March 2017 Green Fire Times

N ews & V iews

from the

S ustainable S outhwest

Fire-Adapted Communities

WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE SUMMIT LA BAJADA HISTORY 1848–1929 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD WITH IMMIGRANTS IN MIND

March 2017

Northern New Mexico’s Largest Distribution Newspaper

Vol. 9 No. 3

In Pursuit of Cultural Freedom

© Don Usner

is a lecture series on political, economic, environmental, and human rights issues featuring social justice activists, writers, journalists, and scholars discussing critical topics of our day.

TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS with

COLUM McCANN

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WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH AT 7PM LENSIC PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Tune in on Sunday, March 12 at 4 pm to hear the rebroadcast on KSFR 101.1FM Santa Fe Public Radio What I didn’t know when I was writing Refuge and what I continue to try to understand now is that we will survive our own personal losses; they are ultimately what gives us our voice. . . . But the losses of the larger world, call it the pain of the grieving Earth, threaten our sanity and survival. These losses of species and landscapes, we must face together with an open heart. . . . Attention is our prayer. Engagement is our vow. −Terry Tempest Williams, High Country News, November 2016

Terry Tempest Williams is an award-winning author, environmentalist, and activist who writes about the intersection of environmental and social justice. A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she is known for her impassioned and lyrical prose. She is the author of the environmental literature classics Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; The Open Space of Democracy; and Finding Beauty in a Broken World. Her most recent book, The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks, was released in 2016 to coincide with the centennial of the National Park Service.

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Vol. 9, No. 3 • March 2017 Issue No. 95 PUBLISHER

Green Fire Publishing, LLC Skip Whitson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

News & Views

Barbara E. Brown

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DESIGN

COPY EDITORS

Stephen Klinger, Denise Tessier WEBMASTER

Karen Shepherd CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Janet Bailey, Susan Guyette, Terri Jerry, Japa K. Khalsa, Alejandro López, Eytan Krasilovsky, Paul Paryski, Seth Roffman, Hilario E. Romero CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Japa K. Khalsa, Alejandro López, Paul Paryski, Matt Piccarello, Seth Roffman, Diane Senior PUBLISHER’S ASSISTANT Cisco Whitson-Brown, Gay Rathman

Sustainable Southwest

Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project

Seth Roffman

Green Fire Production Department

from the

CONTENTS New Mexicans Need Fire-Adapted Communities — Eytan Krasilovsky. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 7 Meadow Magic, A Tool for Water Management and Increasing Biodiversity — Paul Paryski . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 9 La Bajada: From Territorial and Statehood Periods to the 1920s (1848–1929) — Hilario E. Romero . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 12

ADVERTISING SALES

A Short History of the World with Immigrants in Mind — Alejandro López . . .. . .. 18 Una Historia Breve del Mundo con Respecto a los Immigrantes

John M. Nye 505.699.3492 John@GreenFireTimes.com

New Mexico’s Solar Industry: Job Growth from the Sky — Seth Roffman. . .. . .. . 23

Skip Whitson 505.471.5177 Skip@GreenFireTimes.com

Meditation Is the Ultimate Resistance — Japa K. Khalsa . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 27

Anna C. Hansen 505.982.0155 DakiniDesign@newmexico.com

GrayWatch: The Road to Better Health in New Mexico — Janet Bailey. . .. . .. . .. . 29

Steve Jinks 505-303-0501 SteveJ@GreenFireTimes.com

St. Vincent Hospital Foundation. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 30

Lisa Powers 505.629.2655 Lisa@GreenFireTimes.com Liberty Manabat 505.670.7243 Liberty@GreenFireTimes.com DISTRIBUTION

Linda Ballard, Barbara Brown, Co-op Dist. Services, Nick García, Niki Nicholson, Andy Otterstrom (Creative Couriers), PMI, Daniel Rapatz, Tony Rapatz, Wuilmer Rivera, Andrew Tafoya, Denise Tessier, Skip Whitson, John Woodie

Santa Fe Neighbors / Vecinos de Santa Fe — Terri Jerry . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 32 Everyday Green: Cleaning Green – Susan Guyette . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . ..33 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 8, 21, 23, 25, 37 What’s Going On. . .. . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 38

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

GREEN FIRE TIMES c/o The Sun Companies P.O. Box 5588, SF, NM 87502-5588 505.471.5177 • info@greenfiretimes.com © 2017 Green Fire Publishing, LLC Green Fire Times provides useful information for community members, business people, students and visitors—anyone interested in discovering the wealth of opportunities and resources in the Southwest. In support of a more sustainable planet, topics covered range from green businesses, jobs, products, services, entrepreneurship, investing, design, building and energy—to native perspectives on history, arts & culture, ecotourism, education, sustainable agriculture, regional cuisine, water issues and the healing arts. To our publisher, a more sustainable planet also means maximizing environmental as well as personal health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol.

Green Fire Times is widely distributed throughout northcentral New Mexico as well as to a growing number of New Mexico cities, towns, pueblos and villages. Feedback, announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication are welcome.

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N ews & V iews

from the

s ustaiNable s outhwest

Fire-Adapted Communities

ON THE COVER: WILDLAND-URBAN INTERFACE SUMMIT LA BAJADA HISTORY 1848–1929 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD WITH IMMIGRANTS IN MIND

March 2017

NortherN New Mexico’s Largest DistributioN Newspaper

Vol. 9 No. 3

Forest Stewards Guild wet-lining operation during a collaborative controlled burn in a Wildland Urban Interface area. October 2016 Photo by Matt Piccarello

Green Fire Times • March 2017

5

THE 90’S CALLED. THEY WANT THEIR BIN BACK.

CARTS ARE COMING IN MARCH CITY OF SANTA FE: IT’S TIME FOR AN UPGRADE

Recycle only the following loose in your container Cans

Cartons

Aluminum and Steel Cans

Food and Beverage Cartons

empty and rinse

empty and replace cap

Glass bottles and jars should be recycled separate from mixed recycling.

Place glass in separate bin. When carts are distributed, glass will no longer be accepted curbside, however, glass drop off facilities will be provided.

Remember: No recyclables in plastic bags.

No plastic bags.

No garbage.

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

Paper

Plastic

Mixed Paper, Newspaper, Boxes, and Cardboard

Kitchen, Laundry, Bath: Bottles and Containers

bundle flattened cardboard boxes until carts arrive

empty and replace cap

Still have questions?

If you are a City of Santa Fe resident with curbside service, contact the City of Santa Fe Environmental Services Division at 955-2200 or check out www. santafenm.gov/trash_and_recycling You can also call the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency at 424-1850 x 420 or check out www.SantaFeRecycling.org

Funded in part by

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NEW MEXICANS NEED FIRE-ADAPTED COMMUNITIES

Eytan K rasilovsky

New Mexico is blessed with beautiful and ecologically rich grasslands, woodlands and forests spread across majestic landscapes and terrain. These lands evolved in a climate with dry seasons that bring lightning storms and regular periods of drought.

Because the plants and animals of New Mexico evolved with fire, they are adapted to it. For thousands of years, wildfires spread across the land, ignited both by the thousands of lightning strikes that hit the ground each year, and by people. For generations upon generations, people used fire for cooking and heat, and also to clear agricultural fields, irrigation ditches, and to maintain habitat for game.

Because the plants and animals of New Mexico evolved with fire, they are adapted to it.

The sciences of anthropology, archaeology, fire ecology and forestry have documented the historical type, extent and frequency of wildfire throughout New Mexico. For example, early written accounts in the 1800s recorded smoky skies above New Mexico prior to large-scale grazing and fire suppression, while tree ring data show the exact years and locations of fires that spread across entire mountain ranges, scarring but not killing most trees.

However, since the 1880s, humans have made decisions that have drastically changed our forests and woodlands. With

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BEFORE

© Matt Piccarello (2)

How did we get to this situation? How can we return to a place of balance?

the arrival of the market economy and the railroad, millions of sheep and cattle arrived in New Mexico and overgrazed the understory. This stopped surface fire from spreading through the grass as it once did. The policy of fire suppression starting around 1910 put out most of the naturally ignited fires that had previously kept hundreds of seedlings per acre from growing. The result of these actions is that many seedlings grew into saplings and trees. Historically, many woodlands and forests that had between 40 and 80 trees per acre now are choked with 150 to more than 500 trees per acre. Most of these trees are water-stressed, have never developed the thick fire-resistant bark of older trees, are susceptible to disease, prone to insect attack, and now carry fire from the forest floor up to the crowns of the trees.

AFTER

Before and after defensible space precautions at a home in the wildland-urban interface

So if humans lived with wildfire for so long, why do we collectively as a society spend millions of dollars fighting wildfires and put the lives of our men and women firefighters at risk every year?

The answer is complex, but two key facets emerge. The first relates to our forests and watersheds, which are now more dense and susceptible to drought, insects and wildfire than ever before. This kind of wildfire is different. Scientific data tells us that in the past, most medium and large trees survived wildfire. Now, wildfires often kill large swaths of trees, which leads to spectacular erosion that removes topsoil and destroys streams. In some areas, like above Los Alamos, there are vast treeless areas that will persist for many years. When weather and forest conditions align to create large, highseverity wildfires like the 2011 Las Conchas Fire near Los Alamos, it is imperative that as a society we take steps to protect human life, property, endangered species, cultural heritage, aquatic systems, drinking water sources and other resources at risk.

The second reason our relationship to fire has changed relates to how we currently

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

© Seth Roffman

W

ildfire has been part of New Mexico for thousands of years, and humans have been living with wildfire in this region during that time. Today, thousands of New Mexicans live with unprecedented wildfire risk year-round.

Mark Meyers patrolling controlled burn in a Wildland Urban Interface area

Aftermath of the 2011 Las Conchas Fire near Los Alamos, NM. The massive fire broke out when a tree fell onto a power line.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

7

Fire-Adapted Communities continued from page 7

Components of a fire-adapted community. www.fireadapted.org.

WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE SUMMIT March 30–April 1 in Albuquerque New Mexico’s leading authorities on wildfire preparedness will be in Albuquerque at the Sheraton Airport Hotel to host the 2017 Annual Wildland Urban Interface Summit.The event, one of New Mexico’s largest meetings to discuss and prepare for wildfires, will feature presentations on cutting-edge technology, best practices for multi-jurisdictional at-risk areas and forecasts for the impending wildfire season, for which abovenormal risk is predicted for portions of the state.

The summit’s theme, Closer Than You Think, will be addressed throughout the three days. Federal, state and local partners with provide cohesive strategies to lower fire risks. Community involvement is encouraged. Saturday, April 1, is packed with free family-friendly events.

Officials from various agencies and local nonprofits will discuss how communities across the state are implementing valuable principles—such as the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise Communities Program—to protect homes and homeowners from the risk of wildfire. There are also opportunities for businesses to promote services that support land management and wildfire risk reduction.

There will be two field trips: One will visit the northern bosque in Corrales and Río Rancho, and the other will visit the East Mountains.

The online registration fee (through March 24) is $65 for attendees and $100–$150 for exhibitors, depending on nonprofit status. Scholarships are available. More information and the preliminary schedule can be found at www.regonline.com/2017wuisummit or by contacting Katelyn Quiroz at 505.216.3006 or kquiroz@nmcounties.org

inhabit New Mexico. Homes, business and infrastructure are intertwined with natural vegetation that will burn during dry seasons.

Often called the wildland-urban interface (WUI), it is a vast area that includes homes, subdivisions, whole towns and municipal watersheds. A recent national assessment estimated 190 million acres of WUI in the U.S., 44 million houses in the WUI, and 99 million WUI residents, or 32 percent of the U.S. population. In New Mexico, a 2010 assessment indicated there are 2.2 million acres of high wildfire risk in the WUI. Do you think you might live in a wildlandurban interface?

If you think you might live in a WUI area, you can find out your risk rating by looking for a community wildfire protection plan for your county or area. New Mexico State Forestry works across the state to prepare communities for wildfire, and their website hosts all the current plans across New Mexico.

Everyone who works in this field, from the thousands of volunteer firefighters across the state that put out hundreds of wildfires each year, to state and federal agencies like New Mexico State Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, the New Mexico State Land Office, tribes, counties, nonprofit organizations like mine and many others acknowledge that this is a monumental challenge no single entity can solve. As a result, we all work together, and I am proud to be part of this community of practitioners that includes firefighters, emergency managers, foresters, fire ecologists, community organizers and many others who are working year-afteryear to address this challenge.

We work toward landscapes that are resilient to wildfire and to foster fire-adapted communities. Resilient landscapes experience

wildfire, drought, insects and other challenges but can recover. A fire-adapted community prepares for, is ready to recover from, and is resilient to wildfire. It involves more than just firefighters and emergency managers; it includes homebuilders, landscapers, businesses, elected officials, community representatives, planners and others. A fireadapted community is a long-term goal and is not a designation or recognition program.

Are you interested in becoming more fire-adapted?

Luckily, there are many simple things homeowners, business owners and residents can do, such as clearing flammable materials away from the first five feet around your home, moving your firewood pile 30 feet away from you house from April through October, and contacting your local fire department to start a conversation about being more fire-adapted. Finally, every year the New Mexico Association of Counties, with support from the Bureau of Land Management, hosts the New Mexico Wildland-Urban Interface Summit. This year it is in Albuquerque, starting March 30, with a free public day on Saturday, April 1. Register at www.regonline. com/2017WUISummit  Eytan Krasilovsky is the southwest director of the Forest Stewards Guild.

He has been with the Guild since 2005 and leads its Forest Stewards Youth Corps, prescribed fire, and fire-adapted communities programs.

Based in Santa Fe for over 30 years, the Guild has worked to support forest-based communities and improve the conditions of New Mexico’s forests. www.forestguild.org

WESTERN WILDFIRE SEASON WORSENING RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE

Fire Adapted Communities—National and New Mexico Resources: https://fireadaptednetwork.org/ www.fireadaptednm.org Forest Stewards Guild Southwest Region Programs: www.forestguild.org/southwest Access a 2015 report by the Forest Stewards Guild, Evaluating effectiveness of mitigation activities in the WUI: www.forestguild.org/WUI New Mexico State Forestry – Resources on wildfire and community wildfire protection plans: www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/FireMgt/cwpps.html http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/FireMgt/Fire.html Learn about the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition: www.santafefireshed.org/ Learn about the science of fire ecology: http://swfireconsortium.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Margolis_Tree-Rings.pdf The National Cohesive Wildland Strategy: www.forestsandrangelands.gov/strategy/

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

A recent study by researchers with the University of Idaho and Columbia University adds weight to the assertion that wildfire seasons in the U.S. West have been getting longer and more destructive because of human activities such as fire suppression, settlement and the burning of fossil fuels. It says that anthropogenic climate change—human-caused global warming—added 16,000 square miles of burned forests from 1984 to 2015. That represents half of the burned forests during that timespan. The hottest year, 2015, also broke records for area burned by wildfire in the United States. More than half of the western states experienced their largest wildfire on record since 2000.

