive manner.

Additionally, oil and gas development has carved a swath of highly disturbed land, with many roads, fences, polluted water sources and degraded ecosystems across the continent from Montana to NM. The onslaught on wildlife habitat by the conventional energy sector is rapidly expanded by the development of solar- and wind farms and the plans for high voltage transmission lines for these new renewable energy plants. The environmental community and state decision makers still have a great task ahead in balancing the needs and goals of new energy development on the one hand and ecological conservation on the other.

In the years to come, the impacts of our changing climate on water resources and vegetation communities will most likely prompt many animals to seek different habitats and adapt to large-scale changes across the landscape. The devastation of wildfires across our region, coupled with the drying of many streams and an imminent outbreak of a new cycle of pine beetles, are some of the ecological examples of large-scale transitions in our landscapes that change the character of the transition zones between habitats and that will bring many animals on the wing or on the hoof to find new habitat.

Strategies and Actions as Part of a Large Vision

We, as residents and landowners, can make a difference to these sobering realities for wildlife by engaging in concerted stewardship action, both at the local level of individuals and at regional levels of collaborative partnerships between conservation groups and government agencies. First of all, this will require that in order to successfully implement strategies that will benefit wildlife, we rely on public awareness of the challenges that wildlife face in our modern world. Public support for projects that enhance connectivity is crucial to receive funding

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and for helping to set priorities in our highly bureaucratic system of land management.

So our first responsibility is to be aware of our surroundings and to understand how our actions affect natural systems and the animals that live in the wild. This will help us understand the real life-and-death challenges that animals face each and every day and drive us to take action to help preserve their basic needs for survival.

We may need to be aware, for example, that many animals are nocturnal and are afraid of humans. It is easy to forget that we share the land with an entire population of beings that sleep during the day and are active only at night. And besides, most of us work or live inside the majority of the day and have very little opportunity to be in nature and see firsthand how we are modifying habitat and creating challenges for wildlife.

© Billy Johnson

Wild Lands continued from page 13

The Galisteo Basin

Second, as stewards, we can take action to protect certain areas that constitute important wildlife pathways and habitat areas. Many public agencies and nature groups across the country, including land trusts, are working to provide the necessary open lands and corridors critical for wildlife to survive. An important tool in the protection of critical areas is the use of voluntary landprotection agreements (also known as conservation easements) to retire development rights and guarantee that the land is not converted from its natural functions. NM has seen many acres of land protected in per-

petuity with this legal mechanism.

While conservation easements have been used to protect core habitat areas, land trusts are now increasingly seeing the importance of protecting corridors or stepping-stone areas. Land trusts and government agencies are using computer-aided mapping of conservation values and property ownership on both local and regional levels to support the planning of open space and wildlife corridors. An important next step in easing conservation efforts is to increase the practices of sharing this information to leverage multiple continued on page 32

New Mexico Wildways: A Vision for Wildlife Habitat Connectivity

New Mexico Wildways (NMW ) was founded in 2009 to address the need for a coordinated, accelerated approach to protection and restoration of key wildlife linkages connecting existing protected areas in New Mexico, with an initial focus on the Galisteo Wildway—one of the most ecologically critical wildlife linkages in New Mexico.

Formation of NMW resulted from the need for collaboration among a wide range of conservation partners in order to accelerate and better coordinate wildlife corridor protection programs. The resulting coalition has worked hard to bring TrekWest to northern New Mexico and will selectively utilize the diverse skills, capacity and experience of each NMW organization to leverage and expedite on-the-ground actions that support wildlife habitat connectivity.

NMW is made up of groups working both regionally and statewide to advance the conservation of New Mexico’s biodiversity. Each member organization in NMW provides specific expertise designed to enhance conservation through private lands protection, informing county-level planning and zoning, improving safe highway passage for wildlife and people, wildlife monitoring and tracking, development of science-based corridor mapping, wilderness and public lands protection, and influencing public policy. Overall, these organizations represent thousands of members and a diverse set of partners and stakeholders across the state.

To join New Mexico Wildways, or for more information on how you can help, please contact Jan-Willem Jansens of Ecotone, at jwjansens@gmail.com. Current core partners of New Mexico Wildways include Wildlands Network (http://www.wildlandsnetwork.org), NM Priority Wildlife Linkages (http://www.birdseyeviewgis. com), Pathways-Wildlife Corridors of NM (http://pathwayswc.wordpress.com/), The Wildlife Center (http:// www.thewildlifecenter.org) and Wildlife Habitat of NM.

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New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Transmission Corridors Impact Wildlife Pete David he Land of Enchantment may be best known for its breathtaking vistas, scenic mesas and majestic sky islands, but New Mexico may also have the greatest promise for renewable energy of any state with plentiful solar, wind and geothermal resources.

A handful of wind and solar projects have been completed, with more in various stages of planning and construction. One critical factor limiting full-scale energy development in NM is the lack of suitable transmission to distribute electricity to urban markets.

Several recent government actions have been critical in advancing development of transmission in the state.

In 2009, the state Legislature created the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (RETA) and subsequently then — Gov. Richardson appointed a Statewide Electricity Planning Taskforce to provide recommendations “regarding opportunities and steps to enhance the statewide electricity transmission grid.” The resulting planning report released in 2010 recommended that RETA assume the state’s role in siting transmission corridors.

In collaboration with RETA, Los Alamos National Laboratory initiated a study to assess the economic benefits of developing an enhanced transmission system in NM. In one scenario, the study evaluated the completion of 841 miles of transmission by the year 2030 with export of 1,302 megawatts from the Four Corners hub. The resulting infrastructure would create an estimated 745 permanent jobs and generate $78,566,700 in tax revenue. NM’s failure to build sufficient transmission would result in the loss of further tax revenue and well-paying jobs produced by wind- and solar development.

Support for development of renewable energy is strong throughout the West.

According to polling results in the State of the Rockies Conservation Report covering five western states (Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Montana), 67 percent of respondents agreed that increasing development of renewable energy sources would create jobs, and 70 percent backed the idea of

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renewable energy replacing coal. Even more revealing is the overwhelming endorsement for protection of the environment. In the same report, 84 percent of voters agreed that despite the shortfalls in state budgets, funding should be allocated to protect our land, water and wildlife.

Which gets us back to RETA. The agency was created by Senate Memorial 44, which included language that required them to secure mapping of wildlife and other environmentally sensitive areas in conjunction with the planning and building of new transmission projects. The accompanying legislative report proposes that RETA pursue the development of a statewide environmental site assessment with funding solicited from grant opportunities. The state policymakers understood that full development of an intrastate transmission collector system would come with an environmental cost, but one that could be minimized with proper preparation and planning.

RETA has developed a map showing the proposed transmission corridors and right-of-ways crisscrossing the state. Resource agencies and environmental groups have reviewed the map to identify mostly public lands that are thought to contain sensitive habitat, and the USGS Land Stewardship

SWCA file photos

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Texas-New Mexico 115 kV power line in Otero County Data has been used to further designate areas of conservation, wilderness and archaeological value. But the landscape scale used to generate such a map cannot accurately predict where sensitive resources occur or where animals move through the landscape. No statewide environmental assessment has been completed, nor have wildlife corridors been mapped.

There is limited evidence suggesting that transmission development can have adverse indirect impacts on rare species such as greater and Gunnison’s sage grouse and lesser prairie chickens through habitat fragmentation and increased predation. Mortality of raptors, grouse, cranes and other birds has been documented to occur by collision or elec-

trocution, although these impacts can be avoided or minimized by implementing guidelines published by the Avian Power Line Interaction Committee or the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Powerline construction can create barriers to movement by grouse and less mobile amphibians and reptiles, but assessing the effect on habitat permeability is problematic without sufficient data on sensitive wildlife areas or movement of wildlife across the landscape. In addition, degree of disturbance may vary by type of habitat, being greater in the high elevation forests of northern NM, but less so in the patchy vegetation of the Chihuahuan Desert. The NM Wind and Wildlife Collaborative (NMWWC), comprised of industry and continued on page 36

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del are llano / From the Arid Land

Hunting in New Mexico’s Acequia Communities Goes Way Back Juan Estévan Arellano

cequia people and hunting go way back in northern New Mexico.

When the harvest was brought in and the cattle were back in eating the rastrojo (chaff ) after a summer in the sierra (mountains), people prepared for the caza (hunt).

In the past it wasn’t for trophies at all; it was a matter of survival. People from all the villages would all get together and assemble a team of hunters to go after cibolo (buffalo).

For us, wilderness areas are sierras, montes, llanos, rios and acequias.

Every able-bodied man in the village (and this meant kids in their early teens) would gather and elect someone who had previous experience to lead them over the Sierra Madres (today called the Sangre de Cristos) to go over towards Mora, and from there to the Llano Estacados in eastern NM. This would take them several weeks.

They had someone who was in charge of killing the buffalo; others followed behind to harvest the animal. It was dried immediately where it was killed and then put into sacks and brought back home as carne seca.

When they arrived home, there was a big get-together. Even the elderly or the infirm who couldn’t send anyone on the hunt would all get meat; everyone had to survive the cold winters.

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Fast-forward closer to the present. I still remember the old El Cerrito bar, when the day before the big hunt, everyone started arriving very early, all dressed in red like Elmer Fudd, and they would drink the night away. For these hunters it was more a day of getting away from the wife or girlfriend and becoming like the songs they used to strum on the guitar.

Out of this group was usually one or two who were excellent hunters; they never dressed up like Santa Claus. They would retire early, and the following day by eight or nine in the morning they would drive up to the store with their deer or elk in tow. They had already spent some time during the past two weeks tracking the herd, they knew where they were, and were very apt with a rifle. The day of the hunt, El Coyote knew exactly where he had to go, and in a matter of an hour or two he had what he wanted.

Not only were these people expert huntsmen, they were also superb fishermen. My friend Fisher can go almost any time of the day and within a matter of minutes catch his limit.

