Chaco

Chaco Pondering Fee Boost

ABQjournal: Around New Mexico

CHACO CULTURE NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK— The park is proposing to raise its admission fees and wants public comments on the higher fee.

Admission to the park for private cars— regardless of the number of occupants— is currently $8. The park wants to raise that to $15. The park currently charges $4 admission per person for park visitors who enter the park on motorcycles or bicycles and proposes raising that fee to $8.

Park Superintendent Barbara West said the new fee would help the park repair and restore hiking trails and fund new museum exhibits.

“We believe the fee increase is a reasonable charge, is in keeping with rates at similar parks, and will greatly enhance visitor experience and address backlogged maintenance needs,” West said.

Comments on the fee proposal may be mailed to:

Barbara West
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
P. O. Box 220
Nageezi, New Mexico 87037

E-mail

Fax
(505) 786-7061

The people who love Chaco don’t mind paying more. But nearly doubling the fee in one step is a shock. Take it to $10 immediately. Schedule an increase to $12 in 2010. This is too much, too soon. mjh

Uncategorized

A New Mexico Wilderness Festival and Summer Equipment Swap

WildFest 2007
Produced by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
Date and Time

Saturday May 19th 10 to 4
And Sunday May 20th 11 to 4
Equipment Check in Friday May 18th 4 to 8

142 Truman NE
Albuquerque, NM 87108

A Spring and Summer garage sale. Clean out the garage and sell the old stuff so you can buy new.

* Kayaks
* Canoes
* Backpacks
* Sleeping bags
* Tents
* Cooking gear
* camping, climbing, spelunking and hiking gear
* Sell your gear to the public for 20% commission

Vendors

* Backpacks
* Sleeping bags
* Outdoor clothing
* Tents
* Adventure Racing Clubs
* Kayaking Whitewater clubs
* Hiking clubs
* Sports and Outdoor shops
* Outdoor and Fitness magazines
* National forest service: Carson, Cibola, Gila, Santa Fe, Lincoln
* BLM
* State of New Mexico: The Roadrunner
* City of Albuquerque: bike paths, Trolley

Backpacking and hiking seminars

* How to pack light
* How to buy, fit and pack the right pack
* No trace camping
* Wilderness First Aid
* Gourmet Wilderness Cooking
* Layering Techniques
* Intro to Map Reading
* Outdoor Photography

Stage

* Acoustical Folk and Bluegrass acoustical
* Speakers
* Contest.

1. Aldo Leopold look alike contest.
2. Kids Wilderness art contest/ next year’s poster

http://www.nmwild.org/events/wildfest-2007

newmexico, wildlands

Protecting Otero Mesa

On Thursday, April 19th, a coalition of ranchers, hunters, conservationists and water experts hosted the Otero Mesa Public Forum in Alamogordo. This event in large part was organized by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance (NMWA). [mjh: this is their email report.]

Almost 200 people from Alamogordo and surrounding communities attended the event to hear about Otero Mesa’s fresh water aquifer, the area’s wildlife and how oil and gas drilling could impact this special place. The purpose of the event was to bring the community together and demonstrate that southern New Mexican’s care about their quality of life, and that a few days worth of oil and gas will NOT take precedence over water, wildlife, and wilderness.

At one point during the forum, moderator, Rick Simpson (a hunting guide and Lincoln county commissioner) asked the audience “who supported a moratorium on drilling in Otero Mesa” so that a thorough study of the Salt Basin aquifer could occur. Everyone in the room expect for one person raised their hand!

The following day, the Alamogordo Daily News ran a front-page story covering the event. This story was then picked up by the Associated Press and ran in several other papers, including the Albuquerque Journal, Las Cruces Sun-News, and Santa Fe New Mexican. Read the full article here: http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_5709469

Friday morning, April 20th, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance brought four of the five speakers from the forum to meet with the Alamogordo Daily News and encourage the paper to editorialize in support of the moratorium. Rancher Tweeti Blancett, wildlife expert and high school teacher Steve West, energy and economics expert Bill Brown, and Craig Roepke with the Interstate Stream Commission all attended the editorial board visit. The outcome was that the next day, the Alamogordo Daily News editorialized in supporting our efforts to call for a moratorium on drilling in Otero Mesa! Read the editorial here: http://www.alamogordonews.com/opinion/ci_5719278

Subsequently, on April 19th, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, requesting that all leasing and drilling be put to a halt so the U.S. Geological Survey, Sandia National Labs, and Interstate Stream Commission could conduct a thorough study of the Salt Basin aquifer. This is tremendous news. Please call Senator Bingaman and thank him for taking the lead on calling for a moratorium but urge him to keep fighting to protect Otero Mesa.

