Our M Ission

July 2014 Volume 37, ConserVation issue PAID NM Permit 8 ® CIMARRON t h e m a g a z i n e o f t h e P h i l m o n t s ta f f a s s o C i at i o n® U.S. POSTAGE Non-Profit Organization high countrY check us out! www.philstaff.com ® Mission unites (PSA) Association Staff Philmont The and present— staff—past Philmont the adventure, purpose of serving the the for Ranch Scout Philmont of experience and heritage Boy Scouts of America. and the 17 DEER RUN ROAD CIMARRON NM 87714 Our Mission HigH Country®—Volume 37, ConserVation issue Philmont staff assoCiation® July 2014 board of direCtors ed Pease, editor mark dierker, layout editor John murPhy, President Colleen nutter, ViCe President, membershiP randy saunders, assoCiate editor tim rosseisen, ViCe President, serViCe in this issue bill Cass, CoPy editor warren smith, ViCe President, deVeloPment daVe kenneke, staff Contributor adam fromm, seCretary keVin “leVi” thomas, Cartoonist matt lindsey, treasurer 4 from the editor Contributing editors national direCtors 5 from the psa pub comm robert birkby daVid Caffey amy boyle bill Cass gregory hobbs ken daVis land management warren smith mark stinnett bryan delaney mary stueVer stePhen zimmer Catherine hubbard 6 growing sustainability lee huCksteP HigH Country® is the offiCial PubliCation of the dr. dan miller 10 land and fire Philmont staff assoCiation® and is Published six steVe riCk 13 history of gardening in nm times Per year as a benefit to its members. regional direCtors 16 dark-sky camping © 2014, the Philmont staff assoCiation, inC. northeast 20 restoring demo forest all rights reserVed. no CoPyright Claimed for kathleen seitz PreViously CoPyrighted or PubliC material. riCk touChette natural history Permission granted for non-CommerCial rePrinting or redistribution with ProPer attribution. Central mitCh standard 22 forgotten fruits HigH Country®, Philmont staff assoCiation®, Phil winegardner PSA® and the offiCial PSA logo® 25 peeled trees are all registered trademarks of: southern 28 tree improvement program anne marie Pinkenburg the Philmont staff assoCiation, inC. doug wahl the conservation department 17 deer run road Cimarron, new mexiCo 87714 western 575-376-1138 nanCy stiCkelman 31 reimagining work crews miChael waggoner 33 sustainability takes root for membershiP and subsCriPtion information, Visit our website at: 35 new display map Jim lynCh, immediate Past President WWW.PHILSTAFF.COM mark anderson, Philmont staff adVisor interpreting natural history ex offiCio members 40 cycling for conservation emery Corley, legal adVisor HigH Country® welComes artiCles, Photos and douglas fasChing, teChnology manager 43 landscape-wide education letters for Consideration for future issues. On the cover: Work Crews have been 46 philmont as science lab submission does not guarantee PubliCation. modified to work more efficiently. See the editors and Publisher reserVe the right to 49 rocs: 21people day transformation seleCt and edit materials to be Published. randy saunders, exeCutiVe direCtor story on page 33. dollie o’neill, offiCe manager interpetive history send submissions, letters or Comments to 52 waite phillips “ HigH Country” at the aboVe address or e-mail: PSA® FELLOWS 54 people who made it possible [email protected] BOB HArvEy FELLOW PAUL And MARY JAnE HARVEY ® if you would like to reCeiVe HigH Country GLEnn A. FOWLEr FELLOW in eleCtroniC rather than PaPer format, Please BRUCE BARnES ContaCt the PSA offiCe at [email protected] GEOrGE A. BuLLOck FELLOW WILLIAM d. BRYCE oPinions exPressed in HigH Country®are those of 2014 Special iSSue – conServation JOE DAviS FELLOW the writers and, unless otherwise stated, BILL CASS do not neCessarily refleCt the Views of the general editor, mary stueVer. assoCiate editor, mike sudmeier. JOHn A. MAxBAuEr, Jr. FELLOW hilmont taff ssoCiation® hilmont layout editor, mark dierker. editorial Coordinator, ed Pease. P s a , P AnOnYMOUS Cout anCh or the oy Couts of meriCa s r , b s a . Contributing writers: Carrie anderson, robert birkby, sarah burgess, william debuys, zaCk harris, robert hey- duCk, Justin hougham, Chad moore, marC nutter, Chris sawyer, zaCk seeger, leo smith, mary stueVer, gordon tooley, robert wagner Volume 37, ConserVation issue— July 2014 Volume 37, ConserVation issue— July 2014 3 from the editor this subject area like a river, continu- third implies that someone is count- ally flowing, often changing, shifting as ing and expecting an end. We’re just Like a river needed, finding familiar old channels, expecting another reach of the wild and making its way toward an ocean, ever wonderful river of ideas and stories growing and expanding. that when told bring us closer to being After the birth of my oldest daughter, so forth – but our love of Philmont I never had a third pregnancy…we