He seems to have an innate feeling for where the fish are, and wherever he’s at, they seem to follow him.

In Little League, our coach would take us up to the Trampas Lakes, right below the Truchas Peak. At that time, we were the only ones there. There must have been about 12 of us plus the coach. As soon as we got there every-

© Billy Johnson

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one was anxious to go fishing. Before long everyone had their rods in the water and hardly anyone would catch a fish, yet Fisher was reeling them in faster than he could get them off the hook. That weekend he got over 150 fish, enough for everyone’s limit. The rest probably caught three or four each.

And like El Coyote, he was also an excellent marksman. He once shot a big deer in Las Chorreras, below the Chile Line and Ojo Caliente. He drafted my friend and me to help him get it down.

It took us all afternoon, but finally we came down with a big buck.

Today, there are several elk that have been camping down by the orchards, nibbling on the fruit trees, as well as young corn plants. Every August, usually until mid-November, plenty of bears come down from Mesita and as far away as Truchas and la Cañada del Comanche to prepare for the winter.

Several years back, I was going to get water from my acequia headgate, when all of a sudden I saw a lot of blood in the water. I continued going and by the time I got to the gate, there was

a whole glob of blood and a bear that had just gotten out of the water, still dripping. I hurriedly opened the gate and headed home. That afternoon I heard someone had shot a bear the night before.

Along the banks of the acequia we usually find footprints of mountain lion and bobcats. Hawks and eagles fly high up above. Last year, along the banks of the Acequia Junta y Ciénaga, there were five wild sheep that had somehow escaped from Pilar, a few miles north.

An acequia landscape today is as full of wildlife as in the past, only today the only buffalo we see are on the Native American reservations. For us, there are no such things as wilderness areas; we refer to them as sierras, montes, llanos, ríos and acequias. i Farmer, researcher and community leader Juan Estévan Arellano has devoted most of his life documenting the traditional knowledge of the Indo-Hispano in northern NM. 505.579.4027, Estévan Arellano <estevan_2002@yahoo.com

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EV ERYDA Y G REEN

All My Relations

An Interview with Greg Cajete Susan Guyette

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SG: What brought you to these perspectives on Native Science?

GC: I became interested in “Indigenous Philosophies of Nature” as a result of my studies in bio-ecology, animal behavior and American Indian storytelling as a part of my research, design and implementation of a high school science curriculum that integrated art, science and the cultural histories of Native American peoples. This approach is important, to address the alienation that many Native students feel in regard to Western science. This work began in 1974 when I was the science teacher at the Institute of American Indian arts in Santa Fe. SG: How does the Native worldview of our relationship with animals differ from the American mainstream?

GC: Traditional Native perceptions of animal nature represent a type of thinking and attitude dramatically different from those of Western science. In the Native way, there is a fluid and inclusive perception of animal nature that makes less of a distinction between human, animal and spiritual realities. These realities are seen as interpenetrating one another.

This is a view held in common with evolving descriptions of reality in quantum physics.

© Seth Roffman(2)

e are all related, sharing Mother Earth, interconnected in the intricate web of life—species to species. One depends upon the other. In the Native view, these complexities are reflected in everyday life. Greg Cajete, Pueblo scholar, Director of Native American Studies at UNM and author of Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence, explains the Native perspective regarding animals and why this is vitally important for the 21st century.

Piro-Manso Tiwa Indian dancers from southern NM perform in Albuquerque at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in front of a mural depicting deer dancers.

and its animals that formed the Native foundation for understanding. In all Native traditions, the sacred directions are a conceptual, mythic and spiritual structure for reflecting upon the symbolic meaning of animals in the cosmology of Native cultures.

Greg Cajete

To the Western mind, the associations Native cultures make regarding animals may seem illogical, but they are indeed comprehensible and logical within the context of each Native cultural worldview. In Native science, associations and relationships of Native people to animals have their own internal logic. The way Native people traditionally classified animals had an “aptness” based on their value, their use as food and their relative role in the reality of the natural environment that both Natives and animals inhabited.

The integration of these relationships was accomplished through the structures of the tribal worldview. For example, acknowledging the sacred directions recognized a conceptual and physical sphere of relationship to nature

In the past, there has been a tendency to oversimplify native spiritual expression and miss many of its inherent and subtle meanings. These subtle meanings are often presented in the way Native cultures relate to animals, since animals are always associated with other Native concepts of power, dream, vision, guardian spirit, master or mother of game, and animal soul. The belief that animals have souls is deeply embedded in traditional Native view of animals. Each animal is seen to possess certain special qualities and powers that they may share with humans if they are properly treated. In the Native view, animals were far from being considered inferior; rather, they were in many ways superior to humans. Given this perspective, animals inspired the lifeways of Native cultures.

In the beginning of time, Native myth contends that humans and animals could communicate with each other. Animals cared for humans, helping them find food, water and shelter. They even sacrificed themselves when needed to help humans survive. They would assist humans in knowing when to prepare for the change of the seasons or the coming of storms. This intimacy with animals came to an end when humans began to be disrespectful of their animal relations. Humans, it is mythically related, began to abuse continued on page 32

On Paseo de Peralta (next to Kakawa Chocolates)

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Renewing a Landscape in the Southwest Jémez Mount

What Does a Big Restoration Project Really Mean?

Phyllis Ashmead

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hose living in northern New Mexico during the Las Conchas Fire will never forget when fire exploded across the southern Jémez Mountains, roaring through canyons and flaming out across the mesas. The fire started on June 26, 2011 near Las Conchas Trailhead, when winds toppled an aspen tree onto a power line on private land, sparking the fire. The rest is history.

Fire. Over time, the project will have far-reaching benefits to the people and wildlife whose lives and livelihoods depend on a more resilient landscape.

This ambitious endeavor is called the Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project.

In the first 13 hours, driven by strong and unpredictable winds, the fire burned 43,782 acres at a rate of about one acre per second. Wildlife that couldn’t run, fly or burrow deep enough perished in the flames. At the time the Las Conchas Fire became the largest wildfire in NM history, burning a total of 156,590 acres, destroying 63 residences and 44 outbuildings. Suppression costs alone had a price tag of over $48 million.

Why is the project needed?

Most of the lands consist of historically firedependent forest ecosystems where fire has been excluded for over a century. As a result of fire exclusion and the extended drought, the now overcrowded forests in the southwest Jémez Mountains are at high risk of uncharacteristically severe fires.

In some areas, where it burned at high severity, authorities say it will be centuries before the trees grow back, if ever. While summer monsoons following the fire brought much needed moisture, they also brought flash floods and landslides to burn-scarred areas. The fire and flooding had a huge effect on property, livelihoods and drinking water, including impacts to the historic Dixon Apple Orchard, Santa Clara Pueblo, Cochiti Pueblo and Cochiti Lake.

Today, as the danger of uncharacteristically severe wildfires looms large across the state, the Santa Fe National Forest, together with the Valles Caldera National Preserve and Jémez Pueblo are proactively planning a landscape-level restoration project on 210,000 acres west of the Las Conchas Fire burned area. This includes 86,000 acres on the preserve, 110,000 acres on the national forest, and 14,000 acres on nearby state, private and Jémez Pueblo lands. The goal is to restore the landscape so that it is less susceptible to large-scale disturbances such as the Las Conchas

Proposal The Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project project proposes to reduce the potential of uncharacteristically severe and intense wildfires while promoting the low intensity, frequent surface fires that were once common across this landscape. To accomplish this, forests will be thinned, creating stands that have a mosaic of grassy openings, shrubs and groups of trees of various sizes and ages. This will allow forests to grow into old-growth ponderosa pine and mixed conifer stands. The Forest Service is engaging industry to help with thinning, and this in turn, will provide jobs in the local community.

The project will encourage growth of perennial grasses, shrubs and wildflowers in the understory that can carry low-intensity fire across the landscape and will reduce the amount of live and dead fuels available to wildfire. Activities identified in the proposal will improve aquatic and terrestrial wildlife habitat. In addition to restoration activities, the project will also remove fuels around archeology sites, providing for their sustainability over time. The Valles Caldera National Preserve and the Santa Fe National Forest have separate National Environmental Policy Act analyses that the public can participate in.

Wildlife Benefits Improved conditions will not only benefit people living in and around the Jémez Mountains; wildlife too will benefit. These mountains support a great diversity of wildlife. Two species described here are at risk should there be another largescale disturbance; these are the Mexican spotted owl and the Jémez Mountains salamander. Here is a closer look at their lifestyles and how the project will benefit their habitat.

Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) In the Jémez Mountains, the Mexican spotted owl is found in forested mountains and canyons with mature trees. They nest on ledges and holes carved in the steep-walled canyons. They are primarily nocturnal hunters and eat wood rats, mice, voles, rabbits, gophers, bats, birds, reptiles and bugs. They typically lay oneto-three eggs during the years they nest.

Mexican spotted owls were listed as endangered in 1993 due to habitat loss. Today their habitat is at an even greater risk in the Jémez Mountains due to the potential for a large-scale, high intensity crown fire as seen in the 2011 Las Conchas Fire area. Other key problems affecting the owl habitat in this area are the lack of large, mature trees and not enough openings that are home to the owl’s prey.

The Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project proposes to improve habitat for the Mexican spotted owl by reducing the risk of uncharacteristically large fires and insect outbreaks. By thinning the trees and creating forest stands with a mosaic of grassy openings, its foraging habitat will be improved.

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© David M. Solis Above © Brenda Strohmeyer

ntains

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

NEPA is a key element in our restoration efforts. It answers the question, how are we going to get this done and what are the social, environmental and economic effects of doing so? Both the Forest Service and the Valles Caldera National Preserve are in the NEPA process. The Valles Caldera Preserve’s Environmental Impact Statement can be found online at www.vallescaldera. gov/stewardship

The overall goal of planning for more oldgrowth forests will have long-term benefits for the Mexican spotted owl.

