Sometimes it’s the water and sometimes it is water NOT…

Four weeks ago we experienced a thunderstorm in the Eldorado area that put an exclamation point on our Monsoonal moisture season. To put it in perspective, It’d been dry, very dry: I’d been telling folks here it was the driest I’d seen the “greenbelts” in Eldorado during my 24-year residence here. There was little fire danger because of a lack of one-hour fuels; grasses hadn’t grown – just dust (and it isn’t combustible).  We are used to NOT having moisture here: it is the historic norm. I noticed that over a year ago SF County Roads replaced a culvert-end in my neighborhood with an enlarged hole & pipe. When I pointed out to County Roads that the other end was still buried (and had been for decades), they came and placed a stake where they thought the end of the buried culvert pipe should be. I guess they’re not used to dealing with water either, the stake is still there…

The drought in the western US has been greatly noted, chronicled & discussed:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-parched-20130806-dto,0,5922502.htmlstory

With local commentary & history too   As noted by Heller in his op-ed (linked below), there have been wetter times locally. In fact, during the late 13^th & early 14^th centuries (common era) the Galisteo Basin supported the largest pueblos and densest populations in what is now the Southwestern U.S.A. Yep, with many having 1,000-2,000+ rooms they were larger than Chaco or Mesa Verde. This came about because of a wetter time period, much like recently experienced in this vicinity. When the more normal conditions of water scarcity returned, populations plummeted as inhabitants moved closer to water sources.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/article_6c9a4b95-06be-5444-b05a-b5d758d2c4c9.html

           

grapes of unwrath

When I think about water & weather impacts, I think of the trends over millennia, not decades. I could point to previous July thunder & hailstorms that stripped our grapevines of all green (ripening grapes & leaves), but the observations of a couple dozen years aren’t significant until placed into the larger-longer context.

The storm here 4-weeks ago was the largest-widespread over-the-area in quite a while. As the author Michael McGarrity  (lives nearby) mentioned to me: “it really changed the landscape.” Indeed, it moved a lot of earth, sand, brush & trees. Plus, brought out a cycle of chorus frogs. But it was nothing compared to the WATER experienced some places http://www.youtube.com/embed/_yCnQuILmsM - like Manitou Springs recently, or North Cascades National Park:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/northcascadesnationalpark/sets/72157635049191212/

BUT, I want to share a few images of our little micro-event:

doesn't look like much, but debris atop concrete is 10' 6" above channel

trail - used to be level 

Lucy checks arroyo erosion area - had been filled with cut cholla
(once again displaying the universality of studity)

Another trail washout

World RANGER Day… 2013

The 31^st day of July is our annual observation of WORLD RANGER DAY. I am grateful for the men & women that protect our special places, often putting their lives at risk to see that “the next generation” has some of the same opportunities that we have. For their gift of honor, duty & sacrifice, I give them THANKS!

Ranger Haroun - Petra

It is already WORLD RANGER DAY in some places. Having twice been a Ranger from Arizona, I’ll celebrate the day with this tune (after I skip the ad):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPArO-OI_3U&list=ALBTKoXRg38BDdoOknLFbmEgNJNdafIlRA

The fire season in North America got off to a slow start, and then went gang-busters: I’ve had four fire assignments thus far, with chance for more = my busiest in years. The wildland fire community is small & close knit. We continue to mourn the loss of the Granite Mountain IHC (Interagency Hotshot Crew), and other friends that have died recently.  So, thanks also to those that have helped us along the way in our many & varied pursuits.

           

The New Mexico SiteWatch steward program continues to diversify and grow: many volunteers ranging there as well. In the “small world” category, Mike Bremer the forest archaeologist for the Santa Fe National Forest (and their stellar site steward program) was on the same flights from Albuquerque to Spokane as Meme, her sister Pat, and myself when we flew up for a northern Idaho visit last Friday.

            I can’t but think about ALL our Ranger friends: from here to Australia, South Africa, Scotland, Canada, Poland, Argentina, et al …

            Hope y’all have a great WORLD RANGER DAY!

