La Jicarita

By KAY MATTHEWS

The Tres Rios Watershed Coalition was founded in 2019 to identify priority areas for forest treatments that would protect communities from the danger of wildfire. Named for the three rivers that make up the greater Embudo Valley watershed—Rio Santa Barbara, Rio del Pueblo, and Rio de Las Trampas—the knowledge of local residents supported by county, state, and federal agencies would be essential in the thinning and restoration projects identified as a priority. The lead organizer was J.R. Logan of Taos County Wildland/Urban Interface, who was also instrumental in organizing the Taos Valley Watershed Coalition.

While The Tres Rios Watershed Coalition held public meetings to keep folks informed and sponsored several field trips to see the damage from the El Valle Fire and the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the coalition never formally organized as a non-profit or entity that could apply for funding for identified forest treatments. For the past few years the Coalition has been dormant.

But sometimes things don’t die, they evolve. Now, in 2026, the Tres Rios Watershed Coalition has sprung back to life under the leadership of Santa Barbara Land Grant and Acequia Association members in the Peñasco area. Gabriel Lopez, Antonio Gurule, and Michal Headerle invited community leaders and activists to a working group that would expand the focus of the Coalition to include restoration of all forest resources, especially the waters that feed our acequias. The working group meets monthly at the Peñasco Valley Historical Preservation Society.

To help introduce the Coalition to the wider public, a meeting was held at the Peñasco Community Center on November 6. Notice was sent out to all the names that were on the original Tres Rios Watershed Coalition listserve, and there was a good turnout of community people, forestry groups, forest workers, government agencies, and forest related non-profits.

Daniel Sam told the group that the Rio del Pueblo, its tributaries, and its springs  from Serpent Lake downstream are all sacred to Picuris Pueblo.

Speakers at the meeting provided some history, an overview of current projects in the valley, new projects on the horizon, and possible funding sources to fund these projects.

• Around 2015 a group of activists decided to give the Forest Service “a nudge” with identified projects ready to be treated. The Cerro Negro Forest Council initiated a leñero program for local people to earn money thinning one-acre units in a Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI) thinning project near San Cristobal. Local contractors like Watershed Dynamics and Wood Sharks had crews ready to thin other WUI areas near Taos Valley communities. The Taos Valley Watershed Coalition was formed to help organize and help fund these projects.

• The Tres Rios Watershed Coalition will explore various options on how to formalize: become a 501c3 non-profit; seek a fiscal sponsor; or form a Watershed District. Mark Schuetz of Forest Dynamics volunteered that under Community Wildfire Protection Plans the Coalition could better partner with county, state, and federal agencies. The Tres Rios Watershed Coalition is covered by the Taos County Wildfire Protection Plan, which will be updated in the next six months. The Coalition will also benefit under the Good Neighbor agreements between the Forest Service, Taos County, and Taos County Soil and Water Conservation District to work together on forest projects.

• Camino Real District Ranger Michael Lujan provided an overview of current Forest Service projects. In 2021 the Sangre de Cristos between Taos and Colfax counties were designated an Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape, one of the highest priority landscapes in terms of vulnerability to wildfire. The Carson National Forest, with state and county partners, began to develop plans to identity and prioritize areas within the Enchanted Circle for restoration. In a threatened landscape, if 20 or 40 percent has been thinned, there’s a better chance against wildland fire. By 2025, after funding became available, the Carson had thinned 20,000 acres, focusing on areas where water, access, and WUI are extant. Projects include: 850 acre Las Trampas Watershed Project (where the prescription was written by the partners, not the Forest Service); 10,000 acre Pueblo Ridge; and 30,000 acre McGaffey Ridge. The target for next year is 6,400 acres of mechanical treatment and prescribed burn. 8,000 cords of wood have been delivered to communities from the restoration project on the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. The proposed Truchas to Costilla Headwaters Active Management Project will expand treatments to over 300,000 acres during a 10-year period. As sawmills close across the country, we need to innovate, and the next presenter is an example of that.

Orange is fires. Gray is completed treatments. Green and yellow are current/proposed treatments on Carson NF lands.