The report, which also took natural climate variations into account, says that 55 percent of the “fuel aridity”—forests drying out due to longer and hotter dry spells—is a result of warming and is likely to continue for decades. Spring and summer temperatures have warmed 2 to 2.5 degrees since 1950. There has been a 75 percent rise in increased aridity in forested lands since 2000. The study—the first to attempt to quantify how much human-caused climate change has impacted wildfires in Western forests, a question that has profound scientific, management and policy implications—was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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MEADOW MAGIC, a TOOL for WATER MANAGEMENT and INCREASING BIODIVERSITY A rticle and photos by Paul Paryski

Charles Dickens, in his wonderful novel, A Tale of Two Cities, wrote: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

D

ickens could have been describing the last two or three decades. Poverty has decreased even for those in developing countries, but the income gaps between the very rich and the poor have soared. Humanity faces many unprecedented, potentially devastating challenges, one of the most pernicious being anthropogenic global warming and climate change.

In the arid Southwest, climate change and global warming are already impacting our natural resources, our environment and especially our water supply. According to the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, the American Southwest is predicted to be one of the regions in the world most affected. The region’s ecosystems are slowly but inexorably migrating uphill and northward, decreasing biodiversity and unbalancing native plant and animal ecology. Wildfires and bark beetles are devastating montane forests and watersheds, particularly on Colorado’s mountain slopes. Snowpacks are diminishing, and melting much earlier. Since snowpacks are smaller and often covered with dust, more heat and energy are being absorbed due to the decreased reflectivity (reduced albedo effect). Higher temperatures increase both evaporation and evapotranspiration, which in turn reduces infiltration into aquifers, streams and rivers.

As a result, less water will be available to meet increasing demand. Although population seems to be remaining stable in New Mexico, the population of cities such as Santa Fe is increasing, leading to more demand for water.

Actually, there are many possible solutions to better balance water supply and demand.

Water conservation and more effective management of water supply systems have helped

(Above) Looking east toward the Truchas Peaks in northern New Mexico, (Left) Meadow in the Valles Caldera, Jémez Mountains, New Mexico

reduce per capita use in some cities. But the gap between supply and demand will continue to rise in northern New Mexico, as indicated by the adjacent graph from the 2016 updated Jémez y Sangre Regional Water Plan.

One often-overlooked technique to augment water supply from montane watersheds, the largest source of water in the West, is the creation of small meadows. When snow falls in the mountains, some of it lands on the branches of conifer and other trees. This snow sublimates (evaporates) into the dry, high, windy and sunny air of the Southwest and never reaches the ground.

Montane forests in the West often have very high and unnaturally high tree densities, probably due to ill-conceived fire suppression. Forest fires have always been part of the natural regime and produce numerous meadows. Recently, prescribed burns and forest thinning have become one of the dominant tools of forest management.

It would be relatively easy to create small meadows when thinning forests. Doing so allows snow and other forms of precipitation to fall directly on the ground or on small plants and infiltrate into the ground slowly. In Hydrology and the Management of Watersheds1, the classic textbook on watershed hydrology, the authors quote studies that show that in small cleared areas in montane forest watersheds, snow water equivalents (absorption rates) were 15-35 percent higher. Other more recent studies, such as Montane Meadows in the Sierra Nevada: Changing Hydroclimatic Conditions and Concepts for Vulnerability Assessment2, confirm these findings.

Small meadows also dramatically increase floral and faunal biodiversity. Meadow ecotones (transition zones) provide food and shelter for animals.

It is relatively easy to create small meadows using machinery or, in places that are difficult to access or where machinery is not allowed, by manual methods.

Water demand graph from the 2016 update of the Jémez y Sangre Regional Water Plan

One of the most important and effective river protection organizations, American Rivers, has initiated a large project with The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to restore meadows in the Sierra Nevada. To quote from American Rivers’ Mountain Meadows Clean Water Project description: CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

¹(K.N. Brooks et al, Iowa State University Press, Second Edition, 1997, p 329-336), 2( J.H. Vier et al, Center for Watershed Science, UC Davis, 2013)

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North of Alamosa, Colo., looking toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Blanca Peak)

Meadow Magic continued from page 9

There are few places as majestic as a mountain meadow, and few landscapes that safeguard our rivers’ headwaters as well as a healthy meadow. Healthy meadows provide many of the outstanding natural benefits that floodplains do: • Meadows store spring floodwaters and release cool flows in late summer; • Grasses and soil filter out sediment and pollutants; and • Flowers and plants provide high-quality forage and habitat for rare and threatened species.

• As it becomes clear what a healthy meadow can provide, private ranchers, foundations, utilities, government agencies, conservation groups and others are all investing in meadow restoration.

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Meadows are also very effective in making watersheds more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Increased biodiversity allows montane watersheds to adapt more effectively.

More diverse species means more can survive. Meadows also slow wildfire propagation.

Hopefully, federal and state agencies and environmental organizations will seriously consider creating small meadows as a method of increasing water supply, adapting to climate change and increasing biodiversity. 

santafewaldorf.org | 26 Puesta del Sol, Santa Fe | 505.467.6431

Paul Paryski, former chief technical advisor for United Nations Development Programme, served on (NM) Gov. Bill Richardson’s Blue Ribbon Water Task Force, the Jémez y Sangre Water Planning Council and the (NM) State Engineer’s Water Wise Development Committee.

He helped write and pass New Mexico’s Graywater Act and State Water Planning Act, and organized the first Jémez y Sangre Water Summit in 2005. He is currently on the executive committee of the Northern New Mexico Group of the Sierra Club.

MEADOW ON MY MIND Written by Ottar

Green moss thick and dark, grows slowly The wild flowers rise and reach, to catch the breeze Lichen lie low a lacklustre collect, on the rock and lee There are no walls, the barriers and possibilities are nature’s ways The birds sing among the Wisteria, to attract the mysterious The wildflower petals open sun-wide to receive the bees The tiniest things of nature, can confound the human mind Insect, animal, and human are not the only occupants The birds fly to chase and catch a meal, then return fastidious E’er so often you may imagine, to see with disbelief, smallish things Clear blue above, yet does your head not heavy grow, give in It is not your tired eyes, that fool with faerie-sized inhabitants, Did you see the Twinkles moving, from the corner of your eye Breathe, soft and become the meadow grasses long and tall Clouded vision, any friend of nature, finds a pillow, live long I have been to this very meadow, seems just recently, Green moss thick and dark, grows slowly Skin so soft petals enrich all dreams, on waking without the fall Lichen lie low a lacklustre collect, on the rock and lee

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

11

© Diane Senior

View of La Bajada mesa from the Turquoise Trail area

LA BAJADA: FROM TERRITORIAL and STATEHOOD PERIODS to the 1920s (1848-1929)

Part II of Three A rticles by Hilario E. Romero INTRODUCTION

In Part I (GFT January 2017) of this history, I traced general events and settlement of people in the aera of La Bajada, focusing on the struggle at Las Bocas to maintain a rural, trade-based lifestyle during the pre-European, Spanish colonial and Mexican periods of New Mexico history. That account involved settlement in and movement through the area, including caravans, semi-nomadic Indian raids, changes in land use and conveyances as well as subsistence ranching and farming.

The Río Santa Fe flowed through El Cañón de las Bocas (Santa Fe River Canyon) to the southern end of La Majada land grant (Paraje de La Merced del Ojito 1598-1680) from the village of La Bajada to the Río Grande. The majadal (grazing lands of La Majada) nurtured large quantities of beef and mutton in addition to hides, wool and agricultural produce for trade or barter in nearby communities and also La Villa de Santa Fe. The majada (a natural overnight shelter for sheep) was located upriver from the village of La Bajada near a pond on the north side of the Río Santa Fe.

able to continue their way of life in the village based on a barter system in which a person’s word was sacred.

FROM CONQUEST TO STRUGGLE WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA

The influx of population into New Mexico after the 1846 conquest and subsequent treaty was primarily made up of homesteaders from the eastern states, along with some landgrabbers (subsequently known as “carpetbaggers” and “venture capitalists”). The year 1862 would see the establishment of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Homestead Act and the invasion of Texas Confederate soldiers into New Mexico, fighting for secession from the Union. Subsequent years would see the arrival of the U.S. Forest Service, cattle barons and the return of the Partido Partdario, a cash economy with an annual property tax system and, finally, the Court of Private Land Claims—all of which had a negative impact on New Mexico’s traditional agrarian way of life—farming, ranching, trade and subsistence—for Pueblos and Spanish communities alike, including Cochiti, Santo Domingo and La Bajada.

Prospective settlers were informed that open lands without fences were “public domain” and that they could stake their claim.

This corridor would later be used by colonists and caravans traveling El Camino Real. Upon reaching the towering mesa, Oñate most likely sent a scouting party to determine if a route ascending the Santa Fe River Canyon (Cañón de las Bocas) was possible; however, the colonists and their wagons trekked southeast around the towering mesa and then north to the pueblos of Tzeguma and Guicu (sites of La Ciénega and Cieneguilla pueblos). Later caravans passed through the newly established Spanish parajes/ villages of La Bajada, La Ciénega, La Cieneguilla, Alamo, the Pacheco Grant, Agua Fría and the future Rancho El Pino; finally arriving at La Villa de Santa Fe after 1610.

In 1854, six years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the U.S. and México, which guaranteed land and water rights for the pueblos and Spanish/Mexicans, the Surveyor General’s Office of the United States of North America conducted surveys on most of the land grants in the new “territory” of New Mexico. The surveyor was unfamiliar with the structure of the Spanish Land Grant system. In 1860, La Majada Land Grant was finally surveyed—with land ownership, rights to water, pasture and common lands totaling approximately 54,404 acres. The residents of La Bajada were

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With the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, prospective settlers were informed that open lands without fences were “public domain” and that they could stake their claim to 160 acres free of charge. However, much of this “free” land was already claimed and used for centuries by Native American tribes as well as the ancestors of the Spanish, since both groups were awarded land grants for continued settlement—including water rights, common lands and pasturelands that required continuous settlement and demonstrated use. On the Majada Land Grant, the villagers of La Bajada went about their agricultural and ranching lifestyle unaware for the most part of what was to come.

With the establishment of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862, Eastern-style concepts and methods of commercialized farming and ranching were introduced, overlaying traditional patterns with the goal of increasing production in tandem with the population increase, not to mention increasing profits for the carpetbaggers. Such concepts and methods were out of place in a region like the Southwest—particularly in the Territory of

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© DBainbridge Bunting Photo Collection, Center for Southwest Research (UNM Libraries).

New Mexico, which included the zona arida (arid zone), later called Arizona, the southern tip of what would later be called Nevada, and southern portions of what would become the states of Utah and Colorado. The fragile environment of the Territory of New Mexico contained populations who knew how to survive and had indeed managed to thrive for centuries in this delicate land because of their deep-seated respect for the earth, the waters and everything that was part of the natural world.

The Partido Partidario—a contract sharing sheep with sheepherders—was a small-scale practice that began during the 1700s where wealthy sheep owners, patrones, would lend/ lease part of their flock to one or more sheepherders for several years in return for 20 percent payments of lambs and wool each year. The contract ended when the sheepherder returned the original number of sheep back to the patrón. If the sheep survived blizzards and droughts, this practice was continued. However, many sheepherders ended up in debt.

Although it was somewhat successful during the Spanish Colonial period, it was most likely discontinued. (Exposición de Pedro Bauxita Pino, 1812, Ojeada, Lic. Antonio Barreriro, 1832, José Agustín Escudero additions, 1849.)

One century later, the Partido Partidario returned with the arrival of the U.S. In the larger towns, markets for beef, lamb and their byproducts were brisk. As early as 1865, the practice was initiated again with venture capitalists like Charles Bond and Edward Sargent, who purchased merino sheep in Missouri, brought them to New Mexico and began contracting with sheepherders who could no longer find markets for their native churro sheep. The venture capitalists encouraged land grantees to use their common and pasture lands for grazing this new breed that drank more water and needed more pasture. Through contacts with the infamous Santa Fe Ring, these carpetbaggers landed contracts with the U.S. Army, large mercantile stores and markets to the north and east of New Mexico territory. The new market-centered system encouraged a few of the wealthier native ranchers to take on more stock and overgraze their pasturelands, thereby contributing to their depletion, including parts of La Majada and La Bajada land grants and mesas.

Survey map of La Bajada, 1894

According to William Dunmire’s New Mexico’s Livestock Heritage, cattle barons such as John Chisum from Texas arrived in southeastern New Mexico in 1870 with large herds and the authority of the Homestead Act to move onto “public domain” lands in order stake their claims. Many wealthy individuals were able to purchase large tracts for pennies per acre.

Canadian cattle baron Wilson Waddington arrived, and later former U.S. Senator from Arkansas Stephen Dorsey (involved in a scandal involving post office contracts) left politics and bought up land grants through forgery, chicanery and falsification of documents. In San Miguel and Colfax counties, they had the the help of Thomas Catron—attorney general of the New Mexico Territory from 1869 to 1872, and U.S. attorney for the district from 1872 to1878—and his Santa Fe Ring.

In 1878, Gov. Lew Wallace granted a tractable right-of-way to the AT&SF Railroad through New Mexico Territory with division points every 100 miles starting at Willow Springs (Ratón). The next point was at Las Vegas, and another was near the Pueblo of Kiwa (Santo Domingo), where the railroad needed a water tank. In 1880, a water line was laid under the riverbed at La Bajada from Las Bocas, running two miles southwest to a 9,000-gallon tank at Wallace. From 1880 to 1921 the tank primarily served AT&SF facilities. The village of La Bajada protested, and eventually railroad officials were required to draft an agreement recognizing La Bajada’s ownership of the water rights from the Río Santa Fe. The agreement stipulated that AT&SF railroad provide a one-inch pipeline to divert from Station 294, plus 38 feet running to La Bajada Village, ending at a 1,000-gallon concrete storage tank on the northwest end of the village. (Arnold Valdez, “La Bajada Community Ditch and Water System” Chronicles of the Trail, Summer/Fall 2011.)