Advanced SAR Training group at Petra (June 2012)

A long way to Santa Fe…

Fremar Kennel - early 60's

 Yesterday as I was driving west towards a late afternoon yoga class at Santa Fe Community College my thoughts were with the track-of-the-sun, the Jemez Mountains and beyond. I have resided here now 2-dozen years, 6-years longer than my boyhood haunts called the “Southland” (Southern California, or SoCal). I still have so many pleasant memories of the homes I had there. This time of year especially, I make the mental journey back to memories of our place in Malibu. We had a kennel on North Lima Street in Burbank and in early 1960 one at Pacific Coast Highway & Puerco Canyon Road.

Calvin Nursery location

I was twelve when we moved there, an excellent match, but I had relationships with my baseball team in Burbank that I didn’t want to lose; more about that in a few moments. We’d had a champion Bedlington Terrier (Fremar’s Cable Car) make the cover of Sports Illustrated early in 1960, and an opportunity arose where our family kennel, Fremar (for my parents Fred & Margaret), expanded. We were located next to Calvin Nursery and Bowman’s African Violets, and I relished seeing Cindy Bowman’s long red hair & Casey Calvin’s blonde ponytail. Ah, youth at the beach and in-the-canyons… what great times. Positive memories became motivations to return to the area during my National Park Service career.

Now back to some 12 & under baseball memories. I was fortunate to play with some athletic & talented teammates on the Aerol Red Devils: Bill Kuzma, Ken Ziskin, Joe Baldino, Kim Cannon, Steve Ross to name just a few that I can remember (wish I could recall all). On game days I’d get a break from mowing lawns (we had six) and weeding flowerbeds. I’d rise early and commute with my dad to Burbank. He to his job as an engineer with Pacific Bell Telephone, and I to Kuzma’s house off Glenoaks & Buena Vista where we’d “hang” until game time. Bill was our primary pitcher, and Ken our catcher. I backed up both of those postions when not roaming-the-outfield, and Bill & Phil would have some light pre-game warm-up sessions those days: good times. After all these decades I still remember Bill Kuzma’s no-hitter that I caught. Unfortunately, a runner (walk or error) had scored on a wild throw and I noticed their slide left them a couple feet short of home plate. Being new to baseball (2^nd year) & relief-catcher I was unsure what to do, so without looking at umpire, keeping eye on mound and Bill, I initiated a one-way dialogue to the umpire that the runner had never touched home. After the inning, he went to my manager and explained the procedure I needed to follow. Bill was disappointed and I felt bad: lesson learned (the hard way).

Our big rival was Pizza Pantry, led by John Peterson. The 1^st time we played them John pitched his team to a one-sided victory over us, hitting two round-trippers over-the-chain link-fence at McCambridge Park field #2.  Afterwards, my dad, who’d pitched at Glendale High, US Navy & briefly post-WWII, noted to us that John had hit out pitches at his knees and we should try pitching him at-the-letters next time. We did, and rematches were much more competitive from then on (including the 13-16 League).

When I mentioned above that my teammates were talented, they also worked very hard. Bill was our class “Music Man” and “leader of the band,” taking lots of discipline. Ken pursued one of the sports that Burbank High was famous for: swimming. Ken was an All-American at USC. Joe Baldino too always worked hard and became the Bulldogs signal-caller before going onto USC. I was always slow to evolve, but THANKS to so many teammates along the way I’m still playing (of course nowadays its usually with incident management teams at emergencies). I hope ALL our former colleagues are well and continue to do-good… As for me, I have some more musings to contemplate about looking over the wall and PCH to the Pacific. 