Jémez Mountains Salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus) The Jémez Mountains salamander is found only in northern NM in the Jémez Mountain range between 7,200 and 9,600 feet in mixed-conifer forests. This small elusive amphibian spends most of its life hidden underground in moist soils, with good reason– it has no lungs and absorbs oxygen through its skin. These soils typically contain volcanic rock with deep horizontal and vertical cracks below the surface where salamanders seek refuge from the cold frost of winter.

When the temperatures are warm and it is wet, typically June–August, it will find its way to the surface inside rotted coniferous logs or under rocks. At night, the Jémez Mountains salamander may venture out, walking softly on webbed feet, to hunt for ants, beetles, mites, spiders, earthworms and other small insects.

This land-dwelling animal does not require standing water at any stage of its life. It hatches fully-formed from the egg instead of going through a larval phase, similar to a tadpole, like other salamanders do.

On September 12, 2012, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the Jémez Mountains salamander as endangered. The primary threats to this rare creature include residential development; roads, trails and habitat loss; recreation; disease; chemical use; and climate changes. Years of fire exclusion have led to overgrown forests susceptible to high intensity wildfires that scorch the soil. This can have profound effects on the salamander’s ability to survive these fires. Thinning the forest and promoting the low intensity, frequent surface fires that were once common will help restore this landscape and may improve habitat for the salamander.

Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project Benefits People, Forests and Wildlife Activities restoring ecological and economic health to the Jémez Mountains will focus on what the land needs, on the goals we share and the outcomes we want for generations to come. It means short-term sacrifices for long-term benefits.

When people see logs coming down the road following forest thinning, or smoke in the air from prescribed fire, or find their favorite campsite is temporarily closed for rehabilitation, they will know why. The ultimate reward is a landscape legacy for generations to come. i Get Involved!

For more information about this project, to learn what volunteer opportunities are available, or to schedule a presentation for your group, contact Phyllis Ashmead, Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project Partnership Coordinator, pashmead@fs.fed.us

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Currently the Santa Fe National Forest’s interdisciplinary team is analyzing the proposed action and the alternatives. A draft environmental impact statement is expected in September 2013 for public review and comments. The final Record of Decision is expected in January 2014, and implementation is expected to begin in early summer 2014. Information can be found online at http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/santafe/home/?cid=FSBDEV7_021009

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP)

Insects, disease outbreaks and uncharacteristic large wildfires threaten the beauty, function and life in our forests and the people who depend upon and enjoy them. Wildlife suppression alone costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Because of these threats, Congress passed the Forest Landscape Restoration Act in 2009, proactively guiding restoration activities on competitively selected National Forest System lands.

The Act established the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), which solicited collaboratively developed proposals for landscapescale ecological restoration projects that are socially and economically viable.

Restoration and monitoring are key components of the selected projects. These large-scale projects require treatments for at least a 10-year period across landscapes that are at least 50,000 acres in size.

Even before Congress established the CFLRP, interest and focus on the southwest Jémez Mountains was growing. Following the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000, agency fire staff, community and conservation groups, and local and tribal governments teamed up to consider how to reduce the risk of high severity fires in northern NM. Since then, there has been ongoing collaboration among these groups and a focus on the need to restore this landscape. As a result, the Southwest Jémez Mountains Landscape Restoration Project was one of ten, out of 31 proposals that was awarded funding in 2010. The project will receive approximately $35 million in funding over ten years. Collaboration was the proposal’s strongest asset and will continue to be essential in implementation.

The Nature Conservancy and NM Forest Watershed Restoration Institute participated in early key planning leadership. In 2010, the were joined by WildEarth Guardians and the Forest Guild forming a collaborative group for this effort.

Other partners include:

Government Agencies and Tribes Los Alamos County, Fire Department NM Dept. of Game and Fish NM ENMRD-State Forestry NM Environment Department Surface Water NMSU, USGS Wildlife Co-op Unit NM State University, USDA ARS Jornada Experimental Range NM Tech Northern NM College, Forestry Department Northern Arizona University Pueblo of Jémez Pueblo of Santa Clara Sandoval County, Fire Dept.

Smithsonian Institute US DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory University of Arizona University of NM USGS Jémez Mountains Ecological Field Station USDA Forest Service USDA-FS Rocky Mountain Research Station USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service USDA Systematic Entomology Lab USDI BIA, Northern & Southern Pueblos Agencies USDI Fish & Wildlife Service, Ecological Service Field Office USDI NPS Bandelier National Monument US Fish and Wildlife Service

Non-Government Agencies Cuba Regional Economic Development Organization Desert Research Institute Forest Guild Firewise Community Associations Four Corners Institute Hawks Aloft La Cueva Volunteer Fire Department Las Comunidades Los Amigos de Valles Caldera Mid-Region Council of Governments National Wildlife Federation NM Forest &Watershed Restoration Institute NM Forest Industry Association NM Trout Old Broads for Wilderness Restoration Solutions Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Smithsonian Institute The Nature Conservancy, NM Thompson Ridge & Sierra de los Piños POAs Trout Unlimited, Truchas Chapter USA Firewise, Gr. E. Jémez WUI Working Group Valdez Logging Valles Caldera Trust Village of Jémez Springs WildEarth Guardians

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Beaver and Their Dams Stitching Together New Mexico’s Streams and Rivers and Boosting the Outdoor Economy Bryan Bird am-building beaver (Castor canadensis) once occupied most streams in New Mexico below the tree line. The loss and absence of beaver from significant portions of their historic habitat has disconnected aquatic systems and considerably undermines resilience and adaptation to climate change.

Restoration of aquatic, wetland and riparian ecosystems by beaver can be a simple, elegant and cost-effective way to reconnect currently disjointed fish populations and adapt to climate change. The connectivity of these aquatic ecosystems is critical for fish species whose populations have dwindled and been separated into isolated refuges. These disconnected populations can no longer interbreed and replenish sufficient numbers and are especially vulnerable to wildfire events or severe drought years. Many other wildlife use riparian corridors to travel our state safely within and between their core territories.

Beaver, with their dams and ponds and the related wetland and aquatic ecosystems, can serve not only to greatly enhance the persistence and movement of many imperiled native animals and plants; they also increase water storage in watersheds that are undergoing dramatic changes in runoff patterns. Beavers have long been valued as ecosystem engineers who increase biodiversity, including numerous threatened and endangered species such as the Río Grande cutthroat trout, the Gila trout, Southwestern willow flycatcher and the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.

Dam-building beaver are not only critical for the perseverance of imperiled species, but also for ensuring a robust and healthy outdoor recreation industry in NM. Recreational fishing and other outdoors activities associated with healthy streams and rivers is big business in NM and a tradition for many families. According to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, 304,000 hunters and anglers spent $579 million in NM in 2011, generating $58 million in state and local taxes. Hunters and anglers support nearly as many jobs in NM as Los Alamos National Laboratories.

According to Headwaters Economics, an economic think tank in Montana, more than 84,000 non-resident fishermen spent 467,000 days fishing in NM in 2006 and contributed $99 million to the state economy. Headwaters finds that outdoors recreation alone generated $2.75 billion in retail sales. NM’s fish, wildlife and habitats annually contribute $3.8 billion to the state’s economy through hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. These activities sustain 47,000 jobs (more than farming and forestry combined) and generate more than $184 million in yearly gross receipts tax revenue.

Though primarily a dry state, NM has approximately 234 square miles of rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs. Riparian habitats are assemblages of plant, animal and aquatic communities that tie our state together. A significant percentage of all wildlife in the Southwest uses riparian habitat to feed, take shelter and travel, but wetlands and riparian ecosystems comprise less than 1 percent of NM. Last month the NM Environment Department Wetland Program hosted 70 people for a workshop on beaver and wetlands. In attendance were state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, acequia organizations and private landowners. There were presentations on the ecosystem services beaver and their dams provide, models for determining potential and suitable habitat for beaver, Utah’s state beaver management plan, and beaver-human coexistence. After hearty discussions around the benefits and challenges of beaver and where to go next, those in attendance agreed that the next steps for NM include a demonstration project and initiating a statewide beaver management plan.

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These riparian habitats stitch together our arid state for wildlife, anglers and recreationists alike. The beaver is an ally in ensuring this connectivity. Though not always appropriate in heavily developed human landscapes, beaver and their ponds are critical in less developed places. There are many strategies for living with beaver that landowners can implement (http://www.apnm.org/campaigns/ beavers/land_owner_guide.php). We can and should celebrate our furry little engineer where we can.

In an effort to begin the work of reestablishing beaver, their dams and historic wetlands across the state, WildEarth Guardians, in partnership with the NM Environment Department We t l a n d s Program, embarked on a project to map all potential, suitable and occupied habitat on federal lands in NM. The mapping A beaver dam on the Santa Fe River in the upper watershed exercise employed Geographic Information System technology to assemble important habitat requirements of dam-building beaver and predict suitable locations where the animals can be now and where they could be with habitat restoration. The maps will be made available to the public and can help prioritize habitat restoration funding and placement for beaver and wetlands reestablishment.

WildEarth Guardians anticipates using this information in directing its ecosystem restoration efforts and also as the catalyst for a statewide beaver management plan. Such plans are in place in Utah and Oregon and can significantly alleviate human-beaver conflicts by identifying how, when and where problem beaver can be relocated. Such a strategic and intentional approach to beaver management would reduce the need for lethal control as well as allow the state to maximize the benefits dam-building beaver can provide for wetlands, riparian connectivity and adaptation to climate change. i Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians’ Wild Places program director, has an MA degree in conservation biology from NMSU. He has undertaken conservation research, planning and protection projects in Central America, Mexico and the US Southwest. 505.819.5922, www. wildearthguardians.org

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© Anna C. Hansen

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Climate Change

Timing is Everything

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live at 6,800 feet in altitude. Last year many of us enjoyed fruit from our trees and shrubs for the first time in several years. A cool spring delayed blossom eruption until temperatures warmed beyond hard-frost likelihood. It will not be a repeated pleasure this year. In late April temperatures in the teens eliminated any hope of fruit developing from bulging buds. Broadtailed and black-throated hummingbirds are mobbing my feeders.