The railroads also had a negative impact on residents of this area’s Pueblo and Spanish land grants who survived on ranching and farming. The arrival of the railroad in 1879, first leading south from Ratón to Las Vegas (New Mexico), gradually changed the way of life of Pueblo and Spanish farmers and ranchers. In large open areas, the railroad was

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© Hilario E. Romero, 2016

A severe drought from 1870 to 1883 made matters worse. The cattle barons brought in thousands of cattle—too many for the grazing lands they had purchased. In the 1880s, other cattle barons such as Thomas Lyons and John Grayson arrived in southwestern New Mexico. A decade later, the drought of 1890-91 decimated the land where too many “animal units” per acre—an estimated 5.7 million at that time—had been grazed. This estimate did not include many herds that they temporarily drove to Texas to lower the count. Residents on La Majada land grant and in the village of La Bajada suffered with their livestock during that period due to cyclical droughts but not due to overgrazing.

They had cared for the land in the same manner as their ancestors and reduced their herds during this drought even though they had to sell at a lower price.

Sheepherder Valentén Montoya’s graffito

granted miles-wide rights-of-way on each side of the approved track route. Only a few Indian pueblos were informed in advance that they could negotiate railroad passage through their lands. Consequently, railroad companies leased right-of-way lands on both sides of the tracks to venture capitalists and cattle barons who brought herds in the thousands to graze, making it impossible for other land grantees to graze their stock.

The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 came at a bad time, when New Mexico’s forests and watersheds were suffering during the severe drought of 1891-1892. In 1892 the USDA issued a report stating, “The sheep industry is the most flourishing pastoral occupation of the Territory.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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La Bajada continued from page 13

However, previous droughts and overgrazing had decimated the land, and the United States of North America was now on the verge of confiscating over 10 million acres of forestland, which included common and pasture lands on land grants owned by Pueblo and Spanish land grantees.

The abuses of logging companies clear-cutting forests in the East without regard for the future resulted in the relocation of their operations to New Mexico Territory.

Notwithstanding the droughts, New Mexican forests were in relatively good condition.

The resources they offered were needed by the people who, like their ancestors, cut wood, grazed stock and used the watersheds centuries before the arrival of the United States of North America and its institutions. Some of the targeted lands were adjacent to La Majada Land Grant, where residents practiced sustainable uses for wood gathering and summertime grazing of sheep and cattle in forest meadows.

Valentín Montoya was a sheepherder in La Bajada during this period and a pariente (relative) of Paulín Montoya, one of the four owners of La Majada land grant in the 1700s.

During the summer months, Montoya grazed his sheep on grassy clearings near the Valle Grande in the Jémez Mountains as well as on the mesas of La Majada and La Bajada.

He was quite successful despite the droughts, but with the coming of the Forest Service, he was no longer able to graze his small flocks in the Valle Grande during the summers.

Another farming family in La Bajada in the late 1880s was Sixto Leyba, his wife Antonia Sánchez, and their four sons (Pablo, José, Trinidad and Miguel), who all appear on the 1900 census. Antonia Sánchez was a pariente of Jacinto Sánchez, who lived on and owned a small portion of La Caja del Río Land Grant.

Wagon and cars make their gradual ascent up to La Bajada Mesa on NM Highway 1.

Ca. 1920. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA). Neg #135196

By 1904, preservationists backed by President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded in establishing the Forest Service. Ten million acres of forestland were set aside, including large portions of common lands and pasturelands located on Pueblo and Spanish land grants. Roads were built in order to open forests for clear-cutting, mining, watershed use and recreation.

Villagers in communities such as La Bajada were now obligated to obtain permits for most of their customary (traditional) activities in nearby forests. Their philosophy of caring for the land, whether it lay in villages, mesas, or forests, predated the early preservationists, many of whom had never set foot in New Mexico Territory.

LA BAJADA VILLAGE, LA MAJADA LAND GRANT AND THE COURT OF PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS, 1891-1904

On Sept. 24, 1894, La Majada Land Grant was surveyed again, after validation by the U.S. Court of Private Land Claims. Deputy Surveyor Albert J. Easley surveyed the grant once more in October 1895 at 54,404.10 acres. However, the Caja Del Rió Land Grant had overlapped La Majada Land Grant back in 1742, and the Cochiti Pueblo grant was overlapped by both the Majada and Caja del Río grants. The Santo Domingo Pueblo grant was also overlapped by La Majada grant. To remedy this tangled situation, in 1903 a suit was filed in Santa Fe District Court by the owners of the Caja del Río Grant in order to clear their title. Cochiti Pueblo promptly intervened to protect its land.

The results were mixed. La Bajada Village and La Majada Land Grant would end up with less land because the Caja del Río overlap was to go to its heirs, with La Majada giving up over 28,404 acres plus an additional 4,000 acres to Cochiti and Santo Domingo pueblos.

The Caja del Río claims to the southern portion of its grant remained the same. Once the dust cleared, La Majada was left with just 22,000 of its original 54,404 acres. The court upheld the claims of the Caja del Rió Grant owners, but ruled against them on their western boundary where they overlapped into the Cochiti Pueblo Land Grant. A patent covering lands embraced within La Majada grant including the village of La Bajada was finally issued on Oct. 26, 1908. (Sources: Journal 231 misc. records of the Court of Private Land Claims and La Majada Grant, No F-224, Miscellaneous records of the Surveyor General of New Mexico). By 1904, the last year for the Court of Private Land Claims, 95 percent of New Mexican Land Grant lands had been lost through chicanery, forgery, false claims and documents, confiscation by U.S. government agencies, squatters, illegal sales and various combinations of same.

By 1912, when New Mexico gained statehood after 62 years of struggle, local representation in national, state and county politics began. Some of La Bajada Village’s young men enlisted in the army in during World War I (1914–1918), leaving their families behind. The villagers were fortunate in 1917 to have parientes (relatives) like Cipriano Lucero of Peña Blanca and Escolástico C’ de Baca in the New Mexico House of Representatives, who fought for state appropriations for road improvements, laws for land and water protection and assistance from the agricultural extension service. (Records of the House of Representatives, 1917, NM State Records and Archives; Laws of the State of NM passed by the 3rd session of the NM Legislature, 1917).

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Aerial view of La Bajada escarpment looking southeast.

Ca. 1930. Bainbridge Bunting Photo Collection, Center for Southwest Research (UNM Libraries). Photo # 000-385-3218-001

After the war, in 1918 those who survived returned to the village at La Bajada. Many worked their fields, but others were able to find work making improvements to the road on the 900-foot ascent up the mesa and assisting tour buses and cars (driving their vehicles or pulling them up with mules and horses) as they struggled up and down the switchbacks that became New Mexico Highway 1. A few families left La Bajada and went to work in the coal mines in nearby Madrid. By 1926, some were hired to work on the new highway alignment for U.S 66/285 and build a timber bridge over the Río Santa Fe atop the old concrete ford of the river.

In 1927, La Majada grant owners, including the village of La Bajada, were successful before the Pueblo Land Board, managing to protect some of the overlapping land on their southern border, adjacent to the northern border of the Santo Domingo Pueblo Land Grant. However, in 1930, before the same Pueblo Land Board, La Majada Grant owners entered a disclaimer and the villagers lost title to the lands on their grant that were involved in the conflict. As happened during the Spanish Colonial period, rulings in many cases involving Pueblo lands eventually came down in favor of the Pueblos. (Sources: District Court Records, No. 1430, U.S. District Court Records, No 2133 and Report to the Pueblo Land Board by Santo Domingo Pueblo)  Hilario E. Romero, a New Mexican mestizo (Spanish/Basque/Jicarilla Apache/Ute), is a former New Mexico state historian. He spent 42 years in higher education, as an administrator and professor of History, Spanish and Education at the Community College of Denver, Northern New Mexico College, University of Colorado-Denver, New Mexico Highlands University and UNM.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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A SHORT HISTORY of the WORLD with IMMIGRANTS in MIND UNA HISTORIA BREVE DEL MUNDO CON RESPECTO a LOS INMIGRANTES A lejandro López

“We are all bound by the ties of love. …Scientists tell us that without the presence of the cohesive force amongst the atoms that comprise this globe of ours, it would crumble to pieces and we would cease to exist, and even as there is cohesive force in blind matter, so must there be in all things animate, and the name for that cohesive force among animate beings is love. We notice it between father and son, between brother and sister, friend and friend… where there is love, there is life.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Todas las cosas se encuentran ligadas por las ataduras del amor. Los científicos nos informan que sin la presencia de ciertas fuerzas que existen entre los mismos átomos que integran nuestro globo terráqueo, nuestro mundo terminaría desbaratándose y dejaríamos de existir. Así como existe una fuerza aglutinante entre la materia bruta, también debe existir algo parecido entre todo ser viviente.

El nombre de esa fuerza cohesiva es <<el amor>>. La observamos entre padres e hijos, entre hermanos, y entre amigos. Donde hay amor, hay vida. ­— Mahatma Gandhi

T

o my knowledge, when human beings are born, they come into this world without any legal documents clutched in their tiny little hands.

Instead, their very beings are enough to command not only respect but also even reverence for the miracle of life that they and all other living beings embody. We are all born with the same needs of being cared for, protected, nurtured and welcomed into a family, society, species and planetary web of life or ecology.

For eons, human beings have done whatever was necessary for themselves and their progeny to survive. Our distribution throughout the five continents of the world and nearly every inhabitable island is proof enough that, instinctively, our ancestors followed large game, plentiful fish and, since the agricultural revolution approximately 10,000 years ago, flocks of domesticated animals, copious water flows and arable landscapes with periods of reliable rain or snowfall. At that time there were no national boundaries, wire fences or walls to stop necessary migrations, and certainly no documents that people needed to produce for bureaucracies.

We are all born with the same needs of being cared for, protected, nurtured and welcomed into a family, society and planetary web of life.

© Alejandro López

Since the relatively recent advent of sea navigation, modern weaponry and standing armies, European kingdoms and later, nation states, ventured out into the four corners of the world and conquered, colonized and often plundered the riches and resources of stable non-European societies. Many of these societies were culturally and spiritually wiser, kinder to the environment and inherently more sustainable.

A member of the Mexican immigrant community harvesting vegetables in northern New Mexico. Un señor, miembro de la comunidad inmigrante mexicana, cosechando verduras en el norte de Nuevo México

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

In the wake of colonization, entire peoples, notably tribal Africans, were sold into slavery and forced to provide the muscle for the fledgling Industrial Revolution that resulted in the amassing of goods and capital in the hands of a few, like never before.

S

egún mi conocimiento, ningún niño nace en posesión de documentos legales entre los deditos de sus manitas. Es más, la belleza de estas criaturitas debería ser más que suficiente para que todos sintiéramos no solo respeto y asombro ante su presencia mágica sino que hasta reverencia por lo milagroso que es la vida que lo anima al igual que anima a todos los demás seres vivientes. Todos nacemos con las mismas necesidades de ser protegidos, nutridos, y acogidos por una familia, sociedad, humanidad y por el mundo natural en el que vivimos.

Desde siempre, los seres humanos han hecho todo lo posible para asegurar su supervivencia y la de sus hijos. Nuestra distribución a través de los cinco continentes y las islas habitables del mundo es prueba suficiente que instintivamente, nuestros antepasados persiguieron los grandes animales de caza o los abundantes peces, así como, desde la revolución agrícola desde hace aproximadamente 10,000 años, sus rebaños, los ríos y los paisajes cultivables que contaban con temporadas de lluvia y nieve.

Por allá en esa época, no había fronteras internacionales, cercos de alambre o murallas para prevenir las migraciones, mucho menos documentos que la gente debía presentar ante burócratas.

Desde la aparición reciente de la navegación marina y las armas y ejércitos modernos, varios reinos europeos y después naciones, se lanzaron a los cuatro puntos cardinales del mundo para conquistar, colonizar y con frecuencia, saquear las riquezas y recursos de sociedades estables no-europeas. Muchas de estas sociedades rebasaban a las culturas europeas en cuanto a su sabiduría y su trato benévolo del medio-ambiente.

Ante el avance de la colonización, pueblos enteros, en particular, los africanos pertenecientes a varias tribus, fueron esclavizados. Subsiguientemente, su mano de obra aportó la energía necesaria para mover el engranaje de la revolución industrial mediante la cual se fue concentrando el capital en las manos de unas cuantas personas como jamás había sucedido en la toda la historia de la humanidad. En muchos casos, éste pequeño porcentaje de la población asumió el control de los gobiernos y pasó leyes que a menudo les beneficiaban solo a ellos, olvidando el beneficio para el pueblo en general incluyendo a los

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Five hundred years ago, vast regions now occupied by México and the United States were the domain of hundreds of tribes including the densely populated and culturally sophisticated Mayans of the Yucatán, as well as the more sparse, freedom-loving plains tribes of the central U.S. The fact that México was conquered and colonized by the Spanish and North America was similarly conquered and colonized by the English and French is not the only factor that shaped the future of these two dissimilar nations, which share a 2,000-mile border and soon, perhaps, a wall.

Vast regions now occupied by México and the United States were the domain of hundreds of tribes.

While the United States eliminated nearly every vestige of this continent’s indigenous past, including millions of people by brute force, México, a far more populated region, absorbed both the Spanish and African peoples into its bloodstream and cultural life while switching to the Spanish language and many European-derived institutions. It is estimated that just a half-million Spanish and a comparable number of Africans came to México during the colonial period. Since then, immigration from other parts of the world has been negligible.

As a result of this historical process, México’s population is highly indigenous and still recovering from the holocaust of the conquest in which millions of Native people perished and deeply rooted cultures were demolished. Its generally hard-working, kind and long-suffering people are also recovering from centuries of repression at the hands of despotic rulers and wealthy landowners, from the bloody revolution of 1910, invasions by other countries, and from the severe economic downturn of recent years.

The people of the United States, overwhelmingly descendants of European immigrants during the time of the Industrial Revolution in northern Europe, have experienced a far greater set of advantages. Except for the Civil War, they did not suffer a disruption as great, long lasting or traumatic as the Mexicano people. Instead, Americans, heirs to Protestantism CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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grupos minoritarios como aún sucede hasta el día de hoy. Con el tiempo fueron esclavizando a muchas otras personas, esta vez, no solo para el trabajo en los campos, sino que eran usados para trabajar en fábricas para la elaboración de productos industriales como sigue sucediendo en muchos países del tercer mundo hasta el día de hoy.

Hace quinientos años, grandes regiones de lo que hoy es México y Los Estados Unidos fueron los territorios de centenares de tribus indígenas. Entre ellas figuraban los Mayas de Yucatan, un pueblo sumamente desarrollado y numeroso, como también los indigenas nómadas de los grandes llanos de Norteamérica que vivían esparcidos y que amaban ante todo, su libertad. El hecho de que México fue conquistado y colonizado por los españoles y que Los Estados Unidos fue conquistado y colonizado por los ingleses y franceses fue uno de los factores que han definido a éstos dos países vecinos quienes comparten más de dos mil millas de frontera y que en le futuro posiblemente compartan una muralla.

