Environment

Daily Postcard: Young Buck Grazes Around White Rock Sign

Daily Postcard: Young buck grazes early Sunday morning at the White Rock sign. Photo by Nancy Ann Hibbs

Three does, a yearling and a buck, not pictured, gather near an intersection in White Rock early Sunday morning preparing to enter the crosswalk. Photo by Nancy Ann Hibbs

Does enter the crosswalk at an intersection in White Rock early Sunday morning. Photo by Nancy Ann Hibbs Read More

Posts From The Road: Split Rock Lighthouse

Split Rock Lighthouse: The iconic Split Rock Lighthouse, built in 1910, has become one of the most photographed sites in Minnesota. The 54-foot tower sits on a cliff, which is 130-feet high above the waters of Lake Superior. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com

By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos

When looking back at our RV travels, I was reminded of a trip in 2019 to the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes. One of the highlights of that trip was driving the North Shore in Minnesota.

The North Shore Scenic Highway, Highway 61, begins at Duluth, Minn. and hugs the Lake Superior shoreline Read More

Mountaineers Adventure: The Haute Route In The Alps

Rick Rubio ascending a steep couloir (snow chute) using crampons. Courtesy/Mountaineers

By WILLIAM PRIEDHORSKY
Los Alamos Mountaineers

The June 27 Mountaineers meeting will be in-person, with a hybrid adjunct. Rick Rubio will speak about “Skiing the Haute Route”.

The Haute Route is the name given to a route (with several variations) undertaken on foot or by ski touring between the Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France, and the Matterhorn, in Zermatt, Switzerland.

Come listen to Rick’s presentation as he describes his once-in-a-lifetime back country ski trip through the French and Swiss Alps Read More

Lawmakers Call On Interior Department To Implement And Strengthen Proposed And Conservation Rule

Congressional News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) led a bicameral letter Monday to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, calling on her to support the completion of rulemaking and implementation of the proposed “Conservation and Landscape Health” rule for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote: “We strongly support the progress and direction of BLM’s long-overdue draft rule. We believe the final rule should build upon the draft to ensure that the Read More

Tales Of Our Times: Goats Earn Kudos For Overgrazing On Firebreaks

By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water 

Useful ideas can fade out of sight among the nature of things. This theme has new proof in the case of goats and goat wranglers. Both got good press in recent months for their skilled work protecting Chilean forestland. 

The threat was from wildfires around the city of Santa Juana in south-central Chile and the nearby Bosques de Chacay, which is a park noted for its good mountain biking. For some time, fires have been worsening there. In 2011, local farmers and landowners joined in a grassroots effort to fight back. They formed the Chilote Read More

Daily Postcard: Agave Plant Blooms Tall In White Rock

Daily Postcard: An agave plant blooms Saturday on Sierra Vista in White Rock. Agave plants are succulents with large leaves that end in pointy tips. Agaves have a lot of variety, with more than 250 species in the agave genus. Large, stiff specimens can grow to 10 feet or more in height and width, and smaller species can be dish-sized. A few agave species have soft leaves and no spines. Agave grows best in rocky, sandy, well-drained soil in full sun. It can take several years or even decades for agave plants to mature, and they can live for many decades overall. The plant only blooms once, then dies.
Read More

Bear Cub Spends Time At Residence On Barranca Mesa

A black bear cub was seen around 4:15 p.m. Thursday sitting on a catwalk on the side of a house on Barranca Mesa. It was eating from a bucket of birdseed, which it had turned over. The cub showed no signs of aggression; it just wanted a snack. Photo by Ken Hanson

The black bear cub is shimmying down the rails of a catwalk, ending up on a Virginia Creeper trellis Thursday at a residence on Barranca Mesa. Photo by Ken Hanson  

The black bear cub is balancing on the 4″x4″ beam of a Virginia Creeper trellis, 10 feet above the ground at a residence Thursday afternoon on North Mesa. Photo by Ken Hanson
Read More

County: Water Quality Report Heading Your Way

Courtesy/LAC

COUNTY News:

The 2022 Drinking Water Quality Report from the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is on its way to Los Alamos and White Rock mailboxes.