Bees are coming to hummingbird

cords have been a better indicator of weather and climate patterns than temperature records. After all, the modern thermometer was not invented until 1714 by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit. In Europe, viticulture records going back 500 years have given us detail on when grape leaves first appeared, when they set fruit, when fruit was harvested. Robert Marsham, the father of modern phenological recording, began recording in 1736 the details of first flowering of hundreds of plants along with the emergence of insects in England. His family continued the record until 1958.

The United States Geological Service has a program called North American Bird Phenology Program. Millions of bird arrival- and departure dates were recorded for 870 species between 1880 and 1970.

In Japan and China the blossoming dates of cherry and peach trees have been recorded since the eighth century.

Honeybee on a cherry blossom

feeders. There are very few flowers. A combination of extended drought and late spring freezes has taken a big toll on flowering plants. Whenever there is a significant impact on the bottom of the food chain, the entire food chain is seriously affected.

Most of us are aware of drought impacts but may not be aware of the importance of the timing of seasonal events.

Phenology is the term used to describe the recording or study of first occurrence of biological events in their annual cycle: emergence of leaves, first flight of butterflies and first appearance of migratory birds.

In some respects phenological re-

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Bottle fly on Mariposa lilly

And what does all this record keeping tell us? Jake Weltzin, executive director of the USA National Phenology Network and an ecologist with the USGS says, “There is a study coming out every week showing changes are occurring.” Lilacs in North America are leafing out and flowering earlier. Bee species in the Northeast are emerging earlier to

© Katherine Eagleson (3)

Katherine Eagleson

Painted lady butterfly, a member of the Monarch family

match earlier flowering plants. Data collected on leafing dates of oak indicate that first emergence is eight days earlier now than 250 years ago; however, most of the changes have happened in the last 100 years. This corresponds to temperature records that show a 1.5 degree Celsius increase. And one more: Richard Fritter recorded the first flowering date for 557 British species for 40 years. His data indicates that 385 of these are flowering 4.5 days earlier in the last decade than in the previous four decades.

So what? If the flowers bloom earlier and the bees emerge earlier, what difference does it make? There are problems, mismatches. Some species react to day length rather than temperatures. This is especially true for bird migration and some insect breeding. When this mismatch occurs it leaves insects without food and plants without pollinators. The birds may fare better than the insect/pollen relationship. Research in Maine shows only a modest relationship between climate change and spring arrival dates for 107 species of migratory birds. Perhaps migrants are more resilient to climate change. Other mismatches can occur. Consider the ptarmigan and the snowshoe hare, who change their appearance to better blend with a seasonal environment. Early snowmelt or late beginnings of winter can leave some of these critters conspicuous.

In the Arctic, where many birds migrate to breed and raise young, the problem might be dire. Ingrid Tulp

and Hans Schekkerman of the Arctic Institute of North America are studying arthropods. What they have found is that peak abundance of arthropods was seven days earlier in 2003 than in 1973. If you are a hungry arctic bird trying to feed babies, missing peak abundance is the difference between a successful breeding season and a failed season.

Insects without food and plants without pollinators The Environmental Protection Agency has an extensive document titled “Climate Change Indicators in the United States.” It relates that the earlier arrival of spring may result in a number of changes: a longer growing season, more abundant invasive species and pests and earlier and longer allergy seasons. Ouch!

More data will make for better understanding of the extent of climate change, the effects and what kinds of management plans can be designed to help species survive the changes. Humans have been paying close attention to the rhythms of nature for all of our history. It was a matter of our well-being, our very survival. It still is. i Katherine Eagleson is executive director of The Wildlife Center, located near Española, NM. The center works to protect NM’s wildlife and their habitats.

505.753.9505, www.thewildlifecenter. org

June 2013 • GreenFireTimes

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Green Fire Times is also available at many locations in the metropolitan Albuquerque / Río Rancho area!

For the location nearest you, call Nick García at 505-304-2638

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Green Fire Times • June 2013

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2013 Greenbuilt Tour • The Green Revue See how the built environment can contribute to a healthier, more sustainable community.

T

he annual Greenbuilt Tour, presented by the US Green Building Council — NM Chapter — on June 8-9, highlights building practices that are attractive, practical and affordable. There are 18 homes on this year’s tour, from Albuquerque, Río Rancho, Placitas, Sandia Park, Santa Fe, Lamy to Abiquiú and Valdez. They were selected as examples of the whole-house design approach, integrating tight construction and energy-efficient building envelopes with healthy indoor living environments. There are examples of passive solar design; straw bale, pumicecrete, and adobe construction; innovative heating and cooling systems, including geothermal, cooled slabs, and whole-house ventilation strategies; and sensitive site design focused on minimizing impact to the landscape. After conscientiously reducing energy consumption, several homes also integrate renewable onsite energy production, further reducing load on the utility grid.

Many different approaches are used in building green. Some of the homes on the tour show off the technology and unique building materials, while others employ clean and well-considered integrated designs that allow the homes to look like any other— though they function much more ef-

ficiently. Some homes are designed to allow the owners to age in place, with consideration of future mobility issues. Some homes have small footprints, demonstrating the efficient use of space. Whatever the approach, the tour has good examples of homes that minimize energy and water use, while maximizing health and comfort.

The owners/occupants of the homes have agreed to open their doors for visitors to learn about the sustainable features of each structure. Information sheets will be available at each home, providing the names of suppliers and contractors who were used. In some cases, representatives of these firms may be present to answer technical questions.

The entry fee for each home is $2 per person, payable at the door. A tour pass allowing unlimited home visits is available for $15 through the USGBC-NM website: www.usgbc nm.org/GBT2013. A downloadable guidebook is also available there, or it may be picked up at La Montañita Co-op and Whole Foods in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The tour will be preceded by an awards reception ($25). For reception reservations, visit the website and click on chapter events, calendar view and June 7. i

Cooper Residence—Sandia Park This home has many impressive features. The goal was to design a residence with minimal impact on the site, use materials as efficiently as possible and have a low-carbon footprint. It is oriented due south; all southern-facing windows are properly shaded. Rainwater is harvested into a 5,000-gallon underground cistern system and then pumped to a drip irrigation system. The home was designed for good interior air quality. One hundred percent of the heating, cooling and domestic water heating are supplied by a ground-source heat pump powered by a grid-tied 9.9 kW PV array. www.GreenFireTimes.com

Casa de KP3—Albuquerque This design accommodates merging three different households, including a home office, and provides both common spaces and private indoor/outdoor spaces for each. It has dual-flush/low-flow fixtures with solar thermal domestic hot water plumbing in the central core. The home has a direct-gain passive solar design, along with grid-tied 3 kW PV and movable shade structures. It has a tight, well-insulated exterior as well as high-efficiency doors and windows and a cool metal roof. Designed from a permaculture perspective, the house and landscape are an integrated system that works with the natural features of the site.

Calkins Residence Albuquerque This home, an existing house wrapped in strawbales with added insulation, was built with regional and salvaged materials. Solar panels provide 90 percent of the heating and cooling.

South-facing greenhouse windows collect heat in the winter. The second floor addition provides lots of daylight and great views of the Sandias. Gray water from the upstairs bathroom and 1,400-gallon rainwater collection systems supplement city water for landscape irrigation.

Villa Nueva Senior Apartments Sawmill Albuquerque This 46-unit complex features all native landscaping with some permeable pavement, a fruit orchard and community garden w i t h a r a i n w a t e rcollection system for irrigating the site. It’s energy-efficient in that it uses solar hot water for laundry and passive heating, plus it features ENERGY STAR® windows, doors and appliances, along with programmable thermostats. This project was built on a reclaimed brownfield site adjacent to a community park. It integrates seniors into the neighborhood fabric of residences for all ages and incomes.

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

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Chill Factor: C o o l R o o fs Earl James

I

t’s summer. A hot and dry one. You’re outside gardening until the heat becomes too much and you head inside to chill, but the heat is radiating down on you, so you turn on the swamp cooler or air conditioner. Then you remember last month’s electric bill and you turn the coolers off and look for a fan that uses less electricity, and you wonder, “Isn’t there a better way to live?”

Yes there is! It’s as easy as painting your roof white, but not with off-the-shelf house paint! According to local independent contractor John Grisak, there are over 1,000 products available to turn your roof white, and many have added benefits of sealing your roof tightly against rain for up to 15 years. And if you have solar collectors, a white roof will increase the amount of sunlight hitting them, and you can receive a federal tax credit at the same time.

But other than that, it’s hit or miss around the state. Granted, we don’t have any heat islands that can compete with Phoenix (thank goodness), but Albuquerque has a mega-load of flat roofs, and even one flat roof (yours?) can reflect tons of heat back skyward.

White roof coatings can help cool your house.

Neither Bernalillo County nor Santa Fe County has a public outreach program on cool-roof initiatives. The city of Albuquerque uses a menu of options homeowners can select from to qualify for their green building/green path program, but no cool-roof initiatives, per se. NM’s big power utility, PNM, has the federal ENERGY STAR program and tax credit page on its website, but other than that, no specific program promoting making your roof white.

In the city of Santa Fe, while certain areas of the city have color restrictions on roofing to satisfy aesthetic or historic concerns, the majority of the city does not have such restrictions, so there’s a lot of potential cooling effect there. But discussion of color restrictions for your flat roof in historic districts or covenantcontrolled homeowner association developments brings up an interesting note.

While white roofs are usually rated as the most reflective, there are several other colors of reflective roofing membranes available. Of the hundreds of cool-roof membrane products and suppliers on the market, I randomly picked one company — Kemper System — that offers six colors of reflective membranes, including white. I’ve listed their reflectivity ratings for comparison:

A Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study showed that every 1,000 square feet of roof area turned from a dark color to white is equivalent to offsetting the emission of one ton of heat trapping, atmospheric CO2.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Painting your roof white to cool your house is not a heat-induced fantasy but a booming business that has caught the imagination and budget of government agencies and cities like New York, which claims to have cooled 3,671,000 square feet of city roofs in its effort to reduce the oppressive “heat island” effect of so many concrete roadways and black tar roofs radiating mega-degrees of heat upwards.

