Certified Beekeepers Apprentice Program: A First in New Mexico
The Certified Beekeepers Apprentice Program, new in 2014, launched in May and ended in August. All 24 adult students successfully completed the seven all-day sessions of year one. The two-year program was developed with assistance from the New Mexico Beekeepers Association, the City of Albuquerque Open Space Division and Washington State Beekeepers Association and was held at the Open Space Visitor Center on Coors Blvd. NW, Albuquerque...
US Ignores Responsibility in Fossil Fuel Divestment
Recently the fossil fuel divestment campaign added to their numbers the heirs of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, when the great-great grandson and great granddaughter withdrew their funds from oil investments. This is the latest indication that in fact there will be a turning away from the current course of self-ruin, even by the petroleum industry’s own elite. When the Rockefellers decide to turn their (green)backs on oil and coal, we must ask if this will make it easier for others of their ilk to do the same...
3 Good Reasons Why You Should Object to the Santolina Subdivision
You probably haven’t heard of the new proposed subdivision “Santolina” and yet the Bernalillo County Planning Commission has been debating about its implementation for months. The Santolina subdivision is proposed to be built in the southwest portion of Bernalillo County on what is commonly referred to as the Black Mesa. The subdivision would cover almost 14,000 previously untouched acres with approximately 38,000 new cookie-cutter homes. Although you may not have ever heard of Santolina, you should object to it, and here’s why...
The Rio Grande – Our Imperiled Lifeline
Speaking our river’s name, the Rio Grande, evokes images of a vast and powerful river of the West, flowing forth from high mountains through the desert landscape nurturing an abundance of life that springs forth along its banks. The river is truly the soul of this desert community, offering opportunities for life, growth, and co-creation in an otherwise severe and less than hospitable environment. Human settlements have flourished for centuries along the banks of the Rio Grande with thriving agricultural communities supported by the waters of this great river...
New Mexico Solar Businesses Ready to Roll with Clean Power
Over the last several days, anger has spread over news that the country’s largest methane leak is located right here in New Mexico, near the Four Corners region, and is three times larger than originally reported. The methane leak is attributed to gas production in the area and for many New Mexicans, this dangerous human health and environmental hazard represents a wake-up call for new energy policies in our state. Lucky for us, we’re not starting from scratch to address the issue...
Augustin Plains Ranch water case crucial to protecting New Mexico’s rural water
On September 22, we asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to order the State Engineer to dismiss a massive speculative water appropriation application from Augustin Plains Ranch, LLC. We live next door to the Ranch, which has spent almost eight years trying to appropriate a massive amount of water in Catron County. This attempted appropriation threatens the towns, ranches and homes of the entire San Augustin Plains region, all of which are wholly dependent on wells and groundwater.
Bruce Frederick of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) filed a petition on our behalf for a writ of mandamus. In the petition, we ask the Court to compel the State Engineer to “promptly” reject the Ranch’s most recent application for 54,000 acre-feet of water per year...
Ensuring that Sportsmen Continue to Have Access to America’s Public Lands
I have always loved the outdoors, the peace and tranquility from connecting with nature is a refuge from the hustle and bustle of daily life. But lately, the politics in Washington, D.C., has crept in and disturbed those quiet moments. You see, the program that has helped to protect habitat and secure access for sportsmen is expiring soon – and Congress hasn’t yet taken action to renew it – threatening my way of life.
For 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has protected local and national parks, working forests, historic landmarks, and wildlife refuges. It has been called one of the country's most important conservation programs, preserving America's cultural and natural heritage...
Five Questions with New Mexico Authors – Debra Bloomfield
This week we ask photographer and author Debra Bloomfield some questions about her transcendent, exquisitely beautiful book of photographs, essays, and soundscapes entitled Wilderness published by UNM Press this year.
New Mexico Mercury: What’s so exciting about this book is the total experience it allows a reader to have with its remarkable conversion of visual, audial, and intellectual experience of wilderness. How did you conceive the possibility of achieving such a total experience?...
A day on the river. Mixed.
Early on, it was a sunstruck/river spirit day, paddling in a rhythm that doesn't exist for me anywhere else, ever. Dip, pull, feather, switch. Action in the wrist, shoulder, elbow, moving along propelled by my body, my legs braced forward, nursed by the river's current. Incredible green along the banks, healthy huge cottonwoods, silver-green olive trees hanging dead limbs over the water to catch unwary boatmen and sweep them out of their cockpits while immobilizing the boat.
At first I laughed at the sweepers/strainers every time I hit one, which was often and almost always river right. Now that I think of it, a puzzle; there were almost none on river left, and why was that? I thought of this later...
Reunion
All right, this is serious. The Upper Gorge, formerly known as Wild Rivers Area, now part of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Haven’t been up here for years. This is where we came in ’98 before we moved, when I looked out at pure landscape (not this view) and started to cry. It was my birthday, too. That’s kind of what did it.
There’s such power in this place. As soon as you drive back to the nearest village, it mostly goes away. People just mess things up. I’m sorry, but it’s true. There aren’t many places on the planet where you feel this non-material sustenance. Like your spirit taking a long drink after exile in the desert of culture. I didn’t want to leave today...