New Mexico WILD—THE NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW MEXICO WILDERNESS ALLIANCE VOLUME IX, NUMBER II — SUMMER 2007 TEN YEARS OF KEEPIN’ IT WILD! The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance 10th Anniversary Issue WWW.NMWILD.ORG New Mexico WILD! Page 1 stephen capra, executive director new mexico Notes from the WILD! Executive Director SUMMER 2007 Ten Years of Keeping It Wild by Stephen Capra Our beginnings were humble. We were fueled not by money, but by passion and determination. It was a determination to protect the wildest landscapes our state had left and to call attention to little known places like Otero Mesa that were threatened by the oil and gas industry. Our goal was to make wilderness preservation part of the language of our elected officials and the general public. We had an office, we were collecting lots of maps, and we were getting out on the ground finding where the truly wild places were. We put together (this sounds a bit dated) a great slideshow presentation and began to meet with civic groups around the state. Our board meetings lasted a weekend, not 4 to 5 hours, and the nights were long and full of good, wonderful camaraderie with lots of talk of old campaigns and the heroes of our movement. Most of the staff was in their early twenties. I was the old man, in my forties. It was only 6 or 7 years ago, but now it seems like a lifetime. We dreamed wilderness. Blank spaces on the map put proposed drilling. In the end, the oil company, Speerex, smiles on our faces. Scial and a slew of volunteers traveled reconsidered their options and settled with the BLM for fair the state searching and documenting our roadless lands. rate compensation for their leases. We bucked hay with ranchers in Cabezon, we designed Our first Activist’s Workshop was held in May 1999 in our first brochures, and an early NMWA logo was a gift of conjunction with the Southwest Forest Alliance and The the Patagonia Company. We sent out press releases, asked Wilderness Society. More than 150 people came out to for editorial board meetings and soon the press came support wilderness and get involved. calling. Every Thursday was volunteer night and we stuffed envelopes, made calls, ate pizza and drank cold beer, and We began to organize people for the Mexican Wolf Reintro- slowly began to build a conservation organization. duction hearings and transported people to speak out in support of the lobo. We rented vans and drove across One of the group’s first actions was in 1999, when the BLM the state to speak in support of then-President Clinton’s considered opening the Bisti/De-Na-Zin wilderness area in National Forest Roadless Rule. In fact, the very first thing I northwest New Mexico, just north of Chaco Canyon. NMWA did for NMWA was to get in a van with 12 other people and was able to generate more than 500 public comments on drive to Cloudcroft to speak at a hearing on the Roadless Rule. I had just moved to New Mexico three days earlier. contents Driving back that night I got my first look at a New Mexico summer monsoon. Lightning filled the sky and rain fell in 3 NMWA Staffers Much More buckets every 20 miles or so on the highway home. 4 David Ehrman and Craig Chapman In 2003, we finished our massive inventory of New Mexico’s 5 Chaco Canyon wild Bureau of Land Management lands. This inventory 6 Otero Mesa Update covered roughly four million acres. It involved more than 7 Doña Ana County Update 10,000 volunteer hours and the efforts of six paid field staff. It was the most comprehensive inventory ever under- 8 Ute Mountain Update taken on New Mexico public lands, and to date its photo 9 Sabinoso Update documentation and GIS accuracy has been essential in 10 History of the NMWA Board our comments to agencies and in our wilderness proposals 11 A Look Back at the Tried-and-True before Congress. 12 Ghosts of the Guadalupes We began working on wilderness first in the Cabezon 13-16 ORV Special Edition Country, northwest of Albuquerque. That work eventually 17 Adventures in Volunteer Service turned into the Ojito Wilderness Bill that was passed in 18 A Decade of Volunteering 2005. That was our first chance to take the inventory, on 19 Remembering Tom Wootten which we worked so hard, to the elected officials, and to use it in presentations. 