Mientras que, por un lado, Los Estados Unidos eliminó casi todos los vestigios del pasado indígena de este continente, incluso a millones de seres humanos a base de la fuerza, México, por otro lado, absorbió genéticamente a los españoles y africanos ya que su población aborigen era mayor. Con el tiempo, su pueblo numeroso adoptó el español como primera lengua así como también muchas de las instituciones de origen europeo. Se calcula que durante su época colonial ingresaron al país cerca de un medio millón de españoles y otro tanto de africanos. Desde entonces la inmigración de gente de otros países del mundo a México no ha sido decisiva como la fue en Los Estados Unidos.

Como consecuencia de este proceso histórico, la población de México es mayoritariamente indígena y aún se esta recuperando del holocausto que representó la conquista española en la cual padecieron millones de personas y en la cual se destruyeron culturas profundamente arraigadas. Su pueblo, que por lo general, es inteligente, amable, trabajador y muy sufrido, aún se sigue recuperando de siglos de abusos por los grandes hacendados, líderes déspotas, la Revolución Mexicana de 1910, invasiones de otros países y últimamente, las recientes y muy graves crisis económicas.

Mientras tanto, el pueblo de los Estados Unidos, en su mayoría descendientes de inmigrantes europeos durante la época de la revolución industrial, ha gozado de muchas más ventajas. Con la excepción de la Guerra Civil de 1863, y la gran depresión de 1930, su pueblo no ha sufrido cataclismos tan grandes o tan devastadoras como los que ha padecido el pueblo y la nación mexicana. Herederos del protestantismo y de la ética del trabajo protestante, los Americanos, por otro lado, se creyeron

A farmer from central México disking a field in northern New Mexico’s Española Valley. Un campesino de México central preparando la tierra para la siembra en un ranchito del Valle de Española en el norte de Nuevo México

© Alejandro López (2)

Invariably, this small but powerful segment of the population also tended to run the governments and pass laws benefitting their own interests rather than those of the population at large, let alone of its ethnic minorities, as is still pretty much the case today. Yet other peoples were enslaved, not so much in the fields, but rather in factories, as still happens in many Third World or developing nations.

Members of the Mexican community greeting one another and celebrating a collective milestone together. Gente mexicana saludándose y celebrando logros comunitarios.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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Immigrants continued from page 19 and the Protestant work ethic, felt themselves ordained by God (Manifest Destiny) to push their rule of law from coast to coast in an effort to control commerce in the North Atlantic, throughout the Pacific, the entirety of the continent, and subsequently, much of the world. It did not matter if, in its drive to do so, it militarily appropriated one-half of México’s territory (including what is now New Mexico), whose resources, including human, it immediately began to exploit.

© Seth Roffman

In the last two decades, much of México’s rural campesino population has been displaced and rendered obsolete by the torrents of imported corn and other staples that come from the United States as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But even before that, large multinational corporations exploited much of México’s and the rest of Latin America’s wealth.

U.S. Senator Tom Udall, D-N.M., who was at the New Mexico capitol to address legislators, spoke at an immigrant rights rally on Feb. 6, 2017. Udall said that “under the new Executive Order, we are pitting communities against each other and erecting a wall that won’t secure our borders and will cost billions or taxpayer dollars and risk the relationship of one of our closest allies, Mexico.” Tom Udall, senador

estadounidense, demócrata de Nuevo Mexico, quien se encontraba en el capitolio estatal para hablarles a los legisladores, habló durante un rally sobre los derechos de inmigrantes el 6 de febrero, 2017. Udall dijo que, “De acuerdo con los recientes ordenes ejecutivos, se está sembrando enemistad entre las varias comunidades. Además, se está construyendo una muralla que no solo no protegerá la frontera internacional sino que costará billones de dólares sufragada por quienes pagan impuestos y que comprometerá la relación entre Estados Unidos y México, uno de sus aliados más leales.”

To complicate matters even more, the majority of Mexican states and urban areas stretching from Acapulco, Guerrero to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and from Guaymas, Sinaloa to Monterrey, Nuevo León, have, in the last 10 years, been riddled by extreme violence. This is due to turf wars being carried out by drug cartels intent on controlling the lucrative trade routes into the U.S., whose appetite for drugs such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana appears to be boundless.

Significantly, the arms that cartels use to eliminate their rivals or anyone who gets in their way are supplied by marketers in the U.S. who care not how their lethal merchandise is used, as long as it turns a profit. As can be seen, the fate of these two neighbors is inextricably bound together as it was even before the arrival of European powers, when the culture of corn, chocolate, parrot feathers, clay pots, turquoise, and bows and arrows knew no boundaries.

Carlos and Norma, (not their real names) fled the violence of their birthplace, a large city in central México, where bullets were flying around at their daughter’s elementary school when they went to pick her up one afternoon. One fateful day eight years ago, they left everything, including their home and jobs selling computers, and journeyed to northern New Mexico with just a few things in tow.

After working for several years cutting meat at a grocery store and cleaning houses, they established their own food business. Today, they spend as much time working as they do helping fellow immigrants with advice on how to survive in a society that day-by-day is growing more hostile toward immigrants. By and large, the objective of these people is not to exploit the U.S. or its institutions, let alone to stir up crime; but rather, to survive, as did our ancestors who might

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

haber sido ordenados por Dios (el destino manifiesto) en imponer su mando de ley desde el atlántico al pacéfico con tal de monopolizar el comercio por todos los mares y todas las regiones del mundo.

El hecho de que se haya apropiado de la mitad del territorio Mexicano, incluso Nuevo México, nunca lo consideró como gran cosa. Tampoco lo fue la explotación de sus recursos naturales y la mano de obra de su gente oriunda.

Durante las últimas décadas, mucha de la población campesina de México ha sido desplazada por el derrame en el mercado de grandes cantidades de maíz y otros comestibles que el país suele importar de Los Estados Unidos como resultado del Tratado de Libre Comercio. Pero aún antes de esto, muchas de las riquezas de México así como de gran parte de America Latina fueron apropiadas y explotadas por las grandes multinacionales sin que el país pudiera defender sus propios intereses.

Pa r a m á s , l a v i o l e n c i a q u e d e s d e Guaymas, Sinaloa hasta Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua y desde Acapulco, Guerrero hasta Monterrey, Nuevo León se ha dado durante los últimos diez años a raíz del narcotráfico ha hecho que el pueblo mexicano haya sufrido nuevos agravios.

Esta crisis de violencia se debe a que los sicarios luchan entre si para conseguir el control de las rutas del narcotráfico hacia Los Estadios Unidos cuyo apetito por droga ilegal tal como a heroina, la cocaina y la marihuana, parece ser insaciable.

Significativamente, las armas empleadas por los carteles para eliminar a sus rivales o a cualquiera que se les oponga, provienen de comerciantes de armas norteamericanos a quienes no les importa otra cosa más que sacar ganancias de sus ventas. Es claro para cualquiera que el destino de estos dos países vecinos están enteramente entrelazados así como sus territorios lo estuvieron en la época antes de la llegada de los europeos cuando la cultura del maíz, de las plumas de pájaros tropicales, la cerámica, la turquesa, el chocolate y el arco y la flecha no conocían frontera alguna.

Carlos y Norma (nombres ficticios) huyeron la violencia de su ciudad natal en el centro de México cuando un día, fueron a recoger a su niña de la escuela primaria, y presenciaron una balacera terrible en medio de una disputa entre la policía y el crimen organizado. A partir de eso, hace ocho años decidieron abandonar su pueblo, dejando atrás su casa y su trabajo vendiendo computadoras. Llegaron a Nuevo México casi sin nada.

Después de trabajar por varios años en una carnicería y limpiando casas, establecieron su propio negocio. Hoy día dedican casi la mitad de su tiempo a ayudar a personas inmigrantes de su comunidad

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have followed woolly mammoths from a once secure place to another of greater risks where the food supply might be more reliable. What these immigrants are willing to give in return is hard work, knowledge of the land, and good will, along with friendliness, generosity, humility and joie de vivre; a set of personal qualities essential to any healthy society, but which have largely disappeared from American life.

They are doing what any people would do under similar circumstances and certainly what the European-born ancestors of most Americans did during the last few centuries, during which they immigrated to the United States.

To be sure, many arrived without a stitch of written evidence stating that they were the people who they said that they were, for many of them also came fleeing famines, wars, pogroms and repressive regimes.

By and large, the objective of these people is not to exploit the U.S. or its institutions, let alone to stir up crime; but rather, to survive.

que necesitan algún tipo de apoyo, ya sea emocional o legal, ya que día a día la sociedad se está volviendo más hostil hacia la comunidad inmigrante. Por lo general, esas personas no han llegado para aprovecharse de Los Estados Unidos. Ni han venido para explotar sus instituciones y mucho menos para cometer crímenes.

Han venido aquí como ultimo recurso para sobrevivir así como lo hicieron nuestros antepasados cuando seguían los mamuts de un lugar conocido a otro desconocido pero donde existían mejores posibilidades para sobrevivir. Lo que estas personas están dispuestas a dar a cambio, son su enorme deseo para trabajar, su amor a la tierra, su trato amable, su generosidad, y su deseo incesante por vivir la vida. Aunque estas cualidades constituyen la base para cualquier sociedad, ya casi no se encuentran en la sociedad predominante de Estados Unidos. Ellos vienen aportando algo que ya no tenemos.

Estas personas hacen lo que todo el mundo haría en sus mismas circunstancias y lo que seguramente hicieron los antepasados europeos de la mayoría de Americanos cuando durante los últimos siglos, inmigraron a Los Estados Unidos. De hecho, muchos de ellos llegaron a Ellis Island desprovistos de todo documento que acertara que eran las personas quienes decían que eran, ya que muchos de ellos venían huyendo de hambres, guerras, malos gobiernos y persecuciones.

Today, I can say unequivocally that, as a result of the presence of people such as Carlos and Norma, my land is being farmed, my roof has been made secure, my car fixed and my native language— one of the principal historic languages of this region—is being shored up.

When I interact with people such as Carlos and Norma, it never occurs to me to ask them if they have papers or how they got here, just as I do not ask the same of the Anglos whose provenance is more of a mystery to me than that of the more indigenous Mexicano. Instead, I treat them well, welcome them into my home and do for them what our shared humanity commands us to do: be kind, loving and compassionate. 

Hoy puedo decir completamente convencido que como resultado del trabajo de personas como Carlos y Noma, mis tierras están sembradas, el techo de mi casa está segura, mi coche compuesto, y mi idioma, uno de los lenguajes históricos de este region, bastante refrescado y enriquecido. Cuando convivo con personas como Carlos y Norma, nunca se me ocurre pedirles sus papeles o preguntarles como es que llegaron aquí, así como no se me ocurre hacerlo con los anglos cuya procedencia para mi es más misteriosa que la de la gente mexicana por ser la última autóctona de las Americas.

Por mi parte, me preocupo en tratarlos bien, darles la bienvenida y actuar hacia ellos como mi sentido común y mi respeto hacia la humanidad me inspira hacerlo: con bondad, compasión y amor. 

Alejandro López, a native New Mexican educator, writer and artist, teaches Spanish to Englishlanguage speakers and English to Spanish-speaking individuals.

López was the New Mexico coordinator of An Apprenticeship in Peace, a program of the National Indian Youth Leadership Project, which hosted Nobel Peace Prize laureates from throughout the world who facilitated community dialogues and forums on justice and human rights issues.

Alejandro López es un maestro, escritor y artista de procedencia nuevo mexicana. Da clases de inglés a gente de habla española y clases de español a gente de habla inglesa. También fue el coordinador de un programa llamado Aprendizaje de Paz para el National Indian Youth Leadership Project en la cual apremiados del Premio Nobel por la Paz acudieron a Nuevo Mexico para participar en foros públicos sobre la paz y la justicia.

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IMMIGRANTS IN NEW MEXICO

According to the Migration Policy Institute, New Mexico has about 204,000 immigrants, documented and undocumented, mostly from Latin America, who make up about 13 percent of the state’s total workforce. Using 2014 data, the Pew Research Center reports that New Mexico is among the top 10 states with the highest number of “unauthorized” immigrants in its workforce.

WalletHub, a company that studies trends in the economy and finance, compared the 50 states plus the District of Columbia across four key dimensions: Immigrant Workforce, Socioeconomic Contribution, Brain Gain & Innovators and International Students. New Mexico ranks 34th among states where immigrants have the largest economic impact and 25th for jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses. The medium household income of the foreign-born population, at $32,489 a year, placed the state at 51st. The state also came in last for foreign-born adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher. But New Mexico is No. 1 for the foreign-born population’s homeownership rate, at 62.8 percent.

NEWS IMPACTING IMMIGRANTS IN NEW MEXICO

In February, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped up raids at homes and workplaces to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

The police chief at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces said that his department wouldn’t seek authority to enforce immigration laws on campus.

The Santa Fe City Council approved a resolution reaffirming the city’s status as a welcoming community for immigrants and refugees.

Many restaurants, businesses and some construction sites closed for the day on Feb. 16 as part of a nationwide movement called “A Day without Immigrants.”

Hundreds of people packed the rotunda of the state capitol for the “Immigrant Day of Action” rally to demonstrate their alarm at President Trump’s immigration executive order.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas was among attorneys general from 16 states across the country that filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit opposing the new immigrant restrictions.

POTENTIAL IMPACT ON NEW MEXICO OF A TRADE WAR WITH MÉXICO

Given the current tension between México and the U.S. over the possible construction of a border wall and the future of free trade, some are considering what the impacts of a trade war would be. WalletHub ranked New Mexico No. 4 on a list of states that would be hardest hit by a trade war with México. México is New Mexico’s largest trading partner for goods and services and is tied with Arizona and Texas for the highest percentage of exports to and imports from México as a percentage of the state total. New Mexico ranks fifth among states with the highest percentage of exports to México as a percentage of state gross domestic product (GDP), one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of the state’s economy.

TRES HERMANAS FARM: GROWING REFUGEE FUTURES

Lutheran Family Services-Rocky Mountains, a nonprofit human service and refugee resettlement agency that has been ser ving children and families regardless of race, religion, gender or age since 1948, has received a federal grant to start a refugee farming program. The project will break ground this spring in Albuquerque at the Río Grande Community Farm and another site.

Refugees will have access to land, tools, water, seed, workshops and mentors to grow food for themselves and their families. If they are interested in taking produce to market, the program will help facilitate the application process and market-day logistics.

With the current political climate there is a lot of uncertainty in communities, making initiatives such as this important for providing productive training, food and for building ties between new Americans and local communities. For more information, call Zoey Fink: 505.835.5527.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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NEW MEXICO’S SOLAR INDUSTRY Job Growth from the Sky Seth Roffman

N

ew Mexico has 76 solar companies and had 2,929 solar jobs in 2016, a 54 percent increase from 2015, according to a report from the nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based Solar Foundation. About a fifth of those jobs are in manufacturing.