It is because of your letters, calls and pressure to our elected officials that we are gaining real traction in our efforts to protect Otero Mesa. Many thanks! This past week was a real watershed moment in the campaign. Now we must begin to aggressively pressure Senator Domenici and Congressman Pearce. Senator Domenici’s staff has indicated that the Senator may be willing to support a moratorium on Otero Mesa. Please help us to make this a reality- the time is NOW! Please call and fax your letters and comments today.

Senator Bingaman: (202) 224-5521
Senator Domenici: (202) 224-6621
Congresswoman Wilson: (202) 225-6316
Congressman Pearce: (202) 225-2365
Congressman Udall: (202) 225-6190

utah, wildlands

Utah chafes under federal land controls

Utah chafes under federal land controls – baltimoresun.com, By Julie Cart

Recapture Canyon, Utah // It’s a small gesture of defiance – a narrow metal bridge that allows off-road vehicles illegal access to this archaeologically rich canyon. But the modest structure, built by San Juan County officials on U.S. government land, is a symbol of the widespread local resistance to federal authority across much of southern Utah’s magnificent countryside.

Historically, residents of the rural West have challenged federal jurisdiction, claiming authority over rights of way, livestock management and water use. But nowhere is the modern-day defiance more determined, better organized or better funded than in Utah, where millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent fighting federal authority, and where the state government is helping to pay the tab – much of it, critics say, without oversight.

For the past decade, the Utah Legislature and two state agencies have been funneling money to southern Utah counties to bankroll legal challenges to federal jurisdiction. Most recently, a state representative persuaded the legislature to provide $100,000 to help finance a lawsuit by ranchers and two counties seeking to expand cattle grazing in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Grand Staircase is one of a dozen parks and monuments that draw tens of millions of visitors to the region every year to take in the spectacular high desert and red-rock canyons that have awed travelers since John Wesley Powell voyaged down the Green and Colorado rivers in 1869.

Settlers, on the other hand, have been famously indifferent to the scenery. “A hell of a place to lose a cow,” is how 19th-century homesteader Ebenezer Bryce is said to have described the labyrinthine landscape now known as Bryce Canyon National Park. …

Officials of one county have written a bill pending in Congress that orders the sale of federal land, with the proceeds given to the county. Other Utah counties have said they will follow suit. And officials from the two counties surrounding Grand Staircase have lobbied in Washington to drastically reduce the 2 million-acre national monument. …

Elected officials have flouted federal authority by bulldozing roads in the Grand Staircase monument and Capitol Reef National Park and by tearing down signs banning off-road vehicles in Canyonlands National Park. A handful of counties have developed transportation plans that declare roads open that federal land managers have closed.

Selma Sierra, Utah director of the federal Bureau of Land Management, insisted that the agency’s relationship with counties is good. “The BLM manages a substantial amount of land in this state. Yes, those lands belong to everyone in the country, but the decisions we make affect those individuals more so than anywhere else.”

But federal officials say increases in motorized recreation and scarring of the landscape from energy exploration are threatening unique historic and cultural treasures and damaging wildlife habitat.

A recent BLM archaeological assessment of third-century Anasazi ruins and cliff dwellings in Recapture Canyon found evidence of looting and off-road vehicle damage. According to the assessment, the new, county-built bridge “can be expected to hasten and increase indirect impacts to cultural resources here.”

State Rep. Mike Noel, a Republican from the southern community of Kanab, said: It gets down to “sovereignty and autonomy. It’s Western independence. We own the water, we have the right to graze, the minerals are still available, and the roads belong to us. By dang, we are not going to give them up.”