Traditional Cultural Property… and the beat goes on…

A few days ago I ventured out for a visit to an archaeological and historic area called the stone circles. It was my first trek into the site, but was guided by another site steward, Gordon Groff, that had been there before. Enroute… sorry this post was interrupted suddenly by a dispatch to the Tres Lagunas incident (fire). Santa Fe National Forest, Pecos, New Mexico. It has been a late and slow-to-evolve fire season this year in the American Southwest, but it has taken of now (with three Type 2 & one Type 1 fires). I was on the Tres Lagunas for about a week. I got released (demobed) to attend a family function (reunion) in Arizona that I’d been coordinating for several months. Now, I’m awaiting another fire assignment as a Safety Officer.

           

The Tres Lagunas fire started on private property, in Pecos Canyon, when a tree branch came down in high winds and brought down a power line. Within 24-hours this would happen again in the Jemez Mountains starting the Thompson Ridge blaze (also Santa Fe National Forest) as it had 2-years before igniting the Las Conchas  fire(the largest fire in state history at the time). Power line rights-of-way  (ROW) apparently aren’t being maintained well; the power companies are saying they need to double & triple width, but I doubt that will be a solution unless the enlarged ROW is maintained. I also wonder if Wildearth Guardians and others will go along with wider ROW?

        My 1^st day on the line following them we pulled off-the-line shortly after noon as the line wasn’t going to hold. Other efforts at “point protection” (resources and values at risk) and direct, indirect line building, and evening burnouts (reducing fuels between head of fire and our control lines) became effective: thank you weather.

  The Tres Lagunas had some very steep line punched in by Hotshot Crews (Type I), that have experience and know when to say no...

            

Mom & Aunt Virginia

At the family get-together, my sisters & I were joined by my Aunt Virginia (Ventura, CA) and many cousins from the West Coast. We convened in Gilbert, AZ, to visit my mom, as she is unable to travel any longer. Sure it was hot there, but even Yosemite Valley hit 105 F on Saturday. Many thanks to my cousins (1^st & 2^nd) that traveled to the desert in June: Steve, Shannon, Patrick, Alison, Ray, Rick & Grace, Nancy & Aubrey, Tracy, and of course my sisters Chris & Laura and nephew Evan & his spouse Grace and their family. We were ALL able to re-connect briefly and visit. Mom enjoyed that…

            Now I await my next fire assignment, and note that though available in the national resource data base, the Southwest Coordination Center was unable to fill a Safety Officer resource order yesterday. This has happened way to often, and I harken back to a comment of my 1^st Type I  Team Incident Commander: “The Santa Fe Zone has a reputation for being inept.” I’ve had my own personal experiences, and apparently “the beat goes on…”

Keys to the Caribbean...Florida Keys

In late April & early May, Meme & I took a trip out onto the Florida Keys (it was a 35^th anniversary getaway before I’d be officiating at the annual State High School Tennis Tournament). It gave us a chance to again “make bubbles” (scuba dive) and see some new sights (“sure is flat down here”).  Of course, even before you get out onto the Keys you’ll see that southern Florida has a lot of glades-n-grasses (Everglades National Park). The bird life in the region is phenomenal (and so different from home).

           http://www.seamonkeydivers.com

Seamonkeys Divers

One of the highlights of the trip was our experiences with Bill & Colleen at Sea Monkeys Divers in Islamorada. Situated Oceanside at the Hampton Inn it is a short boat ride to some good dive locations with an array of tropical fish, lobsters-a-plenty, eels, trio of nurse sharks hangin’ together, a ray, and just about the largest turtle we’d ever seen (complete with barnacles on its back). The dives in the Keys are shallow, 20 to 30 feet, and reinforced observations that shallow areas are rich with marine life and often snorkelers can see almost as much in some places: this would be one.  

           

Our Cottage at Conch Key

Our next stop was Conch Key Cottages, which was by far our favorite stay-place: the screened porch, and wood paneled living area, kitchen & bedrooms were cozy and their lagoon side hammocks called to me daily. It was great watching the herons wade-n-hunt the lagoon like inlet by our cottage. Kayaks are available to get you a closer look.  Diving was with Dive Duck Key at the Hawks Cay Resort; not nearly as much see-critters (one big ray though), but enjoyable: found an abandoned stray rope leading to non-buoyed lobster trap, so coiled it into the trap so it wouldn’t snag any passers-by. Once a Ranger, always a Ranger?