Others are in installing, sales, project development, training, research and development. New Mexico ranked No. 8 in the country for solar jobs per capita.

Most are in Bernalillo County.

The foundation’s jobs census says that one of every 50 new jobs in the country was in the solar industry, which added more jobs than oil, natural gas and coal combined.

Solar Foundation Executive Director Andrea Luecke said in a statement: “In 2016, we saw a dramatic increase in the solar workforce across the nation, thanks to a rapid decrease in the cost of solar panels and unprecedented consumer demand for solar installations.” Luecke also said that there is a serious shortage of skilled workers.

Facebook Data Center To m e e t t h e r e n e w a b l e e n e r g y requirements of the massive Facebook data center being built in Los Lunas, the highest-grossing solar company in the state, Albuquerque-based Affordable Solar, is building three solar farms at a cost of $45 million. Another Albuquerque-based company, Array Technologies, which has dominated the U.S. solar tracker market and has about 180 employees in the city, will provide the data center’s solar tracking equipment. Public Service Co. of New Mexico will provide the energy for the center. PNM Resources is financing the half-million-square-foot project for Facebook. The project will create 300 jobs, including many for local companies. Affordable Solar will hire 40 additional employees. The first solar farm of the six-phase complex is to be completed by January 2018. It is unknown how much local companies will benefit from the data center’s presence once construction is over.

SolAero Technologies Corp.

Last month SolAero Technologies C o r p. a n n o u n c e d a $ 1 0 - m i l l i o n ,

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The combination of elevation, temperature and sun give northern New Mexico, and Albuquerque as well, a sustainable competitive advantage for solar, which means low cost for power generation.

40,000-square-foot expansion to its Sandia Science and Technology Park headquar ters, where the company employs about 250 people. More than 100 new jobs in Albuquerque will be created. SolAero’s solar panels will soon be powering defense and commercial drones and hundreds of Airbus OneWeb low earth orbit satellites, which will provide high-speed Internet access to underserved communities around the globe. SolAero was recently awarded a grant of $182,000 from the state Economic Development Department under its Job Training Incentive Program to support 25 jobs. mPower Technology Inc. An Albuquerque star tup, mPower Technology Inc., has invested about $1 million to develop Dragon SCALEs, lightweight, flexible sheets using microengineered photovoltaic technology developed by Sandia Labs. “Solar glitter,” tiny low-cost solar cells, could soon power a wide range of consumer devices, satellites and, eventually, buildings. The company, which has a commercial license agreement with Sandia Labs, is ready to market the technology. 

KIT CARSON ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE AND GUZMAN RE PARTNERS LAUNCH LONG-TERM SOLAR PARTNERSHIP Formed in 1944, Kit Carson Electric (www.kitcarson.com) is the second largest cooperative in the state. It is one of 12 electric cooperatives that serve rural New Mexico communities. Its territory includes Taos, Colfax and Río Arriba counties.

Guzman Energy Group (www.guzmanenergy.com) is “a specialty energy company that finances, trades and operates energy assets across North America.” The Floridabased firm has an office in Denver, Colo.

With Guzman’s help, last summer Kit Carson bought out its contract with TriState Generation and Transmission, which had limited local power generation to 5 percent of the co-op’s load. Kit Carson and Guzman Renewable Energy Partners (GREP) have since announced that, in addition to serving as wholesale energy supplier, GREP has become Kit Carson’s exclusive solar energy partner.

Their goal is to enable the co-op’s customers meet all of their summer power needs from solar by 2022. With the support of outside investors, they intend to do this by installing up to 30 megawatts of renewable capacity, using 1-megawatt solar arrays and battery storage.

The initiative would make the cooperative one of the greenest in the country, not to mention saving its 30,000 members more than $50 million over the next 10 years, according to a press release. “This plan will also allow our community to be much more competitive in attracting businesses and jobs,” says Luís Reyes, Kit Carson’s CEO. Guzman’s managing director, Jeffrey Heit, said, “What better way to demonstrate that we are a new kind of energy partner and demonstrate our commitment to the community and more broadly, New Mexico, than by working with Kit Carson to support their renewable energy goals?” Guzman also provides power to the Jicarilla Apache Nation and built a 1-megawatt solar farm for the city of Aztec, N.M. The project generates about 8 percent of the city’s electricity.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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NAVAJO URANIUM MINE SETTLEMENT

The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Nation recently reached a settlement agreement with two subsidiaries of FreeportMcMoRan to clean up 94 abandoned uranium mines in western New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Cyrus Amax and Western Nuclear will evaluate the engineering.

The EPA will collaborate with the tribe’s environmental protection agency to oversee the work. Environmental investigation and remediation jobs will be offered to members of the Navajo Nation. The federal government has agreed to place $335 million into a trust account to pay about half of the cleanups’ costs.

The consent decree is subject to approval by a federal court. With this settlement, funds are now committed to begin the cleanup at over 200 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. Many Navajos worked in and near the mines, often living and raising families in close proximity to the mines and mills where ore was processed. Former miners and residents continue to lobby for legislation that would cover the cost of medical treatments for health problems that allegedly resulted.

Private entities mined approximately 30 million tons of uranium ore on or near the Navajo Nation between 1944 and 1986. The federal government, through the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), was the sole purchaser until 1966, when commercial sales began. The AEC continued to purchase ore until 1970. The last uranium mine on the Navajo Nation shut down in 1986. There are three proposed mines in the Grand Canyon area and a closed mine that has been seeking permits to reopen.

NAVAJO GENERATING STATION MAY CLOSE BY 2019

In part because natural gas is now less expensive than coal, owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) near Page, Arizona, want to close the massive plant when its lease expires in two years. The NGS serves customers in Arizona and Nevada and provides power to pump water from the Colorado River to urban areas via the Central Arizona Project.

The closure would affect about 800 workers at the NGS, Peabody Coal’s Kayenta Mine 78 miles away and ancillary jobs. Hopi Tribal Chairman Herman Honanie said that at least 80 percent of the Hopi Tribe’s revenues are derived from the power plant and mine.

The owners of the NGS—Salt River Project (SRP), Arizona Public Service Corp., Nevada Energy and Tucson Electric Power—now must negotiate with the Navajo a lease for removal and restoration on their land after the plant closes in 2019. According to an SRP spokesman, if no deal can be reached, the plant will close in 2017.

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye wants to keep the NGS operating through at least 2030 and said he would petition the Trump administration for support.

Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, one of several Navajo groups challenging NGS’ federal exemption from having to reduce its haze-causing nitrogen oxide emissions, said in a statement, “It is up to Begaye to embrace new forms of energy and send a clear message that the tribe is in the business of developing our vast renewable energy resources.” A 2012 U.S. Dept. of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory study that evaluated alternatives to the NGS concluded that Navajo lands have the potential to generate 1.2 terawatts of utility-scale solar energy.

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OFFICIALS SEEK TO OVERTURN METHANE RULE

New Mexico’s Governor, Susana Martínez, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn are backing a Republican congressional effort to overturn the BLM Methane and Natural Gas Waste Prevention Rule, which requires producers to capture methane vented, flared or leaked on public and tribal lands and to comply with increased inspections. They say the rule is unnecessary and threatens jobs and funding for schools and roads.

The rule is projected to reduce the $330-million of taxpayer- and tribally-owned natural gas currently wasted annually, enough to supply nearly 740,000 homes for a year. An emerging methane mitigation sector now provides jobs in 46 states.

The rule’s opponents have not addressed the fossil fuel industry’s role in the buildup of greenhouse gasses—predominantly CO2 and methane—that are contributing to the dire impacts of climate change. Methane is a concentrated gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. It has also been linked to respiratory ailments. Emissions from the San Juan Basin have created a 2,500-square-mile methane cloud over the Four Corners region. New Mexico is one of the only oil and gas states in the U.S. that has no state-level air-quality regulations for oil and gas wells. A repeal of the federal rule would leave New Mexico without a tool to clean up the methane hot spot. The Trump administration plans to open up additional public lands for coal, oil and gas production.

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James H. Auerbach, MD and Staff support Green Fire Times in its efforts to bring about a better world by focusing on the people, enterprises and initiatives that are transforming New Mexico into a diverse and sustainable economy.

SOME OF THE TOPICS GREEN FIRE TIMES SHOWCASES: Green: Building, Products, Services, Entrepreneurship, Investing and Jobs; Renewable Energy, Sustainable Agriculture, Regional Cuisine, Ecotourism, Climate Adaptation, Natural Resource Stewardship, Arts & Culture, Health & Wellness, Regional History, Community Development, Educational Opportunities James H. Auerbach, MD provides dermatology services in Santa Fe, NM (Sorry, we are no longer accepting new clients.)

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

MEDITATION IS the ULTIMATE RESISTANCE

Japa K. K halsa

I

didn’t grow up with a contemplative practice but began meditating years ago in college. I knew very little about what meditation was, and there was no Internet at the time to cruise for ideas. I knew that I wanted to feel less stress about my sense of life. Looking back, I see what an easy life I had—no mortgage, no kids and no job—but at the time it seemed truly overwhelming, just because of my own brain’s activities.

I picked up a book at the library on the topic and began a simple mental focus meditation where you focus your mind on one object like a candle flame. When your mind wanders, bring the focus back to contemplation of the object in all of its details. But it can be hard to jump right into a contemplative practice unless you have worked on training the breath first. This connects the brain to the nervous system in a way that cuts through the stresses of life and gives you an ability to clear out your brain and reset it.

Penetrate Overwhelm by Controlling the Breath Breathing exercises can reduce feelings of overwhelm. Even if you are a longtime meditator, it can add to your experience.

Try Dr. Andrew Weil’s “4-7-8 Breath.”

He speaks to the myriad possibilities of how this one very short exercise can contribute to health, especially if done every day. Right now, the billions of dollars spent on pharmaceutical research is preventing research on meditation, which is a free, harmless activity anyone can do without fear of all the problems caused by pharmaceuticals. The emerging research on meditation, although not as comprehensive as the dollar-driven pharmaceutical research, clearly indicates multiple health and wellness benefits.

How to Do the 4-7-8 Breath Come into an easy-seated position. Before you start the sequence of controlled breathing, first blow the air out through an open mouth in a strong puff. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system through the vagus nerve and helps you relax. Just do this one time, then begin the following sequence and repeat it four times: Inhale slowly through the nose to the count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven and then slowly exhale through the mouth to a count of eight. Exhalation is longest.

Do this at a rate that is comfortable for you.

Try this twice a day. You can feel spacey afterwards, so have a glass of water and integrate the experience. Consider

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squeezing this practice in at certain moments. Say you wake up at night and can’t sleep. Try it. Or make it a habit to do this breath at the end of the day when you park your car at your house.

Meditation and the Vagus Nerve Meditation retrains the brain and nervous system toward greater relaxation. When you take a deep breath out with force, or do a segmented breathing pattern; this activates the vagus nerve. In multiple yoga traditions, the vagus nerve is known as the “nerve of compassion.” It is the longest nerve in the body and controls parts of the “rest and relax” or parasympathetic nervous system. This wandering nerve is located in the neck and head and spreads through the body, innervating the heart, digestion and lungs. The Center for Compassion in Berkeley California has made a mission of figuring out how to enhance and train the vagus nerve to have greater “vagal tone.”

Studies have proven that when this nerve is activated, a person will behave in more loving ways. Certain life activities, such as singing, bonding with others and sitting in meditative postures with the neck tucked down, all activate the vagus nerve through the muscles in the neck, tongue and head. Through meditation and controlled breathing, you train this unconscious part of the nervous system to be under your conscious control.

Shatter the illusion that you are separate and alone.

Why Is Meditation Important?

Meditation at this time isn’t just a wellness or a lifestyle practice but a necessity. As we see the overwhelming polarization in this country, where people are attacking and disparaging each other for differing views, it is critical that each person take responsibility for contemplative practice of some kind in his or her own way. We have to develop that inner seed of compassion, where the mind and heart are connected and where we see ourselves reflected in each other, no matter what the differences are.

Take the time to sit down and contemplate, breathe deeply, meditate and be in the moment. Your contemplation practice can be sitting quietly in the morning as you drink a cup of tea and listen to the morning birds. You can adopt a formal program if you like or just cultivate a moment-tomoment sense of gratitude and connection.

This is not just for yourself, so that you can have wellness; this is for humanity at large.

Dedicate your contemplative practice to the world, feel connected with every being that is out there, and shatter the illusion that you are separate and alone. Every breath that you take is literally a small piece of the universe.

When you hold it inside of yourself and then let it go back to the world, a piece of you merges with everyone else.

This simple and crucial act of defiance can change the world one breath at a time. Multiple studies have shown that if you have the courage to take the time to meditate daily, the structures in your brain will be fine-tuned so that you begin to experience the world with a sense of oneness. The actions you take will have greater compassion, less reactivity and more kindness.

Meditation reminds you that you have a choice. If you choose to meditate daily, it brings you back to self-responsibility and helps you see that your life is a mirror to the inner you. All of what you see around you and how you participate with it is completely up to you. When you give yourself time to meditate daily, you dump a lot of personal negativity and you will take life less personally and with a bit more panache. Try this and see how it affects you. It does take time to change.

The “O” Mouth: Emotional Release Breath This is something very easy to try the next time life takes you by surprise and you feel emotional or overwhelmed. Close your eyes and make your mouth into an “O” shape.

Breathe loudly with a strong inhale and a strong exhale of equal measure. You should be

able to hear a loud “whoosh” sound and your diaphragm should move with every breath.

Feel your diaphragm/stomach contract as you exhale and expand with every inhale. Do this for a minute or two, even if you feel light headed. Then stop and rest with a normal breathing pattern. See if this powerful breath changes the situation in your mind.  Japa K. Khalsa, DOM, co-author of Enlightened Bodies: Exploring P hy sic al and S ubtle Human Anatomy (enlightenedbodies.com), teaches a weekly yoga class for people with chronic pain at Sacred Kundalini in Santa Fe. She combines traditional acupuncture with herbal and nutritional medicine, injection therapy and energy healing. Her work emphasizes optimal health and personal transformation through self-care and awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. www.drjapa.com

MEDITATION: RESOURCES FOR NEW MEXICO Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM https://cac.org/living-school/

Sign up for daily emails from Richard Rohr, a New Mexican Franciscan Friar who teaches awakening to mysticism and contemplation. https://cac.org/richard-rohr/ richard-rohr-ofm/

Thubten Norbu Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center—Join together with Santa Feans to learn meditations and teachings from the heart. http://www.tnlsf.org Japa K. Khalsa DOM: 505.929.2794, www.drjapa.com

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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GRAYWATCH:

THE ROAD to BETTER HEALTH in NEW MEXICO

Janet Bailey

I

t was a Sunday afternoon and I had been feeling lousy. Suddenly, lousy turned to scary. I had a fever of 103º, nausea and agonizing muscle cramps. As people do, my husband and I debated whether a trip to the emergency room was necessary. We delayed, we tried to wait it out; we didn’t want to overreact.