Julie Cart writes for the Los Angeles Times.

utah

Utah’s 42 State parks

Utah’s 42 State parks – http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660210942,00.html

Top 10 visitation:

• Wasatch Mountain 442,069
• Deer Creek 355,003
• Willard Bay 325,933
• Utah Lake 265,271
• Snow Canyon 255,643
• Antelope Island 250,886
• Bear Lake 232,825
• Palisade 211,646
• Jordanelle 198,592
• Sand Hollow 186,685

Bottom 10 visitation:

• Piute 29,609
• Goblin Valley 30,081
• Red Fleet 30,818
• Escalante 40,451
• Goosenecks 40.761
• Steinaker 45,615
• Territorial 46,794
• Huntington 47,848
• Kodachrome 49,804
• Utah Field House 52,027″

– – –

• Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder: Museum of Ancestral Puebloan culture, special exhibits, events and programs, day-use

• Antelope Island State Park in Syracuse: Camping, day-use, wildlife viewing, mountain biking, hiking

• Bear Lake State Park in Garden City: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum in Fairfield: Museum, Civil War demonstrations, day-use

• Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Kanab: Camping, day-use, off-highway vehicle riding, hiking

• Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab: Camping, day-use, hiking

• Deer Creek State Park in Midway: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• East Canyon State Park in Morgan: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding: Museum of Native American culture, special exhibits, events and programs

• Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Escalante: Camping, day-use, water recreation, hiking

• Flight Park State Recreation Area in Draper: Day-use

• Fremont Indian State Park and Museum in Richfield: Museum of Fremont Indian culture, camping, day-use, petroglyphs, access to Piute ATV Trail

• Goblin Valley State Park in Hanksville: Camping, day-use, hiking

• Goosenecks State Park in Mexican Hat: Primitive camping, day-use

• Great Salt Lake State Marina in Salt Lake City: Day-use, marina, water recreation

• Green River State Park in Green River: Golf, camping, day-use, boat launch

• Gunlock State Park in Ivins: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail State Park in Park City: Day-use, hiking, mountain biking

• Huntington State Park in Huntington: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Hyrum State Park in Hyrum: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Iron Mission State Park Museum in Cedar City: Museum of early Utah, day-use, special exhibits, events and programs

• Jordan River OHV Center in Salt Lake City: Day-use, off-highway vehicle riding

• Jordanelle State Park in Heber City: Camping, day-use, water recreation, nature center and programs

• Kodachrome Basin State Park in Cannonville: Camping, day-use, hiking

• Millsite State Park in Huntington: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Otter Creek State Park in Antimony: Camping, day-use, water recreation, OHV trail access

• Palisade State Park in Sterling: Golf, camping, day-use, water recreation

• Piute State Park in Antimony: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Quail Creek State Park in St. George: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Red Fleet State Park in Vernal: Camping, day-use, water recreation, hiking

• Rockport State Park in Peoa: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane: Camping, day-use, water recreation, off-highway vehicle riding

• Scofield State Park in Scofield: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Snow Canyon State Park in Ivins: Camping, day-use, hiking, mountain biking, cycling

• Starvation State Park in Duchesne: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Steinaker State Park in Vernal: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum in Fillmore: Museum of early Utah, special events and programs, day-use

• This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City: Utah heritage, special events and programs, day-use

• Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal: Museum of Utah’s prehistory, special exhibits, events and programs, day-use

• Utah Lake State Park in Provo: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway: Golf, camping, day-use, hiking, OHV trail access

• Willard Bay State Park in Willard: Camping, day-use, water recreation

• Yuba State Park in Levan: Camping, day-use, water recreation

STATE PARK RESERVATIONS

• Utah State Parks and Recreation is preparing for a busy summer season. In fact, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Green River, Escalante and Goblin Valley are booked for Memorial Day weekend.

• Park policy allows campers to reserve individual campsites up to 18 weeks prior to their date of departure from the park.

• For reservations call 1-800-322-3770 from outside the Salt Lake area or 801-322-3770 from within Salt Lake.

• The Utah State Parks Reservation Center can also book group sites, pavilions and boat slips. Agents may also recommend locations for golf tournaments, corporate outings and family reunions.

• Individual campsite reservations must be made at least two days in advance of arrival date. An $8 non-refundable reservation fee is charged for each site reserved. Group site reservations may be made up to 11 months in advance. A $10.25 nonrefundable fee, along with a per-person fee, is charged for group sites and building rentals.