respectful stewards of this landscape. I clearly remember swearing “never and our love of the land continues to joked that it might mean triplets. Yet again.” I’m sure my subsequent twins triumph amid the chaos and roar of Mike and I are already talking about a Mary Stuever are grateful I did not stick to that oath. those other things that tug at our hearts third issue, or perhaps better called the Los Ojos, New Mexico After putting the first special Conserva- and our time. Regardless, we walk ‘next’ special Conservation issue, as tion issue of High Country to bed almost through our lives knowing that there is two years ago, I remember giving this place, this ranch in northern New myself a stern lecture about extra time Mexico, a paradise in so many ways. commitments while enrolled in a PhD Yet, like Twain’s riverboat captain from the psa publications committee program in Sustainability Education—a who reads the river and sees danger project ancillary to my full time job. Yet, rather than beauty in the rippling wa- I readily agreed to this second Conser- ters, those of us familiar with this land- “Scramble. Be flexible.” vation issue just months later when Ed scape see possibilities that scare us and Pease asked if we would do another inspire us to action. Together we can one. navigate the rapids - wildfire threat, This old Phil-phrase seemed especially So – before Mary could come to her If I thought my first pregnancy was insect outbreaks, drought, changing appropriate as final edits were being senses, we scrambled. Told Mark An- tough, the twin pregnancy provided climate - but we need a collective un- completed for this second special issue derson that we’d be using his thoughts a challenge that paled the first experi- derstanding of the possibilities. of High Country devoted to conserva- in the next special issue instead of this ence. Likewise, pulling together this A thread runs through this special is- tion. In this space there was supposed one. Made a few adjustments to copy second Conservation issue has similarly sue that explores our connections with to be a column by Mark Anderson, and layout. Wrapped it all up with a proven twice as challenging as the first. the land and how we live on it. We kick Philmont’s Director of Program, tying digital bow and sent the electrons to My co-editor, Mike Sudmeier and I off with stories on sustainable living, the two conservation special issues to- our printer. have faced many different deadlines, we plow through agricultural tales, we gether and giving the “30,000 foot look” And while we believe this issue is neither of us willing to compromise the peel back layers of history and people’s at what the future holds. even better than the first (and that is issue, and finding Ed and the Publica- relationships with the land, we dream, Then Mary Stuever’s column ar- saying a lot!), our readers can now look tions team always supportive of our we plan, we scheme, we take action. rived for layout, and we saw in the last forward to at least one more special need for more time. My apologies to When we published the first special paragraph that she and her conserva- issue dealing with conservation at the our authors who met that first deadline issue of High Country devoted to land tion team had been discussing the idea Ranch. We’re not sure on the timing so many months ago and have been management and conservation, I felt of a third conservation special issue yet, not wanting to ask a new mom waiting patiently for this issue to see like we had barely scraped the tip of because there was still so much to be when the next baby will arrive (to bor- the light of day. Congratulations to the iceberg representing all the knowl- covered. Those of us on the editorial row from Mary’s metaphor) before the Mike who managed to get married in edge, experience, and understanding of staff couldn’t believe our eyes – because first one has even met the family. the midst of this project, and even sent the Philmont landscape. I still feel this we had come to the same conclusion, But the anticipation will serve, we input while on his delayed honeymoon. way, but I have a new analogy. Unlike but were afraid that asking for yet hope, to enhance the satisfaction when The gist of this story is that life an iceberg of knowledge with hidden, another issue was “a bridge too far.” the next one arrives. In the meantime, continues on – births, marriages, and yet definite boundaries, I now think of These issues are a lot of work. enjoy this one. It’s really good. Volume 37, ConserVation issue— July 2014 Volume 37, ConserVation issue— July 2014 4 from the editor from the pub comm 5 land management which will mark its seventy-sixth year in opera- growing a Sustainable Program tion.

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