At last, we rushed to Christus St. Vincent, where they took my condition very seriously indeed. I had a dangerous, runaway infection. Over the next eight days, I was in the hands of strangers.

I was in a place where the language was unfamiliar. I was in a place where I didn’t know what to expect or what questions to ask. There were tests, some of them frightening, like the one with the foot-long needle penetrating my lung. Doctors popped in, offering either too much or too little information. The

hospital computer system was an old jalopy that stalled at every intersection.

Ultimately, the care was good and the nursing staff kind and attentive, but the experience was awful for both me and my husband, a weeklong bout of confusion and anxiety.

Back at home, dealing with an extended recover y, I tried to figure out how to avoid that ever happening again.

Here’s what I came up with: corral my friends and friends of friends and build a group that can share what they have experienced in the local health system. Together we could create a selfperpetuating guidebook, a way to make the best of what Santa Fe and northern New Mexico has to offer. I did just that and called it GrayWatch.

GrayWatch is a gathering together of friends and acquaintances, based in northern New Mexico, who find themselves at sea. How do you navigate your way through all this to reach rational healthcare decisions? When you are in trouble, what do you have to do to get the best possible outcome?

On the GrayWatch website, we have compiled a ton of information and links to reliable sources. We have

advice on how to choose a doctor. We expand our health geography t o i n c l u d e p ro v i d e r s in Albuquerque and beyond.

We a r e a n e t w o r k designed to share knowledge and e x p e r i e n c e. We l o o k to find wisdom in our c ro w d . To g e t h e r, w e can frame the right questions and track down the answers. We c an c arr y each other through difficult times.

Just like calling a friend for advice, you can tap i n t o t h e G r a y Wa t c h communit y any time you need it.

Caption: GrayWatch webpage (www.graywatch.org)

You can visit the website at www. graywatch.org. There is an option to join that allows you a deeper dive into the data. Send any queries to me, janet@ graywatch.org.  S a n t a Fe r e s i d e n t J a n e t B a i l e y operates a small retail chain, Barbara’s Bookstores. She is on the volunteer Action

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I

ST. VINCENT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

magine what could happen if an organization had money that was not part of its operating budget and that could be used to further the organization’s mission to improve the community.

What could these additional funds do for healthcare in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico? In 1980, a group of forwardthinking community leaders recognized the value that philanthropic support could add to a hospital and founded St. Vincent Hospital Foundation (SVHF). In the years since, the foundation has identified healthcare needs that are unmet and creatively addressed those needs. Governed by an independent board of directors, the foundation raises funds to meet the hospital’s needs for capital projects, major equipment, patient and community programs, education and special projects.

One of SVHF’s biggest initiatives is to raise money for capital projects. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center is in

the midst of a $44-million project to add a new wing and is creating all-private rooms for its adult patients. The foundation has committed to raising $11 million toward this endeavor. The expansion includes: • The addition of 36 new private rooms, plus the transformation of all existing shared patient rooms to private rooms, which will provide increased patient safety and comfort and a reduced risk of infection.

• I m p r o v e d p a t i e n t - c a r e g i v e r communication by eliminating privacy and confidentiality issues that arise in shared rooms.

• A sleeper sofa in each room will allow a family member to comfortably stay with a patient, which studies have shown promotes healing.

• Improved, state-of-the-art technology means better patient outcomes.

SVHF also supports patients who need mammograms and other diagnostic tests

St. Vincent Hospital Foundation offers nurses and other clinical staff the opportunity for ongoing training and further education.

SVHF’s Books for Babies program gives the family of each baby born at the hospital a baby book and information on the critical importance of reading to a baby.

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Green Fire Times • March 2017

Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center’s new wing with all-private rooms is under construction. students exposure, motivation, and tools to pursue a healthcare career and, ultimately, to alleviate the growing shortage of healthcare professionals in Santa Fe, the Healthcare Exploration Program provides an opportunity for high-school students to explore healthcare careers through a competitive, intensive, hands-on paid educational experience at northern New Mexico’s largest community regional medical center. Books for Babies is a program that gives the family of each baby born at the hospital a high-quality baby book, a tote bag and information on the critical importance of reading to your baby every day. Reach In addition, SVHF Out and Read serves over helps patients who need 12,000 children each year at medication or medical Arroyo Chamiso Pediatric equipment but can’t afford Clinic and Entrada it. Most patients served by Contenta Pediatric Clinic. this program are undergoing It helps prepare Santa cancer treatment and need Fe’s children for success pain medication. Case Jeff Lamie, executive director in school by partnering managers identify other of the St. Vincent Hospital with pediatricians, nurses special needs, which might Foundation and other trusted medical include medical equipment professionals, who “prescribe” books, such as a walker, arms for the side of a bed, encourage families to read together and a raised toilet seat, or compression socks— give them quality children’s books. basically any needs patients have that might present a financial hardship. SVHF has also Led by dedicated, concerned community paid for hotel rooms for family members members who believe in the value of of patients in ICU, provided gas cards or philanthropy, SVHF continues to make meal cards, and has even paid a patient’s important contributions to our community, utility bill so the individual’s heat wouldn’t as it has done for the past 37 years. be turned off.

For more information, contact Jeff Lamie, SVHF is also committed to young people executive director, St. Vincent Hospital through the Healthcare Exploration Foundation 505.913.5209, Jeff.Lamie@ Program, Books for Babies, and Reach stvin.org  Out and Read. Designed to give interested for breast cancer, which can be prohibitively expensive for low-to-moderate income people with no health insurance. Early diagnosis increases survival rates but is difficult without these screenings. The foundation created the Breast Cancer Care Fund in 2009 to provide financial assistance to anyone who would not otherwise have access to these procedures.

This fund ensures that uninsured people whose income is low enough that cost presents a financial barrier, and who don’t qualify for other financial-assistance screening programs, get the healthcare they need.

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SANTA FE NEIGHBORS/VECINOS DE SANTA FE

Neighbors helping Neighbors Age Independently at Home Terri Jerry

H

ow do you want to grow older?

In your own home among family and friends, with your pets, your garden, your memories and the things you love?

Decades ago, we used to gather for long, lively dinners with quantities of food and wine that lasted deep into the evening and involved much love and laughter.

Even back then, we knew how we wanted to live when we were old and grey. It looked pretty similar to the way we were living at the time… but with a little help.

Perhaps someone to drive us places, do the heavy lifting and keep our lives in some semblance of order so we could continue to enjoy family, friends and home.

One thing we knew for certain: not one of us wanted to go into a nursing home, but we didn’t quite know how we were going to avoid it. Now we do, thanks to the Village concept of aging.

Santa Fe Neighbors/Vecinos de Santa Fe is one of nearly 400 Villages throughout the U.S. in which members and volunteers together provide the physical services, social engagement and timely referrals necessary to help us stay in our own homes, make our own choices, and fully inhabit our own lives as we age. This is an old idea, but a fairly new development for many of us who grew up in the 20th century.

AN EXCEEDINGLY BRIEF HISTORY OF ELDER CARE IN AMERICA

Until the 19th and 20th centuries, aging was a natural process. The few people who

32

managed to reach old age lived out their days with their families in their communities.

Esteemed for their knowledge and skills, the old were responsible for passing on core values and traditions of their culture to future generations.

However, the Industrial Revolution, two world wars and a shrinking globe rapidly altered the world’s social order. The creation of a new, prosperous, mobile, fastmoving consumer culture marginalized the once-valued contributions of older Americans, who began to be warehoused together, isolated from family, friends and community in safe but sterile facilities.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the idea of “aging in place” became a viable alternative to the institutionalizing of old folks. In Boston, Massachusetts, a small determined group of seniors decided to find a better way, and banded together to create Beacon Hill Village—a neighborhood network of volunteers and services that provided members with the help they needed to age safely and comfortably in their own homes despite harsh winters and steep flights of stairs.

THE BENEFITS OF AGING WELL, IN PLACE

Since its inception, the Village concept has resonated strongly with people from all walks of life, backgrounds and age groups because (as our forebears instinctively knew) it provides immense tangible and intangible benefits to all who participate.

For younger seniors who are generally in good health but may be freshly retired and seeking new ways to live meaningfully,

Green Fire Times • March 2017

Some of the founding members of Santa Fe Neighbors/Vecinos de Santa Fe Villages offer intellectual stimulation, opportunities to help others and pathways to new community. For older seniors or seniors with health issues that require help with some of the instruments of daily living, such as transportation, shopping, meal preparation, chores and housework, Villages provide real support through volunteers, comprehensive resource lists of providers and a variety of social, cultural and physical activities that make life rich and normal.

HOW SANTA FE NEIGHBORS WORKS

For people of any age, volunteering offers the opportunity to stay active physically, mentally and socially, to have meaningful interactions across generations and to make a real difference in others’ lives. From stopping by to say “hi,” to changing a light bulb or walking a dog, to providing transportation to a doctor or picking up CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

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EVERYDAY GREEN

Cleaning Green Susan Guyette

T

hat time of year is here again for cleaning our nests. Will you safeguard your family’s health or reach for the toxic cleaner? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates an average of over 400 toxic exposures daily in the average household. And cleaners comprise a high number of those exposures. Small, chronic everyday exposures can easily add up to health problems.

Chemicals in household products can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled into the lungs or ingested into the stomach. Exposure is greatest during the actual use of the product and continues as residues linger. Chlorinated hydrocarbons, often contained in cleaning products, are produced from the Earth’s petroleum. Among the health effects of chlorinated hydrocarbons are cancer, hormonal disruption, developmental and reproductive disorders and other serious conditions.

Health impacts are not only to the personal environment of you and your family but also to our larger environment. Consider the consequences of toxic products entering our streams and water supply regionally. Bioregional land health depends in part upon the choices of each individual, with small actions adding up to the protection of Mother Earth.

Everyday toxic exposures can easily add up to health problems.

Now might be the time for looking closely at your cleaning products to determine potential health impacts—while saving money as well!

CHEMICALS IN YOUR CUPBOARD

Of the thousands of synthetic chemicals used by the cleaning products industry, here are a few common examples that many cleaners use.

All-purpose cleaners—contain alkanol amines, carcinogen precursors Deodorizers, disinfectants and germicides—contain formaldehyde, a carcinogen Laundry detergents—contain alkyl phenoxy ethanols, which are hormone disruptors Furniture polishes—contain amyl acetate, a neurotoxin Window cleaners—contain butyl cellosolve, a liver/kidney neurotoxin Dish and laundry liquids—often contain dioxane, an immune-suppressant and carcinogen Toilet and carpet cleaners—contain naphthalene, a kidney toxin, cataract trigger and carcinogen.

© Seth Roffman (2)

Body burden, or toxic load, is the accumulation of toxins stored in the body. A large number of these chemicals are fat-soluble, meaning that they are easily absorbed by fats and oils. According to an EPA study of human fatty tissue samples, Americans carry at

Susan Guyette has a variety of non-toxic but effective cleaning products to choose from at La Montañita Co-op least 700 pollutants in the body. Meanwhile, the number of new cleaning products increases dramatically every year due to the ever-expanding demand resulting from corporate media promotion. The better news is the simplicity of the biodegradable alternatives.

THE ALTERNATIVES

Sixty years ago most of these synthetic chemical products did not exist. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well the basic ingredients in homemade cleaning products work—and for pennies in cost! Vinegar and baking soda work well for most cleaning tasks and are biodegradable. The least expensive white vinegar works well.

All Purpose Cleaner: Mix ½ cup of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a spray bottle. Fill the bottle with water and shake to mix.

Window Cleaner: Mix 1 cup vinegar with 2 cups of water. Pour into a spray bottle. For stubborn jobs, use 1 part vinegar to 1 part water.

Natural Drain Cleaner: Mix ½ cup of baking soda with 1 cup vinegar in a large container (this foams up). Pour down drain and let work for about 10 minutes. Then pour 1 to 2 quarts of boiling water into the drain. Let it work before using the drain.

Oven Cleaner: Sprinkle baking soda on stubborn areas.Then, spray lightly with vinegar— the mix will bubble. Let the mixture work overnight. Wipe clean with a cloth.

If you prefer to buy commercially made cleaning products, here’s a guide: Shop at locally owned natural food stores. Some good brands are Seventh Generation, Ecover, Biokleen, Better Life, Ecos and Earth Friendly Products.

A SAFER YEAR

If the price of less toxic cleaners seems excessive, consider this: The more products you buy, the more you spend while also using plastic products in the containers. Two or three products on hand will suffice for almost any job. For example, granulated dishwasher detergent is fabulous for cleaning sinks, counters, and tubs. No need for all those specialized cleaners and expense.

Remember, if your cleaner or deodorizer has a scent, chances are very high that it contains formaldehyde to preserve the scent. Maintaining personal and family health depends upon protecting yourself in a toxic world. In this new era, individuals taking responsibility for environmental protection will be key.

Small steps by individuals add up to big results. More recipes can be found online at Women’s Voices for the Earth (www.womensvoice.org) and the resource www. naturalcleaningguide.com. Have fun with it! Avoid the serious health hazards in synthetic chemical cleaners. Just don’t buy them. 

Vinegar and baking soda work well for most cleaning tasks.

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Susan Guyette, Ph.D., is of Métis heritage (Micmac Indian/Acadian French) and a planner specializing in cultural tourism, cultural centers, museums and native foods.

Her passion is supporting the cultural retention of time-honored traditions. She is the author of Sustainable Cultural Tourism: Small-Scale Solutions; Planning for Balanced Development; and co-author of Zen Birding: Connect in Nature. sguyette@nets.com.

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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Santa Fe Neighbors continued from page

32

To request a service, a member needs to make only one call to Santa Fe Neighbors or make the request online, and an email goes out to every volunteer who provides that particular type of service. The volunteer signs up; we notify the member with details, and follow up afterward by checking to make sure the service was completed to the satisfaction of all concerned. All volunteers are vetted and insured.

PLAN FOR TOMORROW. LIVE FOR TODAY.

Santa Fe Neighbors is a grassroots, member-driven, self-governing, selfsupporting, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization designed to help Santa Fe County residents over the age of 55 live comfortably and safely at home. We are here to provide peace of mind for seniors and their families, with support when and where it is needed.