• For more Utah state park information, please visit www.stateparks.utah.gov.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660210942,00.html

Uncategorized

A Past Worth Preserving

A Past Worth Preserving – New York Times By RICHARD MOE, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, known as the world’s longest art gallery because it contains more than 10,000 petroglyphs, could soon be home to nearly 2,000 oil and gas wells. With them will come hundreds of miles of pipeline, compressor stations, new roads and hundreds of heavy trucks whose vibrations and dust can cause irreversible damage to ancient rock art.

Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona, abundant in archeological sites, is attracting growing numbers of visitors from nearby Phoenix seeking recreation, too many of them unfortunately in off-road vehicles. From 2000 to 2004, their number increased fivefold. In spite of the growth in visitors, which increases the threat of looting and vandalism, there is still only one ranger to protect the monument.

Similarly affected by these vehicles is Gold Butte, near Las Vegas. A recent study by volunteers monitoring vandalism at Gold Butte showed a 366 percent increase in major damage to cultural sites in the area from 2004 to 2005, including numerous incidents of graffiti and bullet holes in petroglyph panels. The same sad story is too familiar elsewhere.

More federal financing is needed to protect these places and to survey archeological sites. Only about 6 percent of Bureau of Land Management lands have been surveyed. And we can’t protect these sites if we don’t know where they are. While much of this land is generating huge oil and gas revenue, some reasonable share of that revenue should be returned to care for these sites.

newmexico, wildlands

Working to Protect Otero Mesa

Otero Mesa Public Forum
Working to Protect New Mexico’s Wildest Grassland
Thursday, April 19th, 6:30 PM-8:00 PM
Elks Lodge (2290 Hamilton Rd) in Alamogordo-FREE

Please be part of a historic day and help send a message to Washington that New Mexico’s quality of life means much more than a few days worth of oil and gas!

Special guest speakers include: Rick Simpson, former Lincoln County Commissioner and Outfitter; activist rancher Tweeti Walser Blancett; high school teacher and wildlife expert Steve West; energy science, policy and economics expert Bill Brown; water expert with Sandia National Labs, plus local elected officials.

Come learn what you can do to protect Otero Mesa, its wildlife, water and wilderness.

RSVP or for more information, contact Nathan Newcomer at 505-843-8696 or nathan@nmwild.org

—————————————————————

Speak Out for Otero Mesa
A Voice for Wilderness!

Take a few minutes to call in and voice your concerns for our wildest public lands. Our objective is to get 1,000 Voices for Otero Mesa. Please be concise and short in your comments. It is important that we get as many voices as possible speaking out on Otero Mesa. Our objective is to create a CD of voices and present them to our congressional delegation, letting them hear, directly from you, how important

Please call (505) 333-0420 and leave a message today for our congressional delegation, urging them to support a moratorium on drilling in this wild Chihuahuan Desert grassland. To learn more about Otero Mesa please visit: www.oteromesa.org

Otero Mesa — NMWild
http://www.nmwild.org/campaigns/otero-mesa/

– – –

Otero Mesa Earth Day Outing — NMWild

Come spend Earth Day (4/20-22) with us in Otero Mesa and watch the desert come to life! If the spring rains hit, then this is the best time to be out there. We’ll explore the area while talking about our continuing efforts to secure permanent protection for thelast best stretch of Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands.

Be prepared for windy weather and lots of sun as Otero Mesa is now entering spring, but also be prepared for calm brisk days with the possibility of a few rain showers. Bring plenty of water, sunscreen and a camera to capture the moments of pronghorn herds, prairie dog towns, petroglyphs, desert blooms, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

During the evenings there will be a social campfire. Bring instruments if you’ve got them. Let’s get together and have some fun in the desert!

Maximum participants: 50

Driving time: 6 hours from ABQ, 2.5 hours from Las Cruces

http://www.nmwild.org/events/otero-mesa-earth-day-outing

Contact Name Nathan Newcomer
Contact Email nathan@nmwild.org
Contact Phone 505-843-8696

daytrips, newmexico, wildlands

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Inspiration for Black Place?

4 Comments

I am a docent at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and we are currently showing 2 beautiful pieces that she did called “Black Place.” I am told that this place is in Chaco Canyon. Could you tell anything more about it or how I might find it on a hike ?

I found the following, which includes a picture of Black Place II (I haven’t seen either before).

