Escape the mundane

Albuquerque Journal
Thursday, December 23, 2010
By Tom Travin

There’s an essay titled “Indigenous Ways of Knowing Our Mother Earth: Things to Consider While Enjoying the Land.”

There’s a little write-up on the Javalina Coffee House in Silver City.

There are informative sections on federal environmental agencies and the terminology of conservation.

There’s even a recipe for preserving scat. (That’s animal poop, for the uninitiated out there.)

And there are hikes. Lots of hikes.

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance’s “Wild Guide 2011″ is a quirky blend of fact and opinion, of art and whimsy. It’s also a useful guide to the outdoors in New Mexico and a means to finding both organized outings and volunteer projects to occupy your weekends.

The alliance “likes to have fun as well as be serious in trying to pass legislation,” said associate director Nathan Newcomer, “so the ‘Wild Guide’ is a way for us to reach out to our membership, but also to the broader public, to say, ‘We are a wilderness conservation group, but we like to get people outdoors, we like to have a good time, we like to encourage people to learn new things as it pertains to conservation and wilderness … the list is endless, quite frankly.”

The guide breaks down the state into regions and features short essays and articles particular to those areas. For example:

• The southwest section includes a brief history of the Mimbres Valley and its peoples, as well as an essay by a cattle rancher who happens to be pro-wolf.

• In the southeast, you’ll find a write-up on the ever-popular High Plains Prairie Chicken Festival and another on Carlsbad’s Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park.

• In the northwest, which includes the Albuquerque area, there’s an examination of the Diné perspective on Chaco Canyon and an introduction to “Green Fire Day,” a series of summer retreats designed to help participants get closer to their inner conservationist.

A second table of contents breaks down by month all of the alliance’s scheduled events, from hiking in the Organ Mountains to wildlife monitoring at Mills Canyon to September’s Gila River Festival.

The book is graced with superb photography and eye-catching design. It’s also organized so you can read a short section or two at a time, or sit and pore over it at a leisurely pace.

The “Wild Guide” is one of the alliance’s key means of reaching out to the community, Newcomer said. By working with a variety of groups — not necessarily from the same political point of view — the alliance has managed to influence public policy toward preserving wilderness areas.

Its mission is “to preserve and protect the wilderness-quality lands here in the state of New Mexico,” Newcomer said. “That includes existing wilderness areas, to make sure nothing’s going on there that can impact their quality and their character, and it’s also designating new wilderness areas.”

And how’s New Mexico doing on the wilderness front?

Well, let’s say there’s room for improvement. Lots of it.

“We pretty much are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to public lands permanently protected as wilderness,” Newcomer said. “We’re almost last in the western United States.”

Still, he sees reason for hope, with New Mexico’s congressional delegation sympathetic to environmental concerns and public backing for conservation growing from a grass-roots movement to a wider base of support.

The “Wild Guide” is an essential part of educating the public about the environment, Newcomer said.

“The guide is ever evolving; that’s one of the things that’s great about it,” he said. “It’s not just a standard thing every year. …

“We’re just trying to each year come up with something new, something fresh, and that’s useful — but also fun.”