Santa Fe is blessed with many things,

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© Seth Roffman

groceries, to teaching someone to text or FaceTime, volunteers choose the kinds of help they are able to offer, when and where they can offer it, and whether to volunteer solo or with a family member or friend.

The Commons, a co-housing community in Santa Fe, infuses a sense of community into daily living while also respecting privacy and individual needs of the residents. including excellent organizations that serve the elderly, but they cannot possibly provide all the services we need now and in the future. According to U.S. census figures, the number of people older than 65 in Santa Fe County grew from 21,770 to 31,075 between 2010 and 2015, an increase of well over 40 percent, and this trend is continuing strongly everywhere.

By adding a layer of personal support and connections to existing services, Santa Fe Neighbors, like other Villages across the country, is helping forge a dynamic, diverse community of friendship and empowerment

Green Fire Times • March 2017

for those of us lucky enough to live right here in our glorious part of the world.

For more information about Santa Fe Neighbors/Vecinos de Santa Fe, visit santafeneighbors.org, call 505.204.5141or email info@santafeneighbors.org  Terri Jerry, formerly creative director/partner of a small marketing and advertising firm, is a board member of Santa Fe Neighbors. She has done extensive volunteer work with the Women’s International Study Center, the Museum of International Folk Art and Girls, Inc.

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NEWSBITEs “SEASONS OF GROWTH” LEARNING SERIES AT IPCC Visitors will be guided through a history of indigenous agriculture.

Visitors will get their hands dirty as they learn about Pueblo agriculture by digging into the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC)’s Resilience Garden. On March 12 IPCC’s Cultural Education team will launch a series of monthly classes called “Seasons of Growth” to guide participants through the history and techniques of indigenous farming. The public is invited to participate in planting, cultivating and harvesting from 9 to 11 am the second Sunday of every month through October, at 2401 12th St NW, in Albuquerque.

The garden is on the north side of the IPCC campus. It allows visitors to take a selfguided tour along pathways, immersing themselves in the sights, smells and textures of Pueblo agriculture. A PNM Power Up Grant helped make possible installation of a drip irrigation system, public seating and signage.

“This program explores the whole history of Pueblo agriculture, from waffle gardens to raised beds to rows,” says Bettina Sandoval (Taos Pueblo), Cultural Education specialist. “We actually experience everything in a real garden setting where we’ll be able to see the fruits of our labor.”

Each class will focus on a different aspect of traditional agriculture. On March 12, visitors will prepare soil and compost and learn about cold-weather crops, then take home their own seedlings to cultivate indoors until they can be planted. On April 9, participants will hand-form the “waffle” structure Pueblo farmers used for centuries to concentrate limited rainfall around crops’ roots. Planting will begin, cultivation will continue through the summer, and there will be lessons on saving seeds.

Classes are $5 per person. People can participate in individual sessions or the whole series. Anyone who wishes to get involved without taking the classes can arrive at 11 am for an hour of volunteering. To learn more, visit: www.facebook.com/ IndianPueblo and www.indianpueblo.org

PUEBLO AND NAVAJO LEADERS HOST HISTORIC SUMMIT TO PROTECT CHACO CANYON

On Feb. 23, 2017, the All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG), a governing body that has been in existence for over 400 years, hosted a historic summit between the governors, representing 20 Pueblo tribes, and the president and vice-president of the Navajo Nation. The meeting focused on how tribal nations in the Southwest can work together to protect sacred sites in the greater Chaco Canyon region.

An oil and gas lease sale to auction off about 840 acres near Chaco Culture National Historical Park took place on Jan. 25.

council asked Gov. Mark Mitchell of Tesuque Pueblo to develop a framework for an Intertribal Workgroup of Pueblo, Navajo and other Southwest tribal nations. Gov. Mitchell said, “Today’s meeting illustrates just how powerful our tribal nations are when we remain united.”

SUSTAINABLE SANTA FE COMMUNITY MEETINGS

Residents and community members are invited to attend upcoming meetings presented by the Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, which has been developing a 25-year plan for Santa Fe to become a thriving green city and world leader in taking care of its community, economy and environment, including a goal to lessen climate impacts by becoming carbon-neutral by 2040. The commission is seeking public input and feedback.

Building on the work of previous commissions and other entities, for the past 15 months the commission has engaged more than 50 experts in working groups to address regional issues related to energy, water, buildings, transportation, waste management, environmental protection, food security and greenhouse gas emissions. Commission members discussed these topics and developed proposals with education, economic development and social equity in mind.

Recommendations include providing opportunities for city operations, businesses, nonprofits and community members to benefit by adopting sustainability practices.

Reducing the need for low- and moderate-income workers to commute by providing better access to affordable housing, and integrating land and infrastructure planning with transportation planning to facilitate higher-density neighborhoods with better access to public transit, work, healthy food and broadband are among the recommendations being discussed.

Four initial meetings have been scheduled. They will take place on March 30, 5:30–7:30 pm at Hotel Santa Fe Kiva Rooms, 1501 Paseo de Peralta; April 7, 10:30 am–12:30 pm at the Southside Library, 6599 Jaguar Dr. (co-hosted by Earth Care); April 11, 5:30–7:30 pm at the Geneoveva Chávez Center Community Room, 3221 Rodeo Rd.; and April 22, 2–4 pm at Chainbreaker Community Center, 1515 5th St. (co-hosted by Chainbreaker Collective).

Food and refreshments will be provided at these events. For more information, contact SSF Commission Chair Beth Beloff: 505.467.8530, beth@bethbeloff.com or co-chair Rob Hirsch: 505.988.3364, rhirsch@edlconsulting.us

GILA RIVER DIVERSION DATA RELEASED

Though formed in 2015, the New Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity—the agency the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) has tasked with overseeing the controversial proposed diversion on the Gila River—still lacks a website. To read meeting agendas or minutes, the public must request them from the agency’s chair.

They are posted on the ISC’S Arizona Water Settlement Act’s website but the most recent is from August 2015.

The meeting at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque was the first of its kind. It was held to facilitate further government-to-government consultation with federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Indians Affairs (BIA) and National Park Service (NPS), over actions or management plans that may affect Chaco Canyon, traditional cultural properties and sacred sites.

In December, retired ISC Director Norman Gaume asked his former agency for an unclassified copy of spreadsheets showing how much water is diverted from and used annually along the Gila River and its tributaries in New Mexico. Gaume wanted to see if the data supported the state’s assertions that farmers and other users don’t have enough water. In response to his request, the ISC reclassified the spreadsheets and refused to provide the information to Gaume—who has vehemently opposed the state’s plans to build the $500 million diversion—unless he signed an agreement that says the data can’t be shared or used for any “political or commercial purposes” without the agency’s written approval. The agreement carries criminal penalties.

APCG Chairman Edward Paul Torres (Isleta) said, “I’m pleased that President Russell Begaye and Vice-president Jonathan Nez joined with us. We look forward to uniting with the Navajo Nation on this and other issues in the future.” Navajo Nation President Begaye said, “The meeting today reaffirms our connection to each other as Native people and our shared commitment to working with other tribal nations in the Southwest. Our ancestral homelands are intertwined, and all of them deserve to be protected for future generations.” State Representative Derrick Lente of Sandia Pueblo said, “I continue to support greater protections for the greater Chaco landscape and lands that surround the National Park boundary.”

After a NM Political Report story appeared, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich sent a letter to ISC Director Deborah Dixon requesting the spreadsheets. “It is common sense that information about our water resources should be readily available in the course of consideration of major new water projects and taxpayer financing of new water projects,” Heinrich wrote. “At a time when our state is facing difficult budget decisions, we need to be deliberate in our assessment of whether dewatering the Gila River is a wise use of taxpayer dollars.” The state agency then released seven Excel spreadsheets to the senator’s office with assurances that the data would be made available to the public on the commission’s website.

The APCG is comprised of the pueblos of Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Nambe, Ohkay Owingeh, Picuris, Pojoaque, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Sandia, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, Taos, Tesuque, Zia, Zuni and Ysleta del Sur. The

Upon finally reviewing the spreadsheet, Gaume found no evidence of water shortages along the Gila in in recent years. In fact, more than 4,000 acre-feet of existing water rights on the river went unused in 2015.

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WHAT'S GOING ON! Events / Announcements ALBUQUERQUE

MARCH 3, 5 WOMEN ON WAR AND WARRIORSHIP Tricklock Performance Lab 110 Gold SW A spoken word performance by and about women vets for vets, their families and the public. A featured event of Women & Creativity Month. info@artful-life.org, www. womenandcreativity.org, www.artful-life.org MARCH 6, 20, 5 PM 350 NEW MEXICO ABQ Center for Peace & Justice 202 Harvard SE Building a grassroots climate movement to address the impact of climate change on New Mexicans. Meets 1st and 3rd Mondays each month. http://350newmexico.org MARCH 8, 9–10:30 AM AGRICULTURAL COLLABORATIVE MRCOG Office, 809 Copper NW Monthly meeting of citizens, growers, farmers, producers, food processors, buyers, representatives from agencies & organizations. localfoodnm@mrcog-nm.gov MARCH 11, 10:30 AM–12:30 PM ABQ CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY Nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization working in support of solutions such as the carbon fee/dividend to prevent the worst aspects of a warming world. Meets 2nd Sat. monthly. Lisas.ccl@ gmail.com, http://citizensclimatelobby.org/ chapters/NM_Albuquerque/ MARCH 14, 7:309:30 AM THE BUSINESS OF FILM Kiva Auditorium Find out how the industry contributes to the local economy and how your business can capitalize on it. Panelists include Ann Lerner, ABQ Film Office; Nick Maniatis, NM Film Office; Alton Walpole, Mountainair Films. $50. Sponsorships available.

505.348.8320, cbeeke@bizjournals.com.

Registration: http://bizj.us/1p0il8 MARCH 21–23, 9 AM–5 PM BUSINESS OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ASSESSMENT TRAINING Isleta Resort, 11000 Broadway SE For farmers, ranchers and Native communities. Presented by First Nations Development Institute. $100 due by 3/17. https:www.regonline.com/BoIAMarch2017 MARCH 30–APRIL 1 NM 2017 WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE SUMMIT Sheraton Airport Hotel One of NM’s largest meetings to discuss and prepare the state for wildfires. Hosted by the U.S. BLM, U.S. Forest Service, NM State Land Office, NM State Forestry, Forest Stewards Guild, Northern AZ University, SW Fire Consortium, Grant County, NM Assoc. of Counties. Advance registration: $65, onsite: $85. Presenters and exhibitors.

505.216.3006, kquiroz@nmcounties.org, www.nmcounties.org/meetings/conferences/ wildland-urban-interface-summit/ APRIL 19–22 DECOLONIZING NATURE: RESISTANCE, RESILIENCE,

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REVITALIZATION National Hispanic Cultural Center Interdisciplinary environmental justice conference free and open to the public hosted by UNMs Land Arts Program in the College of Fine Arts with support from the NM Humanities Council, UNM Center for Regional Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 516 Arts will be hosting a related art exhibit. curry.lucas@gmail.com

agencies, nonprofits, community groups and grassroots organizers. Property partners share anonymous utility data and best practices. Professional partners provide expertise and services. Public partners support the initiative as it overlaps with their own missions. Info: albuquerque@2030districts.org

APRIL 22 MARCH FOR SCIENCE ABQ A call to support and safeguard the scientific community. https://www. marchforscience.com

MARCH 2–4 MOUNTAIN WEST SEED SUMMIT Hotel Santa Fe The vanguard of a burgeoning movement to reclaim seed sovereignty in local communities and create a sustainable food future. Lee-Ann@rockymountainseeds.org, www.RockyMountainSeeds.org

APRIL 22, 2–7 PM RÍO GRANDE WATER FESTIVAL Sawmill Village Plaza 1751 Bellamah NW Celebrating community, water conservation, Mill Pond Refuge. Live entertainment, food and family-friendly activities. Free. 505.563.0615, www.nmwatercollaborative.org FIRST SUNDAYS NM MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 1801 Mountain Road Museum admission is free to NM residents on the first Sunday of every month.

505.841.2800 SATURDAYS, 1 PM WEEKLY DOCENT-LED TOURS National Hispanic Cultural Center 1701 4th St. SW Tours of different exhibits and themes in the Art Museum. $2-$3, free with museum admission. 505.246.2261, nhccnm.org DAILY, 10 AM–6 PM WILDLIFE WEST 87 N. Frontage Rd., Edgewood (just east of ABQ) 122-acre park/attraction with educational programs dedicated to native wildlife and ecology. $7/$6/$4/children under 5 free. www.wildlifewest.org DAILY OUR LAND, OUR CULTURE, OUR STORY Indian Pueblo Cultural Center 2401 12th St. NW Historical overview of the Pueblo world and contemporary artwork and craftsmanship of each of the 19 pueblos; Weekend Native dances. 866.855.7902, www.indianpueblo.org MASTER COMPOSTER TRAINING Bernalillo County Extension Master Composters are now accepting applications for the spring 2017 master composter volunteers training. Visit http://bernalilloextension.nmsu.edu/ mastercomposter/spring2017-info.html, nmcomposters.org PAID AMERICORPS TERMS Young women and men ages 18–25 sought for seasonal, full-time conservation projects in Albuquerque area wilderness.

575.751.1420, www.youthcorps.org ABQ 2030 DISTRICT A voluntary collaboration of commercial property tenants, building managers, property owners and developers; real estate, energy, and building sector professionals, lenders, utility companies; and public stakeholders such as government

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SANTA FE

MARCH 3, 9 AM–3 PM RENEWABLE ENERGY DAY The Roundhouse, State Capitol The Future of Sustainability in NM: Global carbon reduction starts at home.

Presentations, displays. 505.490.1915, Lbarnhart48@gmail.com MARCH 3, 9 AM–3 PM DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT DISPLACEMENT SYMPOSIUM Genoveva Chávez Center Interactive activities, speeches and panels focused on solving SF’s housing and equity crisis. Speakers include Dr. Estevan RaelGalvez. Free. Presented by the nonprofit Chainbreaker. 505.989.3858, www. chainbreaker.org MARCH 5, 4–8 PM GREENHOUSE GROCERY POP-UP Skylight, 139 W. San Francisco Talks by chef/author Deborah Madison, Grassland Farming by Nancy Ranney, Kid’s Korner with Tajali Sheppaerd, Live music, Street Food Institute fare, raffle, more. $15 singles/$20 households. Free to new members.

Tickets: Greenhousegrocery.coop/popup/ MARCH 6–7, 7 PM BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL The Lensic Ignite your passion for travel and adventure. Explore remote locations and mountain cultures. $18/night or $32 both nights. 505.988-1234, ticketssantafe.org.

