A message from our Chair: Caring for the commons

One of the reasons I love New Mexico is the combination of cultural diversity and beautiful places. The proximity of many wild outdoor opportunities close to cities allows a nearby respite—most of the time.

In mid-June, my wife, Linda, and I took a short backpack up to La Vega, in the Pecos Wilderness. Our starting point was the base of the Santa Fe ski basin, which at over 10,000 feet is very cool compared to the city heat of pre-monsoon June.

On the way in, Linda commented about the smell of smoke. Some hikers returning from the summit of Santa Fe Baldy reassured us that we must be smelling the Wallow fire, over 200 miles away, as nothing was evident from higher up the mountain. But little wisps of smoke in the sky, mixed in with some tiny clouds, left me wondering. Arriving at La Vega, a small meadow and marsh area, we spotted only one tent. A young man crossing the meadow looked dismayed: A fire nearby. Steady winds of 20 mph with 40-mph gusts, headed directly toward us from where he spotted fire. A quick dash into the meadow confirmed his fear. After weeks of work and volunteer activities, I was inclined to stay. Finding a great campsite, well established so we would not be damaging fragile alpine meadows, we started to settle down.

Smoke started drifting into the meadow. Another quick dash into the meadow. It looked like the fire was 3 miles away, and it had grown at least 10-fold in an hour. My wife’s recent recovery from back surgery left me loaded down with a heavy pack and wondering how fit either of us was for an immediate evacuation. It did not, however, look like we had a choice. The fire was moving parallel to the trail, and we had to go toward it to return to our vehicle. We wondered about the others we had spotted hiking in, including a group of backpackers with an 8-month-old child in a tented carrier.

In large part due to the efforts of a dozen air tankers and helicopters, the growth of the fire was restrained enough for us to evacuate safely. All the folks we had seen backpacking in made it out safely. Both my body and my brain took a few more days to recover.
The immediate cause was likely someone who felt they could safely manage a campfire despite a ban. Overgrazing in the 1800s followed by a policy of fire suppression in the last century, combined with the Southwest’s normal variability in climate, have created large areas at great risk of large fires. Thirty years ago, Forest Service fire specialist Bill Armstrong predicted we would have a lot of big fires. His biggest fears were for the area around Los Alamos and the Santa Fe watershed. Change has been tough and steady; recovery from two centuries of poor practices is not easy.

Foremost, the Sierra Club is engaged in getting folks connected with our wild places. This creates a desire to understand them. As we attempt to protect the places we love, we apply the best information and processes. The forests are our watersheds, and they have a particularly key role in maintaining our existence over the long run. We have the technology to pump water out of the ground, but we are diminishing that resource at a steady rate. The coal that powers those pumps fouls our air. Let us not continue to pollute our air and poison our water by burning coal. These technologies will continue; they have their place and time. Renewable technology’s time has come.

Yes, we must let our forests burn. That is their way. Many little fires. Let us change our ways. Management of the commons requires we learn and change.

John Buchser, Chapter Chair