This solution has been around since at least the 1990s, and it’s been an effective way for some cities to attack the urban heat-island problem by covering flat roofs with white liquid-applied membrane roof coatings that can cut roof temperatures from 60 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a lot of heat reflected back upwards before it can creep down into your granulated tar paper covering, into the plaster or wallboard of your interior ceilings and down on your head, reducing the electricity needed to run your air conditioner in the summer by as much as 30 percent.

The federal government’s Energy Star program offers tax credits of 10 percent of the cost of approved cool roof materials up to a maximum of $500. To evaluate and rate the various products on the market, there is the nonprofit Cool Roof Rating Council, made up of industry experts as well as officials from the California Energy Commission. Arizona has established its own Cool Roof Council to promote and educate homeowners and contractors about this very effective practice.

So what about New Mexico? John Grisak tells me that El Paso has bitten the apple. Log on to GoogleEarth, hover and take a look, but wear dark glasses so you’re not blinded by the light reflecting back up at you! Okay, now remove those dark glasses and travel up to Albuquerque where there are several commercial buildings and a few residential buildings with whiter roofs, but overall a small minority. Now go up to Santa Fe — and weep. Virtually none.

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Cool Mint Cool Adobe Cool Frost Cool Steel Cool Earth Cool White

72% 75% 71% 63% 70% 74%

Another supplier, LaPolla Industries, offers Thermo-Flex white coating and claims 86 percent reflectivity. Shop around. The point being made here of course Covering flat roofs with white liquid-applied membrane is that your cool roof roof coatings can cut typical roof temperatures from 60 to doesn’t have to be white 100 degrees Fahrenheit to give you some relief.

You can take that to your Homeowners Association or Historic District bureaucrats and have a good argument.

So, whom to go to for more information on beating the rapidly increasing heat of NM’s new climate? Given the hit-or-miss nature of finding information on the merits of going white — or reflective — and the fact that there is no listing of contractors in NM who have a verifiable track record in applying the best environmentally compatible reflective coatings, New Mexicans could use a coolroof information clearinghouse. Surely no more than a one-person office, such a service could be created and supported by a small gaggle of suppliers, contractors and government energy-efficiency gurus.

But what does it cost to have 60-100 degrees of heat reflected away from your rooftop, and one ton of heat trapping, atmospheric CO2 offset by every 1,000 square feet of white roof? Getting back to John Grisak for some figures, I find that he charges anywhere from $2 per square foot to $4 per square foot, depending upon the degree of surface preparation necessary. So a 2,500 square foot roof would cost from $5,000 to $10,000, minus the tax credit — not a small investment. But John says his experience with this process shows him that a white continued on page

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Cool Roofs continued from page 29

liquid-applied membrane coating will last 15 years, not only reflecting heat but also tightly sealing the roof against leaks. And, if you reapply the top layer of coating (it’s applied in layers) at the 10-year mark (at 1/4th of the original cost), the roof is good for another 10 years. And, he says the roofing membrane he uses is water-based (no solvents), has a 600-psi strength that resists hail and fixes the problem of ponding, which is the cause of most roof failures.

I asked John how NM compares to Houston, where he has worked before, and he said: “While the only flat roofs in Houston are commercial roofs, they get it, and white commercial roofs abound. But in NM, cool roofing seems to be a closely held secret. I’m also an insurance adjustor, and I’ve been on a lot on NM roofs and believe me, they’re all the old heat-absorbing black roofs, where temperatures reach 160-170 degrees. It’s crazy that the white roof alternative hasn’t been promoted more here.”

Amen. i Earl James is a nonprof it development consultant living near Santa Fe. Contact info and information on his novel: Bella Coola: The Rainforest Brought Them Home, which recently won a 2013 Nautilus Silver book award, is available at www.earldjames.com

RESOURCES: • D OE’s Energy Star Program: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_ credits.tx_index).

• Article on Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory study: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/ sep2008/2008-09-23-01.asp • Cool Roof Rating Council: (http://www. coolroofs.org/) • Arizona Cool Roof Council: http://www. azcoolroof.com/ • Albuquerque’s Green Path Program: w w w. c a b q. go v / p l a n n i n g / d o c u m e n t s / GreenPathApplicationCriteriaIncentives 2011112911.pdf • Kemper System: http://www.kemper-system. com/US/eng/products/cool-roof-colors/ • LaPolla Industries Thermo-Flex: http:// www.lapolla.com/images/map/_THTD11.pdf • John Grisak: www.fixthisflatroof.com or call 505.919.8011 • James A. Mokres Co. Roofer: 505.470.6124

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Green Fire Times • June 2013

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OP-ED

Mora County Community Rights Law Self-Determination Kathleen Dudley

W

hat do you do when the choice is obvious, but when the decision resulting from this choice challenges the law, the status quo and the popular culture?

Such a choice was put before the Mora County Commission this past April. In spite of this conflict, Chair John Olivas and Vice-chair Alfonso Griego voted to pass into law a “Bill of Rights” protecting citizens’ health, safety and welfare over complying with state and federal legal doctrines that give “big oil” the privileged rights to drill and frack Mora County.

The end of slavery, the recognition of women’s rights and the civil rights movement began as grassroots challenges that ultimately effected constitutional change. The action taken by Olivas and Griego is likewise a challenge aimed at changing the Constitution. Twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution, which reflect the “living” nature of the “law of the land,” emphasize a clear legal process for Mora County Commission Chair John Olivas such challenges.

The Mora County Community Water Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance bans all oil and gas extraction. It also addresses the fact that the current regulatory system of law created on behalf of industry guarantees corporations’ access into New Mexico counties. State and federal government issuance of permits to corporations legalize corporate development and affords them protection for such development under four main legal doctrines — the Contracts and Commerce Clause, Dillion’s Rule, Preemption and Corporate Personhood. Each doctrine affords privileged rights to corporations, in essence subordinating the rights of people and municipal corporations (counties) to those of corporate rights.

These doctrines assure development within counties regardless the majority decision within the county. Mora County’s community rights law nullifies each of the legal doctrines and asserts and enforces the rights of the people and nature above those rights afforded corporations.

The New Mexico State Constitution, Article 2, declares that all governing authority is derived from the people. The vote by the Mora County Commission expresses a clear and authoritative ‘voice’, not only to challenge these doctrines, but to subsequently work towards changing such laws that are not serving them. The New Mexico state statutes give municipalities the authority and the legal vehicle to enact such ordinances.

Both state and federal government promote the “endless production of more” through the regulatory system of law, while exposing counties to corporate harm and denying them their rights to a local sustainable energy future, the rights to protect their ecosystems, the right to self-government and democracy.

Through the assistance of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and its innovative educating and legal strategy, it became possible for Mora County citizens to collaboratively write this rights-based law.

CELDF is a nonprofit public interest law firm that provides free legal services to communities working towards sustainable energy futures and self-governance.

The people became empowered to assert their rights to say “no” to state-assisted corporate fracking through CELDF’s Democracy School teaching, along with local educational forums by the grassroots organization Drilling Mora County. It became clear that neither the state and federal government nor corporations have the right to violate their rights — that birth rights are inherent to the living — and that asserting these rights was not only the duty of the people, but their right. And that true democracy is the right to say “no.”

Chris Velásquez and Richard

Frésquez at a Mora County

Through the educational process, the nature of Commission meeting. Said the problem was revealed: “We do not have a Valásquez of his experience in fracking problem, we have a democracy prob- San Juan County, “Once they lem.” That the people “are being denied the fun- start their engines, it’s all over.” damental right to self-government” in their own communities became clear and a guiding principle upon which the people began asserting their rights.

Currently five law firms from across the country have pledged their support to the Mora County Commission for the new “Bill of Rights.”Last month, the Mora County Commission retained Thomas Linzey, senior legal counsel, CELDF, to defend its local law. The law firm has agreed to provide pro bono representation to the county.

Today, Mora County joins with over 150 other communities across the country, including the City of Las Vegas, which passed a “Bill of Rights” banning fracking in 2012, the first in the Southwest, and the City of Pittsburgh, which passed its law in 2010. These communities are asserting their right to local self-governance through the adoption of local laws that seek to control corporate activities within their municipality.

In order to assert self-determination on the county level, the work goes well beyond passing a local ordinance. It requires that counties from across the state join in solidarity with Mora County and pass similar “Bills of Rights,” which time a New Mexico State Constitutional Amendment can be passed to “write out” corporate personhood.

It takes local elected officials who will stand up for the rights of their citizens over complying with state-abetted and court-granted privileges of personhood assigned to corporations. That requires an unusual elected official who possesses courage and clarity of purpose. And it is happening. i Kathleen Dudley is the board chair for the New Mexico Coalition for Community Rights and the CELDF community rights organizer for New Mexico. kathleendudley@nmccr.org

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Everyday Green continued from page 19 animals, kill them without need, steal the food they had stored for winter, and arrogantly mistreat them in various ways.

Western attitudes toward Indigenous cultures that have traditionally afforded kinship to the entire animal world.

SG: What is Native American respect for animal species?

GC: Humans’ relationship to animals and our participation in their world bring forward our innermost instinctual selves, the highest in the order of our biological senses and being, and the core element of our consciousness.

Traditional peoples around the world have incorporated this sense into their relationship with animals, as they see all animal species as having equal rights to life and a place on Earth.

For Native people, knowledge of animals was important to all aspects of their lives. Learning about animals was a lifelong task integrated in every aspect of tribal life. Practical knowledge included characteristics of animal behavior, anatomy, feeding patterns, breeding and migration. All of these expressions of relationship to the animal world provided rich teaching in a variety of experiences that Indigenous people understood in both practical and philosophical ways. They applied these in a direct process to help each individual “become fully human.”