This locale was also convenient for visiting the Dolphin Research Center, and down the road a short drive the Turtle Hospital. This is a stop we recommend highly; they’re doing good rehab works with the goal of “return” to the environment. Some unfortunately, have buoyancy issues that will require lifelong care, but the hospital has a commendable success rate with their surgeries, therapies and releases. Well done folks!

We were greeted onto the Seven Mile Bridge by a good ol’ fashioned squall, and by the time we got to the end of same it was a “non-driving” rain that made motoring not enjoyable. More than a few of us shared a roadside pullout across the highway from a county park that had a sign indicating they’d received funds from the National Park Service. I always feel proud seeing that.

In Key West we strolled past the Ernest Hemingway House, where he resided much of the 1930’s, and found our way to the Blue Heaven (mentioned in a Jimmy Buffett tune) for dinner. There we joined the Country Music Songwriters tour at the bar. The fish and margaritas were great; they surely know how to throw a party in this town. Here is wishing you ALL the best… 

A couple of Jesuits…spiritual journeys…

The Pope, Francis I, was ordained via the Society of Jesus (aka: Jesuits, or S.J.) and is the first Jesuit elected to succeed Peter as the head of the western/Roman Catholic Church. That has me thinking about the influence other Jesuits have had on me, and our world. As I recall, they were founded in response to the reformation and have long stressed educational pursuits. In fact, when I think about it some of the finest universities in the USA are Jesuit institutions of higher learning. So, let me briefly tell you about two members of the S.J. that have had positive impacts on me over the decades: Father Pierre-Jean De Smet and Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I have never, ever, been mistaken as a Francophile, but these two extraordinary individuals certainly make me think that the spirit that was Jean Valjean was real.

Father Pierre Jean De Smet was born in what is now Belgium, and spent the majority of his life doing mission work amongst Native American Indian nations & tribes in the northern plains and Rocky Mountains. Fr. De Smet is most famous for being a friend of Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), and for having been at the Treaty of Fort Laramie talks in 1868 (which Sitting Bull never signed). I was fortunate during my National Park Service career to have worked as a Park Ranger-Historian at Little Bighorn and Fort Laramie, two locations that Sitting Bull famously visited. In a popular photo of  Sitting Bull he wears a large crucifix. From whom do you suppose that Hunkpapa holy man received such a sacred symbol? During a senior year History honors seminar I was criticized for not being critical enough of the man, and like a “monk writing in a cell, trying to get De Smet canonized…” Fair enough, but during research of primary documents I found that he’d been made aware of the presence of gold in the northern Rockies decades before gold-rush to same (Bozeman Trail/Red Cloud War), and remained silent (except in his journal) as he knew what an adverse impact it would have on his friends, the nations residing there. Pretty extraordinary: a non-interference “prime directive” long before Star Trek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Jean_De_Smet

I wonder how much my career, and worldview, was framed and impacted by this man? Was me desire to protect and repatriate cultural patrimony a result? Probably.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22119146#

Because of my studies in ancient Chinese history, when I began graduate work I took an interest in archaeology and the works of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In addition to being a priest, he was a scientist (geologist & paleontologist) had been involved early in his scientific career with Piltdown Man (later found to be a hoax, not his), a decorated veteran of World War I (stretcher-bearer), and deep cosmic thinker & writer. Because of his emerging and evolving views, he came into conflict with the S.J. position on “Original Sin” and was banished to China. There he became part of an all-star science team that was responsible for the re-discovery of Peking Man (early hominids, post Java Man) +/- ½ million years ago. Also participating in numerous paleontological expeditions, he continued constantly lecturing and writing throughout his life, while he tried (without success) to get S.J. permission to return to his native France. His ideas, with evolution being part of the divine milieu, were too controversial during his lifetime (but, part of Vatican II perspectives). He spent his adult life enlarging and enriching our universe and helping us to better understand…

“I believe that the universe is an evolution

I believe that evolution proceeds toward spirit.