Georgia O’Keeffe: Black Place II (59.204.1) | Object Page | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“The Black Place was the name O’Keeffe gave to one of her favorite painting sites, located in the Bisti Badlands in Navajo country, about 150 miles northwest of her home in Ghost Ranch. It was a stretch of desolate gray and black hills that the artist said looked from a distance like “a mile of elephants.” Isolated far off the road and away from all civilization, O’Keeffe made several camping trips there in the 1940s, with her assistant Maria Chabot. Writing to Stieglitz in 1944, the year Black Place II was made, Chabot described in words what O’Keeffe captured in paint: “… the black hills—black and grey and silver with arroyos of white sand curving around them—pink and white strata running through them. They flow downward, one below the next. Incredible stillness!” (Maria Chabot—Georgia O’Keeffe: Correspondence 1941–1949, 2003, p. 193). Over a period of fourteen years, from 1936 to 1949, her visits to the Black Place sparked a torrent of work that was almost unparalleled in her career. Between 1944 and 1945 alone, she completed six canvases, including Black Place II, one very large pastel, and at least nine pencil sketches.”

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/geok/hod_59.204.1.htm

I can’t verify the description, but I have been to Bisti-Denazin and recommend you visit the area. I think it would be very hard to pinpoint the exact spot she loved so — perhaps someone at Ghost Ranch has an idea. See
http://www.desertusa.com/mag00/may/stories/bisti.html for a description of Bisti-Denazin. It makes for a long daytrip from Santa Fe. You wouldn’t want to be there in June-July-August, unless very early in the day.

Here are two sites with photographs of the area — maybe you’ll see something here or perhaps the photographers have seen Black Place.

Denazin Wilderness Photo Images
http://www.robertchavez.com/chavez/denazin/index.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/bisti/

I hope this helps. mjh

newmexico, wildlife

Wolf Mediation or Negotiation

Perhaps it is time to bring in professional mediators or negotiators to help resolve this situation. It is untenable for us to rage at each other while animals die — we need to get over this divide and there are people who help resolve worse situations. We need help and we’re not going to get it until we have the sense to say so. mjh

ABQjournal: Divide Widening Over Gray Wolf Program By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES— State Game Commission members on Wednesday got an earful of the sharp differences between supporters and opponents of the endangered Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program.
Many views expressed during a two-hour listening session were not new. But nine years into the controversial program, which spans national forests in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona, feelings on both sides appear to be growing in intensity.
Christopher Todd Jones, the new deputy regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the divide in public opinion is daunting.
“There are clearly legitimate concerns people have regarding (livestock and pet) depredation and life safety concerns,” he said. “The answer is somewhere in the middle. I feel we are losing the ability to have constructive dialogue.” …

But two teenagers from Silver City who frequently hike in the Gila area said they don’t fear wolves. “The uniqueness of the Gila is it is still wild,” said 17-year-old Cody Goss of Silver City.

“This is something that cannot be replaced,” Goss said. “And the Mexican gray wolf is part of that wildness.”

newmexico, wildlife

Exterminating Wolves

ABQjournal: Catron Commission Fires Shot at Wolf Protection By Michael J. Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity

The Catron County commission recently approved an ordinance authorizing a county contractor to kill endangered Mexican gray wolves, contrary to the federal Endangered Species Act and the 1998 regulations that delineate what is legal in the reintroduction program that began that year. The ordinance is the latest chapter in a century-long effort by the livestock industry to create private rights on America’s public lands. …

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which for decades poisoned and trapped wolves on behalf of the livestock industry, and is now charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act, similarly bends to the livestock industry. The agency authorizes trapping and shooting of endangered Mexican wolves today even as the population fails to meet initial thresholds for recovery. But Catron County’s ranchers want zero wolves. In 2005, at a now-defunct Governor’s Wolf Task Force meeting in Catron County, ranchers proffered a series of what they called “non-negotiable points,” including that all the wild wolves be rounded up and kept in a fenced enclosure. The ranchers also categorically rejected a New Mexico Department of Agriculture proposal that would have significantly increased their payments for wolf depredations while ending the current requirement that dead livestock be verified as wolf kills, or considered possible wolf kills, prior to payments. …

The refusal to compromise has been successful. …

The federal government has so far, since reintroduction began, shot 10 wild Mexican wolves, consigned 24 to life in captivity, killed 20 inadvertently incidental to capture, and released dozens of wolves it had captured— many of them traumatized and some of them injured— in areas far from their familiar home territories. Although the government originally projected 18 breeding pairs by the end of 2006, there are now only five breeding pairs left from last year.