A fundraiser for the SF Conservation Trust. www.sfct.org MARCH 9–11 NM FARMERS’ MARKETING ASSN. CONFERENCE SF Community College Annual conference. Christina@ farmersmarketsnm.org, http:// farmersmarketsnm.org/save-the-date-forthe-2017-annual-conference/ MARCH 11, 9:30 AM–12 PM SF CITIZEN’S CLIMATE LOBBY Higher Education Center 1950 Siringo Rd., Rm. 135 Monthly meeting. Working for climate change solutions that bridge the partisan divide. Lisas.ccl@gmail.com MARCH 11, 10–5 PM; MARCH 12, 10–4 PM SANTA FE HOME SHOW SF Convention Center Innovative solutions for better living.

505.982.1774, Lourdes@sfahba.com, www.

SantaFeHomeShow.com MARCH 16, 10 AM–12 PM FIBER ART: CONCEPT AND TECHNIQUE NM History Museum Meem Community Rm. Panel discussion with Jane Sauer, Teri Greeves, Kay Kahn and Sarah Nolan. $29. Preregister by 3/10: newmexicowomeninthearts.org MARCH 17, 1–4 PM WRITING AS PART OF THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS Mesa Vista Wellness A workshop led by Ann Filemyr, Ph.D. of Southwestern College. $54. Student discount available. 505.983.8225, Mesavistawellness.com MARCH 17, 18, 8 PM; MARCH 19, 2 PM CHASING DOWN THE SNAKES — A SERIOUS COMEDY Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie Professional actors, musicians, dancers, poets, artists and writers use their talents to take a stance for Mother Earth and her children. chasingdownthesnakes@gmail.com MARCH 21, 6 PM JOHN NICHOLS Collected Works Books 202 Galisteo Presentation of Nichols’ latest book, My Heart Belongs to Nature: A Memoir in Photographs and Prose. 505.988.4226 MARCH 23, 6 PM BILL DEBUYS & TONY O’BRIEN Collected Works Books 202 Galisteo SF Writers Lab: Words & Images from the acclaimed writer and photographer.

505.988.4226 MARCH 30, 6 PM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERIES Collected Works Books 202 Galisteo Mexicanos, Migration and the Politics of Exclusion. Authors Deborah Boehm, Sally Horton and Angela Stuesse discuss immigration and migrant work in America.

505.988.4226 APRIL 1–2 SF ART BUSINESS SUMMIT Form & Concept, 435 Guadalupe St. Building Creative Entrepreneurship in the City Different. Professional development event for artists and art educators. Practical business strategies for entrepreneurs that help grow the local economy with a skilled talent base. $245. Presented by Bridges to SF and the Arts Business Institute. 3/31, 7 pm: Reception at Blue Rain Gallery, 130 Lincoln.

410.977.2915, artsbizinstitute@gmail.com APRIL 20 2017 BUSINESS EXPO & JOB FAIR SF Convention Center If you are hiring, seeking advice, growing your business, job-seeking or developing your network, this event is for you.

Presented by the SF Chamber of Commerce. www.santafechamber.com SUNDAYS, 10 AM-4 PM RAILYARD ARTISAN MARKET Farmers’ Market Pavilion 1607 Paseo de Peralta Local artists, textiles, jewelry, ceramics, live music. 505.983.4098, Francesca@santafefarmersmarket.com, artmarketsantafe.com

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SUNDAYS, 11 AM JOURNEY SANTA FE CONVERSATIONS Collected Works Books 202 Galisteo St. 3/5: Daniel Tso (Navajo) with attorney Denise Fort on anti-fracking in Chaco Canyon; 3/12: Entrepreneur/author/former gubernatorial candidate Alan Webber discusses political principles to get NM moving in the right direction; 3/19: Political blogger Joe Monahan will offer an overview of the current political scene and legislative session; 3/26: Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino will discuss what 60 days of legislative labor produced. Hosts: Alan Webber and Bill Dupuy. Free. www.journeysantafe.com

FARMER-TO-FARMER TRAINING Taos County and Española Valley Learn to be an organic acequia farmer. The NM Acequia Association has a yearlong training program. It includes farm and business planning, season extension, fertility and soil health, equipment maintenance, planting & harvesting, organic pest management and more.

505.995.9644, pilar@lasacequias.org

TUESDAYS, MARCH 28–APRIL 11, 3:15–5:15 PM GLOBAL WARMING CLASSES St. John’s Methodist Church 1200 Old Pecos Tr. Current and predicted effects, adaptation and mitigation. Instructor: Steven Rudnick. Renesan Institute. 505.982.9274, www.renesan.org

ONGOING Holy Cross Hospital Health Support HCH Community Wellness Center (lower entrance), 1397 Weimer Rd. 575.751.8909, mariam@taoshospital.com, TaosHealth.com

SAT., 8 AM-1 PM SF FARMERS’ MARKET 1607 Paseo de Peralta (& Guadalupe) Northern NM farmers & ranchers offer fresh greenhouse tomatoes, greens, root veggies, cheese, teas, herbs, spices, honey, baked goods, body care products and much more. www.santafefarmersmarket.com SAT., 8 AM–3 PM; SUN., 9 AM–4 PM WINTER MARKET El Museo Cultural 555 Cam. de la Familia Art, antiques, folk and tribal art, books, jewelry, beads, glass, rugs, vintage clothing, etc. 505.250.8969

PAID AMERICORPS TERMS Young women and men ages 18–25 sought for seasonal, full-time conservation projects in Taos area wilderness. 575.751.1420, www.youthcorps.org

HERE & THERE

MARCH 9, 5–7 PM SAN JUAN RIVER WATERSHED Farmington Civic Center 200 W. Arlington St., Farmington, NM NM Environment Dept. Surface Water Quality Bureau survey planning presentation.

Community meeting. 505.827.2621, Kristopher.barrios@state.nm.us MARCH 11, 9:30 AM–12 PM CITIZEN’S CLIMATE LOBBY Corrales, NM Nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization. Meets on the second Sat. each month. Josephine.darling@ citizensclimatelobby.org

MEDICINAL PLANTS/HERBAL MEDICINE Milagro School of Herbal Medicine Registration open for foundations of Herbal Medicine Certificate Program begins April 18. Includes study of local plants, medicine making, therapeutics and more. info@milagroherbs.com, www. milagroschoolofherbalmedicine.com

MARCH 11, 2–5 PM SIMPLE GREYWATER SYSTEMS UNM-Los Alamos Campus Greywater is an important resource that can be used safely for creating gardens and wildlife habitats in our dry climate. Amanda Bramble will explain NM code and gravityfed systems. $50. http://losalamos.unm.edu/ community-education/index.html

SANTA FE RECYCLING Reduce, reuse and recycle. City residential curbside customers can recycle at no additional cost and drop by 1142 Siler Road, Building A to pick up free recycling bins. For more information, visit http://www.santafenm.gov/ trash_and_recycling or call 505.955.2200 (city), 505.992.3010 (county), 505.424.1850 (SF Solid Waste Management Agency).

MARCH 13–15 SOLAR POWER COLORADO 2017 Omni Resort, Broomfield, CO. “Innovation: Making Solar Mainstream.”

Hosted by the Colorado Solar Industries Association. Keynote by Martin Keller, Ph.D., director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colo. rcantwell@cosela. org, http: www.cosela.org/conference

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR SF COUNTY Hard copies $70, CDs $2. Contact Melissa Holmes, 505.995.2717 or msholmes@ santafecounty.org. The SGMP is also available on the county website: www.santafecounty. org/growth_management/sgmp and can be reviewed at SF Public libraries and the County Administrative Building, 102 Grant Ave.

MARCH 15 APPLICATION DEADLINE LEADERSHIP NM Applications are being accepted for LNM’s Core Program and Connect NM, The Next Generation. The 10-month Core Program includes a cross-section of leaders around the state from public, private, nonprofit sectors.

It addresses issues facing NM. Connect NM offers professionals, ages 25-40, the opportunity to develop leadership skills and learn how NM systems and structures work.

505.398.1500, www.leadershipnm.org

TAOS

MARCH 7, 6–8 PM UPPER RIO GRANDE WATERSHED BLM Field Office, 226 Cruz Alta Rd. Community meeting. NM Environment Dept. Surface Water Quality Bureau survey planning presentation. 505.827.2621, Kristopher.barrios@state.nm.us THIRD WEDS. MONTHLY TAOS ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORK Taos County Courthouse Mural Room, Taos Plaza Networking, presentations and discussion. Free.

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MARCH 17 APPLICATION DEADLINE INNOVATION CHALLENGE Open to Native American entrepreneurs. $5,000 cash prize and one year of business counseling and support services. Runners-up get one year of business incubation services. Hosted by the Native American Business Incubator Network and Catapult Design. www.nativestartup.org MARCH 17 APPLICATION DEADLINE AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION EASEMENT PROGRAM This program administered by the NM

Natural Resource Conservation Service helps landowners protect working agricultural lands and wetlands. 505.761.4404, Kristin.

Grahamchavez.nm.usda.gov, https://www. nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/nm/ newsroom/releases/?cid MARCH 22–23 BIONUTRIENT FOOD WORKSHOP Mer Girl Gardens, La Villita, NM Principles and practices of biological farming for higher quality crops. Led

by Dan Kittedge. Bring soil test results (Bionutrient.org, $30.) to learn how to amend your soil. 907.738.5333, http://bionutrient.org/download/flyers/ BFA_Workshop_LaVillita_NM.zip MARCH 30–APRIL 2 FLUTE MAKING & TRADITIONAL FARMING AT JEMEZ PUEBLO Creative arts and service learning.

EarthWalks program based at Bodhi Mandala Zen Center in Jémez Springs also includes opportunity for rest, relaxation, hot springs and meditation practice. $500 includes lodging. info@earthwalks.org, http://earthwalks.org MARCH 31 APPLICATION DEADLINE GOVERNORS AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS For individual artists in any discipline who merit a lifetime achievement award and individuals and organizations who have made a major contribution to the arts in NM. 505.827.6490 (SF), 1.800.879.4278, www.nmartmuseum.org/governorsawards MARCH 31 APPLICATION DEADLINE NM FIRST BIPARTISANSHIP AWARD Honors lawmakers or community leaders who put good policy above partisan politics.

Nominate a leader you think is a role model for cross-party collaboration in areas such as health, education, economy or environment.

Your nominee can work at local, state or federal levels. http://nmfirst.org/legislative_updates/ APRIL 14 APPLICATION DEADLINE OUTSTANDING WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE Nominations sought for Diamond in the Rough award to recognize an outstanding woman in NM agriculture and highlight her efforts. Award will be presented at the 12th biennial Women in Agriculture Leadership Conference, May 30–June 1 in Las Cruces.

200 women from all types of agriculture are expected. 575.524.0050, megrider@ zianet.com, https://www.nmflb.org/Article/ WALC-Diamond-in-the-Rough APRIL 14 ORDERING DEADLINE TREE SEEDLINGS SALE NM State Forestry Div. Conservation Program. Ponderosa pine, white fur, Arizona ash, native plum, piñón, golden current, Nanking cherry, Manchurian apricot, Arizona cypress. Available to landowners who own at least one-acre in NM and use the seedlings for erosion control, wildlife habitat, reforestation, riparian restoration, etc. 505.476.3334, http:// www.nmforestry.com APRIL 22, 1:30–4:30 PM GREEN DESIGN UNM-Los Alamos Campus General intro with Suzette Fox. Learn to use sustainable products in fun, inspired ways to create a beautiful home. $50. http://losalamos. unm.edu/community-education/index.html JUNE 20–22 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON THE ANIMAS AND SAN JUAN WATERSHEDS San Juan College, Farmington, NM

2nd annual conference. Emphasis on Gold King Mine and other mine waste issues. NM Water Resources Research Institute. https:// animas.nmwrri.nmsu.edu/2017/ FIRST MONDAYS EACH MONTH, 3–5 PM SUSTAINABLE GALLUP BOARD Octavia Fellin Library, Gallup, NM The City of Gallup’s Sustainable Gallup Board welcomes community members concerned about conservation, energy, water, recycling and other environmental issues. 505.722.0039.

MON., WED., FRI., SAT., 10 AM–4 PM PAJARITO ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER 2600 Canyon Rd., Los Alamos, NM Nature center and outdoor education programs. Exhibits of flora and fauna of the Pajarito Plateau; herbarium, live amphibians, butterfly and xeric gardens. 505.662.0460, www.losalamosnature.org TUESDAYS, 6–8 PM FAMILY NIGHT PEEC, Los Alamos, NM The second Tuesday of every month.

Games, activities experiments or crafts at the Nature Center. 505.662.0460, www. losalamosnature.org 3RD TUES., 7 PM FOUR SEASONS GARDENING CLASSES Sabana Grande Rec Center 4110 Sabana Grande Ave. SE, Río Rancho 3/21: Growing tomatoes; 4/18: Raised-bed gardening; 5/16: Chickens 101. http:// sandovalmastergardeners.org WEDS., 10 AM GREEN HOUR HIKES Los Alamos Nature Center, Los Alamos, NM Kid-centered hikes. Free. Losalamosnature.org FIRST 3 WEDS. EA. MONTH, 6–7 PM SOLAR 101 CLASSES 113 E. Logan Ave., Gallup, NM Free classes about all things related to off-grid solar systems. No pre-registration necessary. 505.728.9246, gallupsolar@ gmail.com,Gallupsolar.org 2ND WEDS., 1 PM SANDOVAL COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS CLASSES County Extension Office 711. S. Cam. del Pueblo, Bernalillo, NM Free classes. Urban horticulture series.

3/8: Cacti & succulents of the SW; 4/12: Rare & endangered plants; 5/10: Creating resilient garden systems II; 6/14: Climate extremes & ways to buffer it. http:// sandovalmastergardeners.org REGISTRATION OPEN RECYCLING & COMPOST FACILITY OPERATORS COURSES ABQ, Carlsbad, Ratón, Silver City, NM The NM Environment Dept. Solid Waste Bureau, in partnership with the NM Recycling Coalition, hosts two recycling and two compost facility operators certification courses each year.

To learn more and register, visit http://www. recyclenewmexico.com/trainings/ SPIRIT OF THE BUTTERFLY 923 E. Fairview Land, Española, NM Women’s support group organized by Tewa Women United. Info/RSVP: Beverly, 505.795.8117 BASIC LITERACY TUTOR TRAINING Española area After training by the NM Coalition for Literacy, volunteer tutors are matched with an adult student. 505.747.6162, read@raalp. org, www.raalp.org/become-a-tutor.html

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Why adopt solar energy?

You might already have a few good reasons.

To see why joining One World Solar Co-Op just makes good sense, visit www.oneworld.coop/power

One World Co-op A People’s Electric Co-op 505/242-2384

Green Fire Times • March 2017

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