• Arnold Lopez, a member of the Tres Rios Watershed Coalition working group and treasurer of the Las Trampas Land Grant, discussed the land grant’s projects. In a MOU with Carson National Forest the grant will develop a 12-acre forestry woodlot on Forest Service land near Ojito. The land grant, pressed by the Forest Service to help distribute the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire firewood, decided to expand that into a larger project that will include pellet processing, a portable sawmill, and a mulcher. Another agreement, an MOA with the state, will allow the land grant to work on private land near Forest Service and BLM lands that need treatment. The land grant also oversees a leñero project near Vallecitos where over 40 leñeros are paid $1,200 upon satisfactory treatment of their acres.

If you’re interested in more information, you can contact Gabriel Lopez at gplopez@unm.edu; Michael Headerle at haederle@gmail.com, and Antonio Gurule at tgurule56.pena@gmail.com.

By KAY MATTHEWS

Carson National Forest has accepted Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort’s latest plan for winter and summer expansion. The resort first submitted a Master Development Plan (MDP) in the early 1990s, with an amended MDP in 2012 and 2019. The acceptance by the Carson triggers a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis by means of an Environmental Assessment in 2027.

Notice of the acceptance was sent to three categories of the public: 1) all those on the Forest Service’s email listserve; 2) mandated consultations with tribes, land grants and acequias; and 3) local  agencies that will have authority in the NEPA process, such as the Department of Transportation, New Mexico Environment Department, and the Office of the State Engineer. Those on the listserve were told that the agency was not accepting comments at this time. The letter to the New Mexico Land Grant Council, identified as having “deep cultural, historical, and ongoing connections to the lands that may be affected by this project, “ asks the Council to comment by November 15: “The CNF [Carson National Forest] is requesting your participation and comments pursuant to 91 FR 17062 (2026-06537) of the Council for Environmental Quality Regulations, and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (36 CFR § 800), as amended.” I contacted the Carson for an explanation of what these regulations require, but haven’t heard back yet.

All the letters state that the agency will be proposing an amendment to the Carson National Forest Land Management Plan. The development will fall outside the Special Use Permit (SUP) into the Inventoried Roadless Area.

The proposed plan includes:

• Expand the ski area 915 acres from the 238 current acres.
• Construct approximately 200 acres of new terrain, including approximately 51 new
  trails.
• Construct three new lifts (Chair A, Chair B, Chair C).

• Install one new carpet conveyor (Carpet 1) and relocate one existing carpet conveyor
  (Carpet 2, formerly Lift 2).

• Install snowmaking infrastructure on all new proposed trails for a total of approximately
  200 acres of snowmaking coverage and on all areas that do not currently have snowmaking.

• Analyze and potentially construct up to three snowmaking reservoirs.
• Construct an approximately 20,000 square foot restaurant at top of proposed Chair A and
  all associated utilities (water, electricity, and a septic system).
• Construct two ski team houses, a timing hut, and new maintenance shop.
• Construct a 1,000-foot mountain road between chairs A and B.
• Construct five new parking lots totaling 8.4 acres.
• Construct numerous summer activities including 30 miles of mountain bike trails, a mountain coaster, a zip line, challenge course, tubing activities, expansion of the disc golf course, and various hiking trails.

This latest MDP includes some proposals that were not included in the previous iteration presented to the public in 2025. Sipapu states that this presentation was only “an interim, reduced version of the proposal. The full set of projects included in the amended 2019 MDP is what the Forest Service has accepted.” The new developments include the possibility of three snowmaking reservoirs; maintenance building and ski team houses; a road between chairlifts; and the numerous summer activities. The need to amend the Forest Plan was also never discussed. In a previous public commitment, Sipapu agreed to remove Chairlift B, along the west side of the ski area, and reduce the expanded acreage to 700. The community of Las Mochas, which would be impacted by the chair, lobbied hard for its removal.

Over the years, perhaps the most controversial component of the expansion has been the issue of water rights. During many public meetings Sipapu has either claimed that the 2019 MDP was not contingent upon obtaining more water rights—their current allotment is 18. 46 afy—or that it would seek 56 afy. This is what is stated on the website:

“Sipapu is always looking for additional snowmaking water when it becomes available, regardless of this proposal. Any new water right would go through a separate review by the State of New Mexico and is not part of this proposal. If Sipapu acquires one in the future, it would provide the Forest Service with an updated water information analysis at that time.”

The ski area attempted to transfer water rights in 2021 from the Jicarilla Apache Nation. It was protested by Picuris Pueblo, downstream acequias in Dixon/Embudo, Amigos Bravos, and Carson National Forest. The application expired with no administrative action from the Office of the State Engineer, so no water was ever transferred.

