Rio Grande Chapter

By Eric Patterson, Water Sentinels — Rios de Taos It’s been a busy summer so far for Water Sentinels and our youth group, the Tiger-Salamanders. Here are some highlights: May 6: The Taos High School Tiger-Salamanders attended a fishing derby at Eagle Rock Lake near Questa. They monitored water on the lake and on the Red River and did some fishing afterward. May 20-21: Sentinels coordinators attended a conference in Washington, D.C., with other Water Sentinel leaders and Sierra Club staff ...

By Teresa Seamster, Northern New Mexico Group chair Norma McCallan was the Rio Grande Chapter vice chair, Outings chair, Northern New Mexico chair and the heart of our chapter. If there is one person who would echo Henry David Thoreau’s words “We can never have enough of Nature,” it would be Norma McCallan, Sierra Club leader and wild lands advocate for almost four decades. Due to the efforts of Norma and those she worked with in the Rio Grande Chapter, thousands ...

By Alex Renirie, Beyond Dirty Fuels organizer On May 12, the EPA finalized the first-ever national safeguards on methane pollution from the oil and gas industry. And communities across the country, particularly those living in heavily drilled areas, are celebrating this critical step toward protecting citizens’ health and our global climate. The new safeguards represent one piece of a three-part suite of rules designed to fulfill President Obama’s goal of reducing methane emissions by 40-45 percent by 2025, a cornerstone of ...

By Rick LoBello, El Paso Group A growing number of people in El Paso are supporting a new conservation movement to protect the Castner Range area of the Franklin Mountains in northeast El Paso as a national monument. The Castner Range is home to more than 650 species of Chihuahuan Desert plants, 33 species of reptiles, over 100 species of birds and nearly 30 species of mammals. There are also hundreds – if not thousands – of species of invertebrates and microorganisms ...

On Monday night, 36 tankers storing crude oil and wastewater exploded and burned. According to reports, approximately 10 families were evacuated. According to reports this morning, the fire has yet to be extinguished ...

By Mary Katherine Ray, Rio Grande Chapter Wildlife chair Last summer, the New Mexico Game Commission adopted new rules for cougar hunting that allow cougar trapping for sport on private and state trust land. The decision makes New Mexico one of only two states in the nation that allows any kind of trapping for mountain lions. Our colleagues at Animal Protection of New Mexico along with the Humane Society of the United States filed suit to stop the cougar-trapping rule. As ...

Please contact the leader for the outing meeting location and time. July Outings July 8-11: Strenuous four-day backpack trip in the Weminuche Wilderness in Southern Colorado. This loop trip starts and ends at the 30-mile campground near the Rio Grande Reservoir. We will start along the Weminuche Trail to the Weminuche Pass and then head west along the Skyline Trail to the intersection with the Continental Divide Trail. Our first camp will be near this intersection beneath the Rio Grande Pyramid ...

A long-awaited piece of federal legislation, the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Conservation Act, was introduced by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich on June 10. This legislation would designate around 240,000 acres of the new Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument as “Wilderness.” Click here to send a thank-you note to Sens. Udall and Heinrich. This permanent Wilderness designation will assure higher levels of protection for the landscapes, wildlife, archeological and historic resources located in these especially rough and fragile ...

For the sake of wilderness and our ecosystem, a growing number of people believe that the Mexican wolf should be given the chance to reclaim its rightful role in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas. Please tell Texas Parks and Wildlife to support wolf-reintroduction efforts Imagine the return of the “grand opera of Texas” while sitting around the campfire, hearing howling wolves in the distance, heads upturned, singing at the night sky. Imagine, the return of the gray wolf. With ...

Join us for the launch of our series of 3 forums on the health impacts of oil and gas in the Four Corners area. Part I: Mapping the Threats Date & time: June 30th, 2016 at 6:30pm
Location: Step Back Inn, 123 W. Aztec. Blvd., Aztec, NM 87410 Our featured speaker is Dr. Jordon Johnson of Mckinley Community PLACE MATTERS – NM Health Equity Partnership. He will discuss some of the health issues related to oil and gas development in the region, as ...