20 Return of the Lobo 21 You Can Make a Difference In 2002, while working as the Media director for NMWA, 22-23 Wild Styles I was told by then Board Member Greta Baldarama about 24 Hikes a special grassland known as Otero Mesa. After some map An ancient Englemann Spruce in the San Pedro parks Wilderness Page 2 SUMMER 2007 New Mexico WILD! Page 3 searching and talks with our GIS people, we were engulfing the Rocky Mountain West. Meanwhile, we have completed more than began to investigate. We sent our inventory After listening to many diverse speakers at forty projects in these forests, repairing people back into the field and what they the Rally, including rancher Tweeti Blancett trails, restoring streams, blocking access to reported surprised and excited us. Otero and writer Bill Dubois, the moment came wilderness areas by off-road vehicles and Mesa held the largest swath of roadless lands for Governor Richardson to arrive. He hit closing illegal roads. We are doing much of remaining in New Mexico. Not only that, but the stage and demanded that Otero Mesa the work needed to maintain the integrity of Main Office 505/843-8696 • fax 505/843-8697 it was a grassland, filled with pronghorn, be protected, not drilled, and in dramatic these special lands. And we are allowing our [email protected] • www.nmwild.org burrowing owls, prairie dogs, coyotes and fashion, signed an Executive Order to protect members some real “hands-on” time to help P.O. Box 25464, Albuquerque, NM 87125 aplomado falcons as of late. Little did we the area. The Governor signed the order as heal the wounds that man has inflicted on Las Cruces Field Office know that this land would come to define the 700 people cheered wildly, and, for the first these wonderful places. The Forest Service’s 275 N. Downtown Mall Las Cruces, NM 88001 maturation of NMWA as an organization. It time in several years, we all remembered a budget has been cut to the bone, and what 505/527-9962 was a landscape that stole our hearts. The simple thing called hope. used to be routine maintenance is now a Santa Fe Field Office fight to protect Otero Mesa continues today, luxury. But this new reality has given us an 341 E Alameda St We began service projects to repair Santa Fe, NM 87501 but the hundreds of thousands of acres opportunity to help and allowed us time for 505/216-9719 damage on our wild public lands. At the of land once leased to development have hard work and great fun. With Dutch oven Taos Field Office been reduced to about 11,000 acres. The same time, we began the fight to keep the cooking, cold beer and fifteen or twenty 108B Civic Plaza DrIve Clinton Roadless Rule in place for 58.5 Taos, NM 87571 talk of pipeline construction and multi- people, the results can be impressive. In 505/751-7309 national companies is gone, the investors million acres of our wild National Forests. fact, the Forest Service has told us in have left. But the pronghorn, rattlesnakes, We organized, and turned people out for countless thank-you’s that our (your) efforts Mission Statement important hearings. We wrote countless The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance is petroglyphs, breathtaking skies and endless are making a difference! dedicated to the protection, restoration, winds are still solidly in control. editorials, visited papers across the state and continued enjoyment of New Mexico’s to explain the issue, and made sure that a In 2004, we became seriously involved in wildlands and Wilderness areas. Which reminds me of another great voice for wildlife, a voice for wilderness, and efforts to protect the Valle Vidal from oil and NMWA Staff moment. It was 2004; the Bush Administra- a voice that opposed the turning over of our gas development. From fundraising to media Albuquerque Office tion’s attack on our western public lands was National Forests to off-road vehicles was development to lobbying in Washington, we Stephen Capra, Executive Director Tripp Killin, Associate Director going strong. That winter, on short notice, being heard loud and clear in Washington. worked with a diverse and potent coalition Nathan Newcomer, Grassroots Organizer we pulled together our first Public Lands We also worked closely with the Governor’s of sportsman, businesses and elected Tisha Broska, Membership Coordinator Rally at the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque. office to ensure that New Mexico forests officials to gain strong bi-partisan support Roxanne Pacheco, Finance Manager Michael Scialdone, Director of Wilderness Protection At that time, the push of the oil and gas were protected. Today, the Roadless Rule has Trisha London, Membership & Grassroots Assistant industry was seemingly unstoppable, as rigs survived countless attempts to eliminate it. continued on page 4 Craig Chapman, Special Events Coordinator Carlsbad Office Steve West, Southeast Director Las Cruces Office Jeff Steinborn, Southern Director Nathan Small, Wilderness Protection Coordinator Santa Fe Office David Ehrman, Outreach Coordinator Taos Office Jim O’Donnell, Northern Director Board of Directors Wes Leonard, Albuquerque, NM (Chair) Dave Parsons, Albuquerque, NM (Treasurer) Glen Banks, Placitas, NM Pam Eaton, Denver, CO Randy Gray, Lake Valley, NM Christianne Hinks, Albuquerque, NM Bob Howard, Santa Fe, NM Tom Mouck, Albuquerque, NM NMWA Staffers Much More Arturo Sandoval, Albuquerque, NM Todd Schulke, Silver City, NM Bob Tafanelli, Las Cruces, NM than Nine-to-Fivers Rick Wiedenmann, Carlsbad, NM Newsletter Staff Tisha Broska, Managing Editor Besides our important work on wilderness Donor Advised Fund at the Albuquerque recipient of the 2006 KTAO Environmental Joe Adair, Design Editor and public lands protection, New Mexico Community Foundation.