It’s important for everyone concerned about this expansion to be ready to respond to the release of a NEPA document in 2027. NEPA will be contracted out to the SE Group, the same business that was Sipapu’s consultant on the MDP. The SE Group has been accused of a conflict of interest. This is Sipapu’s response: “Using a third-party contractor paid for by the applicant is a standard, long-standing Forest Service practice, and federal law allows it. SE Group works under the direct supervision of the Forest Service. The contractor must sign a statement that it has no financial interest in the outcome. The Forest Service independently reviews all of the work, controls the content of the analysis, and makes the final decision.”

Sipapu is going for the whole shebang.

Click for high resolution

 

 

 

Sign the Petition New Mexico Says No

Along with Republicans Sen. Mike Lee (UT), Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (WV), and Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR), New Mexico’s senior senator, Democrat Martin Heinrich, has proposed legislation that would sacrifice everything our state holds dear and line the pockets of industry. It contains 77 distinct environmental attacks. This assault on regulation would reward big corporations that will always put quarterly profits ahead of a livable planet and future generations.

Here’s what you need to know about the so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act:

• It would allow massive data centers, fossil fuel projects, pipelines, transmission lines, and huge fossil fuel power plants to be pushed through without significant public input and would limit the ability to fight them in court.
• It would let hyperscale data centers — many of which are fueled by enormous fossil fuel power plants — start construction and operation sooner, regardless of community opposition and environmental or cultural impacts.
• It would exempt new transmission lines — stretching across federal and state public land as well as private property — from important federal laws, opening the door to further harm to people, water, land, and cultural resources. This could allow data centers to connect more quickly to the electrical grid.
• It would eviscerate states’ and Tribes’ ability to protect their clean water from federally permitted development.
• It would weaken Tribal consultation, leaving most Tribal nations with no meaningful way to protect their sovereignty when faced with potential fossil fuel projects on their lands.
• It would gut the Endangered Species Act, potentially pushing cherished New Mexico critters like Mexican wolves, Gila trout, and New Mexico meadow jumping mice to the brink of extinction.
• Its massive rollbacks of the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and National Historic Preservation Act would make it less likely that community and Tribal concerns would be heard and respected, facilitate oil and gas development in the Greater Chaco landscape.
• Its gutting of bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act would strip crucial, decades-old tools used to combat destructive projects that threaten public lands, wildlife, water, and cultural heritage.
• It would create new obstacles to lawsuits challenging dangerous and destructive projects.
• Making matters even worse, the deal could lock in the Trump administration’s interpretation of bedrock environmental laws, hindering future administrations from restoring protections and undoing the damage.

Sen. Heinrich has a reputation as a conservationist with a love for outdoor recreation. He’s spent time on our public lands hunting and fishing to feed his family, just like so many other New Mexicans. This bill, negotiated in secret, would undermine everything we hold dear — along with his own legacy.

Living in Taos, I have come to appreciate the unique beauty and ecological importance of our land. But now, this precious environment is under threat. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Taos Field Office, in collaboration with the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, plans to apply tebuthiuron, a soil-activated herbicide, to about 2,929 acres of public land in northern Taos County. This action, involving the aerial dropping of herbicide pellets onto dense brush, is a practice we must urgently question.

Tebuthiuron specifically targets sagebrush by inhibiting photosynthesis, which may sound like a controlled solution, but the broad-spectrum impact of this herbicide can lead to unintended and severe environmental consequences. Our local flora, including non-target species, could be irreparably harmed, disturbing the complex ecosystems that many wildlife species depend on.

Furthermore, community health stands to be affected. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to tebuthiuron may have adverse effects on humans and animals, which poses a risk to the residents living nearby who cherish and rely on these lands for recreation and cultural practices. The possibility of contamination of our groundwater is also a concern, as the pellets can leach into the soil and disrupt aquifers that supply our drinking water.

While addressing overgrowth and fire risks is essential, the adoption of safer, more sustainable land management practices is possible. Prioritizing mechanical clearing or controlled burns, involving local restoration ecologists in decision-making, and increasing public consultations can ensure a balanced approach that safeguards our habitat and health.