Catron County’s threat to kill wolves on its own is an attempt to ratchet up the killing by either federal or private parties, or both. The goal is once again extermination, but it is also more ambitious than that. Livestock owners seek to ensure that they alone, and not the American public through their elected members of Congress, will determine what animals roam the public lands and how those lands are managed. So far, unfortunately, neither the Fish and Wildlife Service nor the Justice Department have indicated they will stand up for the wolves, the rule of law, and the American public.

newmexico, wildlife

Wolves and/or Cattle

ABQjournal: Payment Wanted For Wolf Damage

Grant County commissioners have approved a resolution requesting that the state and federal governments pay for livestock and pets killed by Mexican gray wolves, and compensate the county for lost hunting opportunities and emotional damage.

Meanwhile, The New Mexico Game Commission will conduct a two-hour “listening session” on the Mexican wolf reintroduction program today in Las Cruces.

The Grant County resolution, requested by the Grant County Area Cattle Growers and the Gila Fish and Gun Club, drew both support and opposition before the commission passed it last week.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing the endangered wolves on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range after the animals had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s.

Supporters said that wolves preying on livestock are driving ranchers out of business and that ranchers weren’t being fairly compensated for wolf kills.

Opponents, however, complained that the cattle industry already is heavily subsidized. They also said ranchers weren’t doing their part by removing cattle carcasses to keep wolves from becoming accustomed to eating beef and by modifying practices during calving season to better protect their cows.

Last month, adjacent Catron County passed an ordinance that would allow a designated county officer to trap or remove Mexican gray wolves if federal authorities don’t act first. The ordinance conflicts with federal procedures, raising questions about its legality.

Uncategorized

Preserving Sunflowers

ABQJOURNAL: Federal Officials Seek Critical Habitat for Pecos Sunflower Associated Press

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to designate as critical habitat nearly 1,600 acres for the Pecos sunflower — a native plant protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The showy plant survives in fewer than two dozen locations in the desert wetlands of New Mexico and West Texas. The critical habitat include areas of Chaves, Cibola, Guadalupe, Socorro and Valencia counties in New Mexico, and Pecos and Reeves counties in Texas.

“The future of this plant can be secured through habitat protection, restoration projects and maintenance of core populations,” said Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Public comments on the proposal are being accepted until May 29.

In designating an area as critical habitat, the Endangered Species Act requires that economic and other impacts be considered. If the benefits of excluding an area outweigh the benefits of including it, the U.S. Department of Interior may exclude an area from critical habitat, unless that would result in the extinction of a threatened or endangered species.

The Pecos sunflower was added to the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 1999. It’s similar in appearance to the common sunflower, but it has a cluster of smaller sunflowers at the tip, which are slightly reddish in color. It grows only in saturated soils such as desert wetlands and flowers from August to October.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said the Pecos sunflower’s survival is vulnerable due to aquifer depletion, diversions of surface water, filling of wetlands for conversion to dry land and potential competition with nonnative invasive species.

[mjh: if you want to comment, you’ll have to visit:

The New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office Home – USFWS – Region 2
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/NewMexico/]

colorado

Sacrificing Northwest Colorado

The area in northwestern Colorado that is being prepared for sacrifice to oil and gas is not like most people’s image of Colorado. This is high desert country more like New Mexico — the arid west that stretches between mountain ranges. Still, it is beautiful country already imperiled by extractive industries. Help save what’s left. mjh

BLM’s New Draft Plan for Northwest Colorado Favors Oil and Gas Development, Threatens Wildlife, Wild Lands and Cultural Artifacts

A plan released … by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would bring more than 3,000 oil and gas wells and associated development to Northwest Colorado’s Moffat and Routt counties, home to one the state’s largest wildland complexes, including the 86,000 acre Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness area. The draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the Little Snake Resource Area will determine the fate of 1.3 million acres of public land, including 275,000 acres of citizen-proposed wilderness lands as well as critical big game habitat and migration corridors, the best greater sage-grouse habitat in Colorado, and prized Native American petroglyphs. The top planning issue is how much additional oil and gas drilling will be allowed and where, as rampant energy development encroaches on the Little Snake region from Wyoming to the north and from the Piceance Basin to the south. …

While the draft plan contains some new ideas about how the surface impacts of oil and gas roads, wells, and pipelines might be mitigated, these protections are untested and largely voluntary; the plan contains no guarantees that key sage-grouse habitat and essential big game winter habitat would not be sacrificed over the life of the plan.

