Ron Loehman Conservation Chairman New Mexico Senators Udall and Heinrich and Representative Lujan have reintroduced legislation to add the Columbine-Hondo area in northern New Mexico to the Federal Wilderness system. The proposal will create a 45,000-acre wilderness adjacent to the present Wheeler Peak Wilderness in the Carson National Forest north Of Taos. You can access a map of the area here. The Columbine-Hondo was designated a Federal Wilderness Study Area in 1980. Conservationists, outdoor organizations, and many others have advocated for its transfer to the Federal Wilderness system since that time, but for one reason or another it never happened ... Read More
August 8, 2013
Ron Loehman The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) has rolled out a comprehensive Travel Management Plan that makes a lot of changes in the road and trail network in the forest. The process started in 2005 when the USFS adopted a rule that required each National Forest and Grassland in the US to identify and designate the roads, trails, and areas that would be open to motor vehicle use. Once implemented, all motor vehicle use off the designated system would be prohibited. That process is now complete for the SFNF following years of planning, environmental impact analyses, and input from ... Read More
June 21, 2013
Ron Loehman, Conservation Chairman June 1st was the date for New Mexico Trout's annual volunteer project day and BBQ. This year the project location was a spot near where FR 376 passes over the Rio Cebolla in the Jemez District of the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF). Our task was to build vehicle barriers to help close off an old, informal road that has been eroding and contributing to the degradation of the creek and its surrounding meadow. Earlier, SFNF personnel had built a gate across the old road to allow access only by emergency vehicles. We were there to build ... Read More
June 21, 2013
by Ron Loehman Last Saturday, May 11, I assisted Dave Menicucci with an eyeball survey of the fish population in the fourteen-mile stretch of Rio San Antonio in the Valles Caldera. Dave has gotten approval for a study to determine if trout can be relocated to even out the apparent patchy distribution of fish in the San Antonio in the aftermath of the Las Conchas fire. See article below for a fuller description. We each walked upstream along a seven-mile stretch with a GPS and recorded the fish we saw in each quarter-mile section. I had the lower half, Reaches ... Read More
May 14, 2013
Per Mike Sloane (NMDG&F Chief of Fisheries), work has begun on the two back channels downstream of the Texa-hole. The effort includes cleaning out the organic sediments, creating some pools, shaping the channel and building some rock and tree structures. The plan is to create more habitat and improve sediment transport. Along with this project a waterfowl/wetland area will be built between the Texas-hole and the Munoz parking lot ... Read More
May 14, 2013
Ron Loehman Conservation Chairman Plan to join other NM Trout Volunteers on June 1st to build structures that will help the Rio Cebolla recover from the effects of unauthorized vehicles along its banks. The location is about 4 miles north of Porter's Landing where FR 376 crosses the Cebolla, across the valley from where we installed the interpretive panels last year. We will be working to close off an informal road along the creek that was decommissioned in the recent Forest Service travel management plan. This is an action that NM Trout has been advocating for over a decade and ... Read More
May 14, 2013
Rio Guadalupe Cleanup - Saturday, April 20, 2013 New Mexico Trout has a tradition of welcoming the Spring opening of FR 376 between the Gilman Tunnels and Porter's Landing with a volunteer trash pickup. That Forest Service road provides access to our Rio Guadalupe home water and it accumulates a lot of roadside trash over a season's heavy use by the many people who visit that corridor. Doing these annual cleanups is one way we can express our thanks for the wonderful trout fishing opportunities the Rio Guadalupe affords while we help maintain it in a state that we like ... Read More
April 16, 2013
Ron Loehman, Conservation Chairman In July 2010, a collaboration of the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera National Preserve, and several Pueblo tribes was awarded a ten-year $40 million Federal project to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire in the Southwest Jemez. The objective is to restore many of the characteristics the forest enjoyed before centuries of overgrazing, logging, and fire suppression produced the landscape we see today of smaller, closely spaced trees that are susceptible to massive crown fires. After a lot of study, formal environmental assessments, and many public hearings, the collaboration has released its Proposed ... Read More
April 16, 2013