We cannot allow an indiscriminate solution that jeopardizes our environment and well-being. I urge BLM and the U.S. Wildland Fire Service to re-evaluate the use of tebuthiuron in this operation and seek alternative, eco-friendlier strategies.

Please join me in urging the BLM to reconsider their methods by signing this petition. Together, we can protect Taos County’s land and ensure a healthier environment for generations to come.

Shayna Gladstone Petition Starter

Taos County is a very special place & it does not need to be poisoned. The water, people & animals need to come first. There are other ways to get rid of the sage if you must. Please be like Europe & stop using this chemical

Melvina , Nunica, MI, United States.

Sign the Petition https://c.org/9fRRwZsjt6

 

Editor’s Note: Attorney Guy Dicharry requested this statement from Norm Gaume, President of the Water Advocates. Discharry used it at a federal court hearing to contest Kit Carson Electric Cooperative’s Environmental Assessment FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) on the proposed hydrogen facility in Questa. It is reprinted here with permission.

People living in New Mexico’s Rio Grande basin are suffering from water bankruptcy,
defined as a “failure state in which human–water systems have exceeded their
hydrological carrying capacities, and societies have spent beyond their sustainable
hydrological budgets for so long that critical water assets are depleted … and a return to normal is infeasible even with prohibitive economic, social, and environmental costs.”1

The Lower Rio Grande in New Mexico is in water bankruptcy. Elephant Butte Reservoir
held 25,506 acre-feet on August 31, as reported by the Bureau of Reclamation’s online
data I checked today. That volume of water is 1.3% of the reservoir storage capacity, the
lowest since 1954. The reservoir stores the Rio Grande’s renewable water supply
apportioned by the Rio Grande Compact for the international Lower Rio Grande basin,
which extends downstream from the dam to about 80 miles southeast of El Paso. New
Mexico is compelled by the May 27, 2026, U.S. Supreme Court decree ending thirteen
years of litigation in Texas v. New Mexico, No. 141 Orig., to deliver Texas’s and Mexico’s
newly quantified shares at El Paso and to reduce groundwater pumping in New Mexico
between Elephant Butte Dam and El Paso to stabilize the aquifer and restore river
delivery efficiency. The United States intervened in the Texas lawsuit against New
Mexico. Its claims against New Mexico were the last to be settled.

I have studied the decree and the four agreements that are integral to the settlement the
decree adopts and have written about them. It is my opinion that the Court’s decree and
continuing jurisdiction function as New Mexico’s court-ordered water bankruptcy
recovery plan. Onerous penalties for non-compliance make the decree self-enforcing.
Compliance will be very costly.

The Middle Rio Grande is rapidly approaching water bankruptcy because it is alarmingly close to a new violation of the Rio Grande Compact. New Mexico owes a 132,000 acre-
foot water delivery debt to Elephant Butte Reservoir as determined by the Rio Grande
Compact Commission’s 2025 annual accounting. I estimate New Mexico’s 2026 water
deliveries through the Middle Rio Grande are approximately 40,000 acre-feet in arrears
as of August 31, 2026. The 2026 cumulative water delivery shortfall is growing larger
each day. Discounting the effect of any monsoon floods the remainder of the year may
bring, I estimate New Mexico will end 2026 with an accrued water delivery debt of more
than 172,000 acre-feet.

The Rio Grande Compact caps New Mexico’s water delivery debt at 200,000 acre-feet.
New Mexico could exceed that cap in 2027. On current trends New Mexico will violate
the cap by 2029 in the absence of dramatic climatic and hydrologic improvements and
effective regulatory or adequate voluntary curtailment of existing uses.

New Mexico’s Upper Rio Grande region, extending from the Colorado state line to the
Otowi Bridge on the Los Alamos highway, provides an important portion of the Rio
Grande’s annual water volume that the Rio Grande Compact apportions between the
Middle Rio Grande and the international Lower Rio Grande. The Rio Grande volume
measured near the Colorado state line is augmented by the tributaries and tributary
groundwater in the Rio Grande Basin upstream from the U.S. Geological Survey Otowi
stream gage. Springs in the bed of the river upstream of the Red River confluence are a
major contributor of tributary groundwater recharged by snowmelt runoff from the
Sangre de Cristos.

Today, streamflow at the Lobatos stream gage, located near the Colorado state line, is
about five cubic feet per second (cfs), or about ten acre-feet per day. The springs today
are increasing the Rio Grande flow measured downstream at the USGS gage near Cerro,
New Mexico, to about 35 cfs. USGS records that I reviewed today show the springs
normally contribute more than 100 cfs on this date.