“This unbalanced plan essentially gives over the Little Snake Resource Area to the oil and gas industry,” stated Suzanne Jones, Regional Director for The Wilderness Society and a participant in the Northwest Collaborative Stewardship. “We are very disappointed that it fundamentally fails to protect the many other outstanding values of the area that are so important to local citizens and all Americans.”

“Hunting in this area is unparalleled. Big game such as elk and pronghorn are abundant in northwest Colorado because they can easily migrate to the area and thrive here during the winter,” said Luke Schaefer, a Colorado Environmental Coalition employee as well as a Craig resident and avid hunter. “Every year there seems to be fewer and fewer quality hunting grounds left in the West and across Colorado – with all of the development already taking place is the state why would the BLM even consider sacrificing this area?”

http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20070212.cfm
– – –

About SRCA, Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance

BLM has published its Draft Resource Management Plan. You can find this document here.

http://www.southernrockies.org/LSFO/
– – –

NW Colorado’s Canyon Country
“The Colorado Wilderness Network (CWN), the wilderness protection branch of the Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance, was formed to protect the year-round wildlife habitat and outstanding opportunities for solitude and backcountry recreation that our canyon county has to offer.”
http://www.savevermillion.org/

Chaco, newmexico

No Oil Wells Near Chaco

ABQjournal: No Oil Wells Near Chaco By Leslie Linthicum

State Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons is pulling the plug on two oil wells proposed for just outside Chaco Canyon.

Lyons said Tuesday— after his office was peppered with complaints about allowing drilling so close to a national treasure— that his office will ask Cimarex Energy to trade for different parcels of state trust land.

If the company doesn’t want to trade, the Land Office will reject the application and refund the $10,000 that Cimarex paid for the leases.

“We have a moral obligation to maintain the integrity of Chaco Canyon,” Lyons said. [mjh: Send Lyons your love – PLyons@slo.state.nm.us 827-5760]

Cimarex had plans to drill two wells on state trust land about one mile beyond the southern boundary of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Land Office approved leases for the sites late last year and was in the process of reviewing archaeological studies before issuing final approval.

A Cimarex spokesman did not return phone calls from the Journal on Monday or Tuesday.

Lyons said he thought Cimarex would agree to transfer the lease to another area.

“I think they’re going to be receptive,” he said. If the company does not want to swap, he said, “they’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.”

Lyons said his office originally understood Cimarex, a Colorado energy company, planned to drill for natural gas. He said he learned Tuesday that the company planned to drill for oil, which would necessitate pump jacks that could be seen from inside the park.

Lyons said he wants to work with Chaco and other federal agencies that hold land around the park on a series of land trades that could build a no-development buffer around the park.

“We’ve got plenty of land,” Lyons said. “We don’t need to be right up against their boundary.”

That comes as welcome news to critics who complained that oil and gas exploration on the edge of the park would detract from the experience of visiting ancient Indian ruins.

Chaco is a World Heritage Site and its collection of pre-Puebloan ruins draws visitors from around the world to San Juan County.

“That’s terrific news. I’m glad to hear that,” said Mark Pearson, director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, which had opposed the drilling.

Assistant Land Commissioner John Bemis said the office will begin to identify other tracts of state trust land where development might harm historical sites. The office could withdraw the tracts from leasing or trade the parcels to other agencies.

“Our preferred method is to exchange land and trade out of it because we don’t want these conflicts,” Bemis said.

Pearson praised the idea of building a buffer. “That sounds like a real positive long-term solution,” he said.

The goal of the Land Office is to make money from the land it holds in trust by approving leases for mineral extraction. Royalties from trust land— $495 million in the last fiscal year— support schools, hospitals, prisons and other public projects in New Mexico.

“Everyone agrees that the oil and gas industry plays a critical role in funding institutions and programs across the state,” Lyons said. “But we also agree that New Mexico has an extraordinary and unique history that must be protected and preserved.”

New Mexico State Land Office
P.O. Box 1148
Santa Fe, NM 87504-1148

Phone: (505) 827-5760
Fax: (505) 827-5766

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My Chaco site:
www.mjhinton.com/chaco/