We who live in contemporary cultures have largely disassociated ourselves from our natural instinct for affiliation with other forms of life. The oncesacred Earth community that nurtures human life has become “outside,” a place filled with malevolent natural forces that must be controlled or otherwise guarded against. Fear, control and exploitation of the “outside” or the other as enemy is deeply embedded in the psychology of Western society.

To this end, much of modern science and technology has been mobilized to guard against or to war against the other, be it a mountain, a forest people, a religion or the world of insects. From ideas in books and films, through education, government and science, the message and therefore the practiced belief has been one of fear and the need for domination and control of nature—its plants, animals, insects, and even its microorganisms. We have been conditioned to act, think, and project prejudicially toward animals, and as for the insects, we lack both the emotional and intellectual appreciation that would bring forward any true appreciation for their role and importance in the natural order.

SG: What can American culture learn from the Native American worldview of animals?

GC: Native cultures have much to teach non-Native cultures from their inclusive view of life—about listening to the “noise of the infinite in the small.”

All animals—including insects—are necessary for the ecological functioning of the biosphere and the survival of all living things. The known benefits of the honeybee, earthworm, silkworm, ladybug, various beetles, ants and spiders balance out their perceived harmfulness to humans.

An entire species may be condemned to extinction if humans deem behavior or appearance unacceptable. This is the prevailing modern Western cultural attitude toward animals. In many ways this attitude has also characterized

SG: What is your message to the world for survival in the 21st century?

GC: We have little awareness that globally there is the equivalent of a biological “holocaust” in play, and that every day the Earth experiences the extinction of hundreds of microbiota, plants, insects and animal species. The biodiversity of life is dwindling, and with its loss we lose profound modes of natural spirit. In ignoring the health and viability of the biological web of life upon which we depend, we incur a real but largely hidden danger; in the life of the land on this planet lies our human lives. We ignore these relationships at our own peril.

There are two quintessential interdependent issues facing people in the 21st century, and both are fundamentally about relationship. The first is how we are going to deal with the environmental crisis, or how will we relate in a proper, sustainable way to plants, animals and the Earth. The second is how we are going to deal with each other in a proper, respectful way that acknowledges our common interdependence. Biological diversity and cultural diversity are both issues of relationship. i Gregory Cajete, Ph.D., a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, is also the editor of A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living; and the author of Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education and Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Model.

Susan Guyette, Ph.D. is Métis (Micmac Indian and Acadian French) and a planner specializing in New Mexico cultural tourism, cultural centers, museums and native foods for the past 27 years. She is the author of Sustainable Cultural Tourism: Small-Scale Solutions; Planning for Balanced Development: A Guide for Native American and Rural Communities; co-author of Zen Birding: Connect in Nature, and the author of several texts for Native American Studies. www.susanguyette.com

Keeping Wildlife Alive continued from page 14 missions benefiting land, people and wildlife.

Working directly with individual private landowners on wildlife enhancement and ecosystem restoration will leave a legacy of conservation on the land. Direct examples of this kind of work can be seen in the Galisteo Basin, in Albuquerque’s South Valley, in the new Río Mora Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area, and in the recently dedicated Río Grande del Norte National Monument. Conservation work can be scaled from one acre to thousands to allow a full range of land-

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owners to participate in a meaningful way—making contributions to the larger landscape of northern NM one property at a time.

Finally, resources that offer opportunities for getting out of doors, such as public trails, will aid in raising public awareness of the needs for connecting open space areas across the landscape. Combined with limiting development on land through conservation easements, providing nighttime friendly lighting for many species, land-use planning based on the needs of wildlife, and consulting with our neighbors who

Green Fire Times • June 2013

make their living from the land, we have a broad spectrum of meaningful stewardship tools to help ensure that we can hem in the impacts of our modern lifestyle to help the animal kingdom stay connected. i Jan-Willem Jansens is coordinator of New Mexico Wildways and director of Ecotone, which offers conservation planning for landscapes in transition.

505.470.2531, jwjansens@gmail.com.

Charlie O’Leary is executive director of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust.

505.989.7019, info@sfct. org, http://sfct.org

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JAIN STUDY CIRCULAR THE JAIN STUDY CIRCULAR HAS BEEN POSTED AT WWW.JAINSTUDY.ORG.

Please go our website and study the articles presented in the new issue.

We welcome your comments and suggestions.

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continued from page 15

environmental groups, spent two years developing best management practices (BMPs) for wind and transmission development pertaining to the potential impacts to 12 wildlife species or habitat issues, including fragmentation. One theme that resonated throughout the NMWWC process was the lack of data to develop sensible BMPs that would adequately advise the industry on how to minimize development or operational impacts.

The Crucial Habitat Analysis Tool currently being developed by Natural Heritage New Mexico (UNM) with support from the NM Department of Game and Fish is intended to help guide regional management and planning, primarily in preparation for energy development. The model designates crucial habitat based on square-mile hexagons evaluated for wildlife occurrences, modeled habitat, landscape condition and corridor metrics. However, like most models developed at this coarse scale, no field verification is planned. Field data collection, such as the effort underway in at least one identified corridor, the Galisteo Wildway, is essential to confirm model predictions. Unfortunately, this level of calibration is rare, and the result may be a product that does a disservice to both the resource and the industry by designating large sensitive habitat areas without the

advantage of verification. Unlike ungulates in the Serengeti or in portions of the great northern plains in the US, wildlife species in NM rarely travel across large landscapes, but are more likely to use smaller, narrower corridors.

Knowledge of where these corridors occur can help avoid or minimize the impacts from energy development. Therefore, it is essential that funding of field data collection be required of utility- and energy companies in the planning of future transmission to maintain landscape permeability for wildlife and ensure the viability of NM’s rich biodiversity. i Pete David is a senior project manager at SWCA Environmental Consultants. He is author of Mother Nature’s Son, and a member of New Mexico Wildways. Email pdavid@swca.com

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© Jan-Willem Jansens

Transmission Corridors

NEWSBITEs “Dramatic Decline” Warning for Plants and Animals

A paper published last month in the journal Nature Climate Change says that more than half of common plant species and a third of animals could see a serious decline in their habitat range because of climate change. Scientists quoted in the paper say, however, that the losses can be reduced if rapid action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

A separate new study has found that frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians in the US are dying off so quickly that they could disappear from half their habitats in the next 20 years. Some of the more endangered populations may be gone in six years, including ancient species that have survived all kinds of changes. The nine-year survey by scientists from the US Geological Survey Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative examined population trends for 48 species at 34 ponds, streams and other sites across the country. Most were on public lands with some level of protection.

It has been known since the 1990s that the amphibian populations were declining, but this is the first time the decline has been measured. The causes of this global phenomenon may include a combination of disease, atmospheric changes, pollutants, non-native invasive species, habitat loss and climate change.

Amphibians control pests, feed other animals and help make ecosystems function. They also inspire new medicines.

Youth To Be Employed on Public Lands Conservation Projects

New Mexico and Arizona are among the states that will receive federal grants to hire young people to work on conservation project on public lands. $4.2 million in competitive grants will go toward hiring more than 600 people between the ages of 15 and 25 to work on 22 projects throughout the West. The grants reflect the Obama administration’s efforts to develop a 21st-century Conservation Service Corps.

In NM, over a 48-day period, low-income and tribal youth from the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps will partner with the State Land Office, the NM Department of Game and Fish and the BLM to stimulate aspen regeneration and restore mule-deer habitat in the Wind Mountain area. In a separate project, the BLM will work with the YouthWorks New Conservationists crew on restoration projects north and south of Santa Fe. This will include fire-restoration, invasive-species removal, native-species planting, watershed restoration and protection of public lands threatened by illegal activities such as dumping and off-roading.

March Against Monsanto

On May 25, about 300 people marched from the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market to the state capitol in a “March Against Monsanto.” Similar marches took place in 52 countries and 436 cities to protest the giant chemical and seed corporation’s genetically engineered (GE) and genetically modified (GMO) crops.

Critics say that GMOs and their accompanying herbicides can lead to serious health conditions in humans and animals. Monsanto’s popular herbicide Roundup may be “the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment,” according to a recent scientific peer-reviewed study published in the journal Entropy.

Monsanto generates about 90 percent of GMO seeds, and has spent millions lobbying against GMO labeling in the US (A labeling bill in the 2013 NM Legislature was quickly derailed). Labeling is required by the EU and in many other countries. At least 60 countries worldwide have a complete ban on biotech food products.

Critics also decry Monsanto’s business practices. Monsanto is the largest among 10 corporations that have collectively cornered the global market on seeds. Monsanto uses patent rights to sue small farmers when their fields

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have been contaminated with pollen from nearby GMO farms. There are also questions about “bio-piracy” of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources.

A revolving door allegedly exists between Monsanto and US regulatory and judicial bodies. The Senate recently rejected a bill that would have allowed states to require labeling of GMO foods. In March, the Farmer Assurance Provision (the “Monsanto Protection Act”) was quietly slipped into a stopgap federal spending bill designed to avert a government shutdown. The rider prohibits federal courts from halting the sale of GE/GMO seeds and shelters the agribusiness from litigation.

NM Acequias: Tradition & Adaptation Conference

The New Mexico Acequia Association is hosting a statewide acequia conference, New Mexico Acequias: Tradition & Adaptation, at Santa Fe Community College on June 26. The daylong event will include the premiere of The Art of Mayordomia, a short film produced by the NMAA’s Mayordomo Project, a community-based collaboration intended to foster the transmission of knowledge from one generation of mayordomos to the next. The film intertwines excerpts of wisdom from mayordomos in different acequia communities throughout northern NM with a Jémez Springs mayordoma-in-training who shadows her father in his role as mayordomo, following a seasonal calendar of activities and duties.

