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Dear Friend:
On a recent early autumn afternoon, I snuck away from our office in Santa Fe and went for a hike at Tsankawi ruins, a part of the Bandelier National Monument in the Jemez Mountains. As I meandered along the ancient trails, I glimpsed far below me the magnificent Rio Grande flowing through volcanic canyons. Looking across the valley, I could see the aspen trees in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains showing the first signs of their golden fall foliage. And of course, dominating the view was the cerulean blue late-September sky of northern New Mexico.
However, in the midst of this magnificent landscape, my mind was focused on a much more somber subject — climate change. As I surveyed the landscape in every direction, I could see many visible manifestations of our already changing climate. To the west, the huge fire scar of the horrific Cerro Grande fire of 2000; in every direction the landscape was littered with thousands of dead pinyon and ponderosa pine trees from the bark beetle infestations of 2002 and 2003; and growing all along the trails, invasive species such as cheat grass were flourishing.
The Jemez landscape is what you could call a “climate canary.” Our recent studies in the Jemez Mountains show that average temperatures have increased rapidly, and precipitation has declined significantly over the past 40 years. Further studies tie the higher temperatures and reduced precipitation to increased and more severe wildfires, the bark beetle infestation, and rapidly spreading invasive species. This compelling data, and the resulting impacts, have shown us very clearly that while many people believe climate change is something we’ll have to worry about in the future, if at all, the truth is that New Mexico is being impacted right now by a changing climate.
That’s why we’ve embarked upon the New Mexico Climate Change Adaptation Project. Our science and conservation teams are showing that we can take steps now to lessen the impact of climate change and to help people and nature adapt to the impacts that look to be inevitable.
The program is also a far-reaching strategy to provide our elected officials, community and statewide leaders, and land and water managers with information about climate change in New Mexico — past, present and future. It provides an assessment of climate change over the past 40 years, and a projection of which landscapes and species will be most affected during the next century.
While the impacts of climate change have the potential to be very dramatic, there have been some positive developments on the world and national stage in recent months. First, the U.S. House of Representatives in June passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as ACES. The bill was supported by The Nature Conservancy and other key climate change advocacy groups.
ACES would help address climate change by installing a “cap-and-trade” system where greenhouse-gas emissions would be capped at a certain level, and any organization wanting to emit them would have to buy “emission credits” on the open market. Commendably, New Mexico’s U.S. Representatives voted for ACES and now the action has shifted to the U.S. Senate,where a climate bill was introduced September 30. As you can see, I’m excited about our work on climate change and how it will positively impact people and nature here. This program is core to our goal to create lasting conservation results.
It is with the goal of lasting conservation in mind that has led us to an important decision for the Conservancy: this fall, we will close and sell Bear Mountain Lodge in Silver City. The lodge has been a wonderful experiment, through which we have learned many valuable lessons. However, in recent years it became more and more apparent that, for us, running a nature lodging facility is both economically unsustainable and simply not core to our mission.
Our organization is designed and staffed to develop the best science and to design and implement collaborative, large-scale conservation projects. Especially in these times of limited resources, it is crucial for us to maintain a keen focus on our organizational mission. I’m proud of our extraordinary conservation successes of the past year; from the expansion of our Gila and Milnesand Prairie Preserves to our new Climate Change and Living Rivers programs. However, as my recent hike in the Jemez Mountains clearly shows, we still have a long way to go to address the serious conservation issues we’re facing. Thank you for everything you do to make our work possible.
Sincerely,
Terry Sullivan
New Mexico State Director
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Harold E. Malde (Gila Riparian Preserve); Photo © Patrick McCarthy/TNC (Terry Sullivan).
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