This annual report, covering calendar year 2022, provides details about water in relation to safety, precautions, contaminants, sources a0xnd so on. It also includes a listing of a substances detected and the associated levels.

DPU is required to distribute the printed report through the U.S. Postal Service before July. The report an also be downloaded from the DPU website at ladpu.com/CCR2022. A Spanish version of the report Read More

Daily Postcard: Friendly Red-tailed Hawk Visits Valley Farm

Daily Postcard: A friendly Red-tailed Hawk visits a farm in the valley Friday spending several hours perched on the porch and walking around the property. It did not seem concerned by the presence of people around the farm. The oldest known wild Red-tailed Hawk recorded was at least 30 years, 8 months old when it was found in Michigan in 2011, the same state where it had been banded in 1981. Source: allaboutbirds.org. Photo by Liddie Martinez

A Red-tailed Hawk poses for a headshot Friday at a farm in the valley. Photo by Liddie Martinez

A friendly Red-tailed Hawk shows off the inside of its wing during Read More

A Red Red Rose Blooming In A Garden On Grand Canyon

A solitary red rose spotted blooming in a garden early Tuesday evening on Grand Canyon in White Rock brings to mind a poem by Robert Burns (1759-1796). Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

‘A Red Red Rose’
 By Robert Burns

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my Read More

New Mexico Outdoor Rec Division Trails+ $10 Million Grant Opportunity

STATE News:

The Outdoor Recreation Division (ORD) will soon open the Outdoor Recreation Trails+ Grant with $10 million in funding for New Mexico communities. ORD is reaching out to share more information about the Division and the Trails+ Grant.

ORD works to ensure that all New Mexicans gain from the public health, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable outdoor recreation. It is our job at ORD (a division of the Economic Development Department), to grow the outdoor recreation economy in a sustainable way that benefits people statewide. That starts with equitable access to the Read More

New Mexico Delegation Urges HUD To Support Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Relief

STATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to acknowledge and examine the unmet needs of New Mexicans as a result of the 2022 wildfire disasters.

In their letter, the lawmakers ask HUD for clarity on its approach to assessing the states’ needs and request information on HUD’s efforts in collaborating with other federal agencies on relief.

Last year, following the worst Read More

LANL: Tongan Volcano Plume Produced Most Intense Lightning Rates Ever Detected

Powerful volcanic eruptions produce ash plumes that can create their own weather systems, providing the conditions for lightning at higher altitudes than normally seen. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

New research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters showed that the plume emitted by the Hunga Volcano eruption in 2022 created the highest lightning flash rates ever recorded on Earth, more than any storm ever documented.

“The eruption of Hunga Volcano was the largest volcanic explosion since Krakatau in 1883,” Sonja Behnke saod, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Electromagnetic Read More

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s Legislation To Complete Continental Divide Trail Receives Key Hearing

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced important progress on his Continental Divide Trail Completion Act after it was featured during a hearing to consider pending legislation in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks today.

The bipartisan legislation, introduced with U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), would direct the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior to Read More

David Kunsberg Is Best Predictor In Weekly Pace Race

Runners line up at Tuesday’s pace race in White Rock on the Blue Dot/White Rock Canyon Rim Trails. Courtesy/ACRR
Runners take off at Tuesday’s pace race held in White Rock on the Blue Dot /White Rock Canyon Rim Trails. Courtesy/ACRR

ACRR News:

David Kunsberg was the top predictor in the weekly pace race held in White Rock on the Blue Dot /White Rock Canyon Rim Trails with a 1 second differential off his predicted time. 

Other accurate predictors were: 

  • Paul Geimer with 2 second difference as well as the best finisher in the 3 mile distance recording a 19:02;
  • Valerio Pinchetti at 16 seconds off;
  • Cliff
Read More

U.S. Senators Luján And Cornyn Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Strengthen Drought Protections For Acequias

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced bipartisan legislation today, that ensures acequias are able to access the same USDA disaster assistance programs available to other agricultural systems.

The ACEQUIA Act amends the Non-insured Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) to ensure that Parciantes qualify for drought and other disaster assistance. Additionally, the legislation codifies current agency guidance that Parciantes do not need to obtain a special-use permit to perform routine maintenance Read More

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