The conference will also provide information about various acequia governance topics such as Water Rights from the Acequia Perspective, Acequia Easements, and a commissioner training. For more info, visit www.lasacequias.org

Rights of Nature Workshop – July 26-28

Explore the foundational principles of the rising global Rights of Nature movement and examine case studies in a workshop in Santa Fe led by noted authors Osprey Orielle Lake and Shannon Biggs. From Mora County, New Mexico, to the nations of Ecuador and Bolivia, communities are restoring the ancient cross-cultural narrative that trees, rivers, animals and mountains have a right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate their vital cycles—just as humans do.

The movement is creating a legal basis to gain recognition for damages done and to protect local ecosystems by elevating the rights of nature above corporate rights. In 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to include Rights of Nature in its national constitution. The workshop will include a facilitated community conversation about how to support and advance these initiatives in NM. Lake is the founder and president of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus, cochair of International Advocacy for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and author of Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. Biggs is director of the Community Rights program at Global Exchange and co-author of the award-winning book Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots.

The July 26-28 workshop will take place from 7-9 pm on Friday, 10-5 on Saturday and 10-12:30 on Sunday. It is being offered on a sliding scale from $50-$300 to facilitate scholarships for community members. For more information or to register, call 505.986.9232 or email info@allianceforearth.org.

Grants Support Local Producers, Bio-Based Initiatives

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the selection of 110 grants to agricultural producers and rural businesses to help create jobs and develop new products. “These awards will advance USDA’s goals to develop a bio-based economy and support local and regional food systems,” Vilsack said.

Three of the projects selected for the USDA Rural Development Value-Added Producer Grants are from New Mexico: • Old Wood LLC in Las Vegas will use a $300,000 working capital award to expand sales of its unique, engineered-panel and wood-block flooring made from small-diameter trees.

• Mt. Taylor Machine, LLC in Milan will use $200,000 in working capital to manufacture boards and beams from lumber made from trees harvested under National Forest access rights derived through the Wild Turkey Federation.

• Comida De Campos, Inc. of Embudo received $49,927 to add value to its vegetable- and fruit/berry operation by creating fresh-packaged, ready-toeat salad, vegetable and fruit entrees to be sold at refrigerated vending machines located at health-conscious locations such as hospitals, clinics and other locations.

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What's Going On! Events / Announcements June 7, 6-8 pm Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance George Pearl Hall, UNM School of Architecture and Planning, Central NE and UNM Cornell Mall

ALBUQUERQUE June 1-30

This Time, This Place Exhibition Open Space Visitor Center 6500 Coors NW

Photo exhibit by local photographers of Open Space lands: the West Mesa, the Río Grande Valley and bosque, foothills of the Sandias. Reception: 6/8, 3-5 pm

June 3-8, 10 am-4:30 pm BeeSWeek 2013 UNM Science & Math Learning Cntr.

Scientific and Community Panel Forums.

Four panel discussions focus on the design and implementation of a solutions-based sustainable industrial pollination framework to protect the N. American food supply. 6/3: Organic beekeeper Tomás Urrea, author Dr. Valerie Solheim; 6/4 keynote: permaculturalist Dr. Paul Wheaton. Tickets: $18-$25.

510.213.4402, alishatheexplorer@gmail.com

June 3, 10-11 am Wildlife Habitat Garden Tour ABQ Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE

Free guided tour presented by the Xeric Garden Club of ABQ. The garden’s native, xeric plants support indigenous wildlife as well as migratory birds. A master gardener will explain the importance of creating and preserving wildlife habitats. www.xericgardenclub.org

June 5, 8:30 am-4:30 pm Recycling Professionals Training

The goal is to empower professionals in the recycling field to reach out to their communities to increase recycling rates and to provide tools to successfully manage recycling programs. $100. Scholarships and CEUs available. Presented by the NM Recycling Coalition. 505.603.0558, www. recyclenewmexico.com

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

Network with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues. Featured guest speaker: Matt Schmader, Supt. of ABQ Open Space.

Hosted by the Albuquerque & Río Rancho Green Chamber of Commerce. Info: 505.244.3700, lindsay@nmgreenchamber. com

Author/permaculturalist Brad Lancaster will discuss Integrated Rainwater Harvesting. Followed by a reception with Lancaster and the event sponsors, Erda Gardens and Learning Center, Kalyx Studio, Querencia Green, and UNM Sustainability Studies Program. Free. 505.610.1538, info@kalyxstudio.com

June 8-9 New Mexico GreenBuilt Tour

Albuquerque to Taos. (See story, page 27).

Green Leaf Awards ceremony June 7.

505.410.7703, http://www.usgbcnm.org

June 9, 10 am-4 pm Hands-on Earthworks and Acequia Workshop Kalyx Studio Learning Center (South Valley)

Author/permaculturalist Brad Landcaster (www.harvestingrainwater.com) will lead this workshop on designing and building water harvesting earthworks.

505.452.9975, info@kalyxstudio.com

June 10-12 Developing Tribal Energy Resources and Economies Sandia Resort and Casino

Tribal lands make up about 5 percent of the land in the US, but hold up to 15 percent of the nation’s energy resources. Conference topics: right-of-way negotiations with utility companies, self-generation of energy for tribal communities, and deep shale exploration and development. $495. 505.924.2820, www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default. aspx?EventID=1155048

June 20, 5:30-7:30 pm TrekWest Public Event

S. Broadway Cultural Center 1025 Broadway Blvd., SE “Say Yes to Wildlife Corridors” A presentation by Trekker John Davis. Other speakers: Dave Foreman, Kim Vacariu, Jan-Willem Jansens and local officials.

Food, live music. Free. (See story, page 11) kim@wildlandsnetwork.org, www.TrekWest.org

June 21, 9-10 am TrekWest Video Interview Placitas Wildlife Mural, Placitas Recycling Center, half-mile east of I-25 exit 242 (Bernalillo 550 exit east)

Interview with John Davis about the mural, “Protect Our Wildlife Corridors.”

Free. 4winged@gmail.com, www.pathway swc.wordpress.com

June 5, 7 pm Native Plants Presentation

NM Museum of Natural History 1801 Mountain NW Ted Hodoba, project manager of the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area near Belén will present a free program about native plants of the area. Sponsored by the ABQ chapter of the Native Plant Society of NM. Info: npsnm.org

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June 22, 2 pm Regional Acequia Workshop Historic Hubble House 6029 Isleta Blvd. SW

Topics: water management, policy issues, easements, irrigation. Presentations about services and benefits from USDA programs for small farmers. www.southvalleyacequias.org

June 23, 1 pm Jack Loeffler Presentation Albuquerque Museum 200 Mountain Rd. NW

Loeffler, a writer, aural historian and radio producer, will give a talk on our changing relationship with the landscape. Museum admission fee. 505.242.4600,

June 29, 10 am-12 pm Pollination Gardening Class 3435 Stanford Dr. NE

Led by Loretta McGrath. $10 suggested donation. Presented by Home Grown NM and Skarsgard Farms Urban Agriculture Education Center. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico@gmail.com

July 3, 5:30-7:30 pm Green Drinks

Hotel Andaluz, 125 2nd St. NW Network with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues. Hosted by the Albuquerque & Río Rancho Green Chamber of Commerce. Info: 505.244.3700, lindsay@nmgreenchamber.com

June 2, 1-3 pm Outdoor Cooking SF Community Farm (Agua Fría & San Ysidro Xing)

Lois Harvie will teach how to use your vegetables. Free or $10 donation. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico@gmail.com

June 2, 3 pm Black Sheep Reading Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie

Robert Covelli reads a compelling section of his novel. Free. covelli@cybermesa.com

June 3, 5-8 pm WildEarth Guardians Gathering 516 Alto Street

Info/RSVP: 505.988.9126, ext. 0. Free.

June 4, 3-5 pm Eldorado/285 Recycles

Eldorado area recycling advocacy group monthly meeting. All welcome.

505.570.0583, joseigner@gmail.com

June 6, 5:30-7:30 pm Business Awards Red Carpet Gala SF Farmers’ Market Building

Recognizing accomplished SF businesses.

VIPs, business and community leaders. $30 at the door or www.santafechamber.com.

Info: 505.988-3279, bridget@santafechamber.com

Through Oct. 9:30 am-2:30 pm Xeriscape Garden Club ABQ Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE

June 8, 22, 9-11 am Let’s Grow SF County Fairgrounds

SANTA FE

June 8, 9 am-4:30 pm Embracing the Human Tsunami

Families are invited to visit the Wildlife Habitat Garden. Hands-on activities for children to learn about wildlife habitats and the importance of pollinators. Free. www. xericgardenclub.org

Through Jan. 5, 2014 New World Cuisine: Histories of Chocolate, Maté y Mas Museum of International Folk Art

Exhibit focuses on the mixing of food cultures in the Americas. 505.476.1200, internationalfolkart.org

Through March 16, 2014 Cowboys Real and Imagined NM History Museum

Free gardening series offered every second Saturday through September, sponsored by the Master Gardener Association. sfmga. org/events-calendar

Turn chaos and confusion into creative action. Training from the Emotional Sustainability Series led by Katherine Paras, L.P.A.T., mind-body healing consultant. $125. 505.690.0078

June 8, 1-3:30 pm Color Therapy for Your Garden SFCF, 501 Halona St.

This exhibit explores NM’s contribution to the cowboys of both myth and reality from the 1600s to the present day.

Learn the benefits of using colors in the landscape to influence well-being. $45. Info: susan@bauercombs.com, registration: www.

BigDogSeminars.com

June 1-2 Spring Festival/Children’s Fair El Rancho de las Golandrinas La Ciénega

June 9, 1-4 pm Medicine from the Kitchen Milagro Community Garden (Legacy & Rodeo Rd.)

505.471.2261, www.golandrinas.org

June 2, 10 am-5 pm Savor the Flavor Festival Museum of Intl. Folk Art, 706 Cam. Lejo

Locally owned NM food businesses will operate booths offering food for sample and sale. Presented by Delicious NM and the MOIFA. Cooking demos and a book fair.