Rio Grande Compact river flow apportionments individually limit New Mexico’s water
depletions in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Rio Grande regions. Upper Rio Grande
depletions are limited to unquantified 1929 levels, the year the United States froze all
water development pending negotiation and approval of the Rio Grande Compact,
signed in 1938. Historically low river flows this year are focusing State of Texas attention on New Mexico’s upstream depletion of the international Lower Rio Grande’s
apportionment. The Lower Rio Grande apportionment is 57% of the native Rio Grande
water flowing past the Otowi Bridge at very low annual volumes and a greater total
percentage as the volume increases.

New Mexico’s water depletions in the Middle Rio Grande are shorting the international
Lower Rio Grande region’s water supply from Elephant Butte Reservoir as a matter of
fact, even though New Mexico remains in legal compliance with Rio Grande Compact
requirements for upstream deliveries to the reservoir. Texas attempted to bring Middle
Rio Grande issues into the Lower Rio Grande litigation, but the Court refused.

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative is seeking a New Mexico Office of the State Engineer
permit for a new depletion from a currently unused water right. The proposed new
groundwater withdrawals are from the deep groundwater system, which is tributary to
the Rio Grande and is fed by snowmelt runoff from the Sangre de Cristos. Pumping 100
acre-feet per year of deep groundwater to generate hydrogen by electrolysis will reduce
the Rio Grande water supply flowing past the Otowi gage. It will reduce the Otowi Index
gage flow, and the volume the Lower Rio Grande receives, in this time of increasing
temperature, aridity, and water scarcity and at this moment of New Mexico’s legal jeopardy caused by its chronic consumption of water apportioned to downstream users.

New Mexico’s ongoing tragedy of its water resources commons is caused by
withdrawals from thousands of wells and dozens of river diversions. When surface water
is in short supply, water users turn to groundwater where they can. The Rio Grande
Compact is violated, and the river dies from the cumulative impacts of these thousands
of withdrawals. Individual water users, taking only what they need, together withdraw
more than New Mexico’s apportioned share.

The State of New Mexico is compelled to curtail such overuse in the Lower Rio Grande
now and will be compelled further in a future U.S. Supreme Court decree to curtail
overuse in the Middle Rio Grande and potentially the Upper Rio Grande if it does not do
so on its own initiative to prevent a new Compact violation.

Economic development and the generation of a reliable electric energy supply must not
increase New Mexico’s depletion of the Rio Grande. New Mexico does not have
sufficient water resources along the Rio Grande to convert water into energy. The
proposed new deep groundwater pumping will deplete the Rio Grande to do that.

Norm Gaume, BSEE, MSCE, P.E. (ret.)
Water Resources Engineer
Former New Mexico Interstate Stream Engineer
Former Engineer-Adviser to the New Mexico Commissioner, Rio Grande Compact Commission
NM license #6969
September 1, 2026

1 Madani, K., Water Bankruptcy: The Formal Definition, Water Resources Management    (2026) 40:78, abstract, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-025-04484-0.

 

 

 

Concerned about Project Ranger?  Join State Emergency Response Commission Virtual Meeting on Thursday, October 22nd

Did you know that this week Tessa Snyder, the Hazardous Materials Coordinator, confirmed in writing that she recently met privately with Castelion Corporation about their Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre hypersonic missile motor manufacturing and static firing testing complex – the largest in the United States – on the West Mesa near Rio Rancho, New Mexico? https://www.castelion.com/project-ranger/

Snyder informed Castelion of the upcoming Thursday, October 22nd State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) meeting of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. https://www.dhsem.nm.gov/preparedness/hazardous-materials-program/serc/ and https://www.dhsem.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/August-2026-SERC-Meeting-Minutes.pdf

She also reported that Castelion has attended the Sandoval County Local Emergency Planning Committee meetings, where members of the public can ask questions. But no notifications have been provided to the community members living near the weapons complex. https://www.sandovalcountynm.gov/departments/emergency-management/

These facts raise serious questions about agency transparency, hazardous materials oversight, and the public’s right to know. https://commongroundrising.org/castelions-project-ranger-solid-rocket-motor-plant/

 

Get all the details at nuclearactive.org