Eco-events on the horizon: hemp, fire, backpacking, saving local seeds
Backpacker guru tells
stories in Taos today — For a lot of people, it might be hard to imagine a time before backpacking, the great sport of seeking solitude, was as popular as it is. But, indeed, there was such a time, and Taos resident Bill Kemsley was there to usher in the new era. Kemsley founded Backpacker
Magazine and was one of the originators of the American Hiking Society. At 90 years old, he “can still out hike anyone on the mountain,” according to an event announcement from the Carson National Forest. Kemsley will give a talk today (Sept. 13) from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the main Carson National Forest office in Taos, located at 208 Cruz Alta Road. For more information, please call Craig Saum at 575 586-0520. Seed workshops in Dixon
— The Embudo Valley Seed Library has a month’s worth of talks about seeds and how to save them. Today (Sept. 13), Loretta Sandoval, a local organic farmer and seed geneticist, will speak on land race plants. Sandoval is an avid and meticulous cultivator of native chiles. Río Arriba County Agricultural Extension Agent Don Martinez Jr. will speak Wednesday (Sept. 19) about seeds and covercrops, while Jesse Emerson, a clinical
herbalist and volunteer seed librarian, will talk Sept. 27 about choosing seeds to save and how to harvest and clean them. All lectures run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Embudo Valley Library Community Center, 217 A State Road 75, Dixon. Peñasco Forest Service
office hours limited — The Carson National Forest has cut back on the hours its Peñasco office will be open while it seeks new personnel for the front desk. The office will now be open from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. These hours are the same in Questa, though the supervisor’s office in Taos will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Peñasco office will be open during the High Road Art
Tour (Sept. 22, 23, 29 and 30) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though wood permits won’t be for sale during those times.
El Rito prescribed burn — The Carson is also planning its first prescribed burn of the year. Fire managers in the El Rito district, southwest of Taos County, plan to conduct the Alamosa prescribed burn sometime between Sept. 24 and Oct. 26. The 2,833 acres are located about 7 miles north of El Rito and west of Vallecitos. A community meeting about the burn project is planned for Sept. 22 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. This burn is near the vicinity of two operations conducted in 2017 when the weather and other conditions were favorable to coaxing a natural wildfire into similar burns.
Hemp cultivation meetings in October — Hemp, the nonpsychoactive kin of marijuana, is starting to make it into the mainstream in New Mexico, and state agricultural administrators are trying to sort out the best way to do that. The New Mexico Department of Agriculture will host several meetings in October to get feedback from residents about a new rule governing hemp cultivation. They won’t be in Taos, but the nearest meeting is happening Oct. 15 at the Española Library conference room, located at 313 N. Paseo de Oñate in Española. The meeting will start at 1 p.m. Visit nmda.nmsu.edu for the text of the rule and further details about submitting a public comment.