I believe that the spirit is fully realized in a form of personality.

I believe that the supremely personal is the universal Christ.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin

THANK YOU gentlemen…

"The Sky is Falling"... and our part...

A great amount of deliberation, mostly on the computers of journalists & bloggers, and ink has been dedicated to the sequestration and associated budget cuts that is now taking place in the homeland (USA). Back-n-forth finger-pointing is  even as trivial as who started it: “it was your idea…” As memory serves, it was a suggestion of The President, which both sides of our political equation bought into, and that neither would allow us to go there. Wanna bet? In line with our continued impasse it is easier to play the blame game than to try and tackle life’s basic issues: they are tough.

I recently read a social-media post that asked about historical context for the situation that we face here. I believe our national experience is too new: I wrote that we’re “cloistered at the mall” because we don’t have the world-view necessary to deal with the “Big Picture.” Like the Academy of Motion Pictures awarding Best Picture for “Argo-F*#$-yourself” (over “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” or “Zero Dark Thirty”), our narcissism and self-love is in-depth and memories short. When one of the “Argo” awardees thanked the Academy for honoring creative non-violent solutions, I thought: “Yeah, we wouldn’t want to hail those that went into ‘Harm’s Way’ for causes that they believe-in, oh I don’t know: like our own Civil War, or the one on-going in Syria, and the struggles so many places.” Hollywood, like our domestic political process, takes more-n-more strides away from being relevant: not a good long-term marketing strategy.

Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park
hosts next IRF Congress

The sun neither rises, nor sets, on our national parks & protected areas (though literally it does both) as lynchpins of our national economy, but they are a healthy component:

http://headwaterseconomics.org/land/protected-public-lands-increase-per-capita-income/

I’ve seen political leaders play the “close the fire station” game: whenever facing austerity and budget cuts they quickly close down the highest profile program, like fire, police or parks. I caution those that use this strategy, as with all the money we owe China we just might end up with their judicial system too (but, appears with their over-building and housing bubble [sound familiar] they need to take steps towards economic "correction.")  Can’t happen that we drown in our own debt here? Please keep reading…

No doubt that our national debt has grown astronomically the past 4+ years, for a myriad of reasons, and as noted: “we can’t tax or spend our way out of this.” Anyone saying we can is proposing the practice of demagogical magic. We need leaders, and an electorate, that are not only willing, but excited to meet the “undiscovered country” (future) with broader horizons and perspectives. This past week our new Secretary of State (John Kerry) stated that in the USA we have the right to be stupid, and invented a new country in one of his talks. I’m just not sure how long we can afford to be ignorant: the future is calling, and through study I’ve seen what the dust-bin of history contains from over-expenditure (China’s dynastic cycles and the Roman Empire come immediately to mind). Can anyone name a nation whose political boundaries have remained unchanged the past 500-years (over twice as long as USA has been a country? There have been some islands and empires, but they’ve changed some too.

As a professional National Park Ranger I heard some of my colleagues state that parks are “protected for all-time” and that “conservation is a liberal platform issue.” Wrong on both counts, like so many of my fellow citizens he forget how short our history is: “Conservation is Conservative.” It says so right in the word-base, and parks & protected areas need to be nourished and cared for by each-n-every succeeding generation or they won’t last: I’m sure the pharaohs, and the game-wardens that ranged-on-them thought their hunting preserves were for all-time too. As I write, there is a young lady (Lisa) traveling from Santa Fe to Grand Teton in what might be some small stride for the next generation as she’ll be attending the Student Conservation Association’s National Park Academy: go girl!

As for me, I’ll continue to work for our, and encourage our colleagues worldwide and in the short-term root for baseball “Biesbol, ben beery, berry gud tu me.” Go teams at the World Baseball Classic: http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/index.jsp