Free for NM residents and children 16 and under.

Learn about herbal remedies with Jessie Emerson, RN. RSVP: 505.473.1403, www. homegrownnewmexico.org

June 9, 1-4 pm SF Botanical Garden Tour

“From historic to panoramic.” Discover an intimate natural garden, a sculpture garden and a critter-defying garden.

Tickets: 505.988.1234, ticketssantafe.org. $35adv./$40 at-the-gate. www.santafebotanicalgarden.org

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June 10, 5-9 pm Solarize the Tesuque Fire Station Andiamo

Benefit dinner to support New Energy Economy’s campaign to install solar panels. Reservations: 505.995.9595, www.andiamosantafe.com

June 13, 26, 5:45-7:15 pm Local Organic Meals on a Budget Kitchen Angels, 1222 Siler Rd.

Meals that can be cooked at home in harmony with the seasons. Classes run the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month through December featuring well-known local chefs, including Erin Wade (Vinaigrette), Ahmed Obo ( Jambo Café), Roland Richter ( Joe’s Dining), Kim Muller (formerly of Real Food Nation), Lois Ellen Frank (Red Mesa Catering) and Patrick Lambert (The Cowgirl) and many others. Advance registration required. www.localorganicmeals.com

June 15, 10 am-12 pm Pollination and Bees Class SF Skies (end of Cerrillos Rd.)

With Ken Bower. Food provided. $10 suggested donation. RSVP: 505.473.1403, www. homegrownnewmexico.org

June 15, 10 am-2 pm Arid Land Restoration

Instructor: Amanda Bramble. $50.

Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, 505.780.0535, www.ampersandproject.org

June 15, 3-11 pm FantaSe Festival DeVargas Park

Creative Santa Fe hosts a celebration of the re-opening of DeVargas Park, and a revisioning of future development of Parque del Rio to promote walkability and sustainability. Free. Follows the Rodeo de Santa Fe parade.

June 15, 6-10 pm Buckaroo Ball Buffalo Thunder Resort, Pojoaque

Dancing to Asleep at the Wheel. Benefits nonprofits in SF County. Tickets: 505.988.9715, ext. 7020 or www.santafecf.org

June 16, 10 am-12 pm Organic Pest Control Frenchy’s Community Garden (Osage & Agua Fria)

Jannine Cabossel will teach how to control pests & diseases. Free. 505.473.1403, homegrownnewmexico@gmail.com

June 19, all day TrekWest Bike Ride SF, Galisteo Basin-Tijeras Wildlife Crossing-ABQ

Join trekker John Davis as he rides Old Las Vegas Hwy, Hwy 41, Hwy 14 across the Galisteo Basin, Ortiz Mtns. and the East Mtns.

(See story, pg. 11) jwjansens@gmail.com, www.TrekWest.org

June 19-22 64th Annual Rodeo de Santa Fe

Tickets $17/$10: 505.988-1234, Rodeo parade 6/15, 3 pm. rodeodesantafe.org

June 20-23 Self-Care Bliss Weekend Santa Fe Soul Health & Healing Center

Learn to generate health, prosperity and play in your daily life. Meet Self-Care Coaches and SF Soul practitioners who will of-

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fer presentations, workshops and demos, plus screenings of new documentary films.

Expo booths. One-day pass: $99, weekend pass: $195. Registration: 505.474.8555, info@jointheselfcarerevolution.com, www. jointheselfcarerevolution.com/self-carebliss-weekend-2013

June 21- Aug. 23 Viva Flora!

Treasured Plants of NM Community Gallery, SF Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy

Exhibit of artworks of over 35 local artists in a variety of media. Presented in partnership with the SF Botanical Garden and in celebration of next month’s grand opening of the garden at Museum Hill. Opening reception: 6/21, 5-7 pm. Free. Gallery hours: Tues-Fri, 10 am-5 pm. 505.955.6705, www.santafebotanicalgarden.org

June 22, 10 am-4 pm Introduction to Permaculture Instructor: Amanda Bramble. $50

August 30-31 Robert Mirabal: Music and Myth Santa Fe Opera

June 17 Deadline PNM Resources Fndn. Grants

Musician / songwriter / storyteller Robert Mirabal, from Taos Pueblo, with a troupe of musicians and pueblo dancers. Filming for a national PBS TV special. Tickets: 505.986.5900, www.santafeopera.org/tickets

Grant program focused on community environmental projects. 30 nonprofit projects will be selected to receive $10,000 to complete a project; anything from water conservation to community gardens. Proposals must promote environmental benefits or community improvements. Info: PNM.com/foundation

9 am-4 pm daily except Weds.

Community Farm Project 1820 San Ysidro, Village of Agua Fría

June 17-23 Chama River Adventure Abiquiú, NM

Volunteers of any age needed. 80 percent of the produce is given to the Food Depot and distributed to 120 organizations. sfcommunityfarm@gmail.com, www.santafacommunityfarm.org

Mondays & Wednesdays, 9 am12 pm & Sunday, 11 am-2 pm Urban Farming at Gaia Gardens

Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, 505.780.0535, www.ampersandproject.org

Learn to build soil, compost, transplant, build structures, tend chickens and ducks and help make a small farm hum. 505.796.6006, http://gaiagardens.blogspot.com

June 24 – 16 weeks Bioponics Greenhouse Management SFCC School of Trades and Technology

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

Accredited 24-credit degree launch. Revitalize local organic agricultural traditions to build food security in an ecologically, economically and culturally viable way. Info: Bioponics Institute: 760.391.0216, www. bioponicsinstitute.com

June 25, 6:30 pm Home Grown NM Monthly Potluck Whole Foods on St. Francis (Community Room)

Cydney Martin will discuss food preservation classes and her role as SF County Home Economist. 505.473.1403, homegrownnew mexico@gmail.com

June 28-30 2013 Santa Fe Studio Tour Various Venues

Discover Santa Fe fine artists. Fri: 5:30-7:30 pm, Sat: 10 am-6 pm, Sun: 12-5 pm. www. santafestudiotour.com

June 30 Wise Water Techniques

Instructor: Amanda Bramble. $60 Simple graywater and rainwater systems.

Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, 505.780.0535, www.ampersandproject.org

July 8-26 2nd Annual ArtFest SF University of Art and Design

This festival brings together students and faculty from around the world for academic and artistic workshops, cultural activities and social events. Courses on creative writing, sculpture, Latin American and southwestern architecture and recording arts. www.artfestsf.com

July 12-14 SF Intl. Folk Art Market Museum Hill

Celebrating ten years of bringing the world together. 505.992.7600, askus@folkart market.org, www.folkartmarket.org

July 26-28 Rights of Nature Workshop See newsbite, page 37.

Northern NM farmers & ranchers bring you fresh greenhouse tomatoes, greens, root veggies, cheese, teas, herbs, spices, honey, baked goods, Southwestern body care and much more.

Saturdays, Approx. 2 pm Meet Your Farmer Joe’s Dining, Rodeo & Zia

A lunch experience. An opportunity to ask questions about farming, enjoy a local meal and meet farmers who grow NM foods. Vendors from the farmers’ market have an aftermarket lunch and meet the community. Info: Sheila@joesdining.com

Writing Down the River workshop with guide Steve Harris. Info: 505.685.4333, ext.4106, lindas@ghostranch.org, www.ghostranch.org

June 18-20 LOHAS Business Conference Boulder, CO.

Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. www. lohas.com

June 21-24 Peak Performance Grazing Sustainable Settings Ranch Carbondale, CO

Planning and management for animals, land, profit with Jim Gerrish and Owen Hablutzel.

970.963.6107 or brook@sustainablesettings. org, http://www.sustainablesettings.org

June 22- Oct. 4 (Reception 6/21, 5-7 pm) Adventures de Taos Photo Exhibition Town Hall, 400 Cam. de las Placitas Taos, NM

20 photographer’s work available for purchase. Taos Arts Council: 575.758.0000

June 26-29 1st Savory Institute International Conference Boulder, CO.

Sundays, 10 am-4 pm Railyard Artisan Market Farmers’ Market Pavilion 1607 Paseo de Peralta

Imagine a world in which humans live in harmony with each other and our planet; rich soils sustain sound models of regenerative agriculture, sequestering carbon, producing abundant whole food, rekindling local traditions and reactivating regional economies. http://www. savoryinstitute.com/Conference2013/

7th Edition of “Day Hikes in the Santa Fe Area”

June 29, 9:30 am-4:30 pm Women in Transition Retreat Healing Through Horses, Abiquiú

Live music, food and over 30 artists. www. artmarketsantafe.com

Features 56 destinations, new reconfigured hikes with maps and photos, safety tips, resource guide. Available in local bookstores.

Here & There

June 3-9 Pack Light, Be Light Ghost Ranch Conference Center Abiquiú, NM

Introductory backpacking seminar. Classroom sessions and 3-day backpack trip. $495 + lodging & meals. 877.804.4678, ext. 4152, www.ghostranch.org

June 8 Kit Carson Electric Co-op Annual Meeting Taos High School Gymnasium,Taos, NM June 15, 2:30-3:30 pm Earth Sheltering for Sustainability East Mountain Library, Tijeras, NM

Loretta Hall, author of Underground Buildings: More than Meets the Eye, will speak on “Top Ten Buildings Under the Southwest.”

Free. dhayba@cabq.gov, www.subsurface buildings.com

1-day retreat for women experiencing challenges that accompany change. $175.

505.685.0596, Judy@healingthroughhorses. net, www.healingthroughhorses.net

June 30 Deadline Scholarships for Northern NM Counties

Ten $1,000 scholarships will be awarded by MANA del Norte to assist Hispanic women from Los Alamos, Mora, Río Arriba, Santa Fe, San Miguel and Taos counties in continuing or completing their post-secondary education. Info and application materials: www.manadelnortenm.org or 505.795.4319

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

June 2013 • GreenFireTimes

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40 Fire Green Fire• Times • June 2013 Green Times June 2013

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