Drought fueling fires over hundreds of thousands of acres

The Forest Service confessed the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires were prescribed burns — one after calm winds kicked up, one after a January burn pile hibernated under snowfall until emerging in April hungrier than ever.

But the match tells only half of any fire story. A fire behavior specialist found fallen twigs contained 2% moisture, logs the size of 4x4s, 8%. Kiln dry is 12%.

Meanwhile, withered grazing lands jack up hay prices so high more ranchers cut their herds or go out of business — or both.

Last year the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District released irrigation water a month late, then warned farmers not to expect more after July. This year (the district posted on its website “the MRGCD has NOT decided to end the irrigation season; the middle valley is simply running out of water.”)

The river itself is endangered.

Farmers, ranchers, rivers and forests face a greater danger than the Forest Service.

Droughts are nothing new to New Mexico. But this is not your grandfather’s drought.

If you think we got more heavy snow when you were a kid, you’re right. We’re not only getting less snowpack — our once reliable water savings account — but spring runoff, already premature, evaporates faster, leaving rivers shallower and soils too parched to green up much of anything through our longer, hotter summers.

So naturally, we pump even more groundwater, and water tables fall. Dust-dry soils can’t recharge aquifers that then must pull more water from skimpier streams. And around we go.

What is new is this drought comes packing heat. Records from weather stations statewide show that since 1970, New Mexico’s average temperature rose 3 degrees. That sounds so piffling but includes roughly 20 days a year of killer heat.

So far, the bigger threat is that warmer air sucks moisture from everything because that additional 3 little degrees exponentially multiplies the power of thirst in the air.

No wonder our forests would be less stressed in a drying kiln.

In spite of all this, Searchlight New Mexico reports that New Mexico has no idea how much water we have — or for how long. We’re navigating decades of drought blind as stones.

But there’s still good news. Collectively we can do more for our water supply than any hereand-gone monsoon season.

In 2019, our state Legislature passed the Water Data Act to collect the missing water data (but) without providing enough money for real progress.

So let’s each get together with some friends. Talk about our drought experiences. Google “Find My Legislator – New Mexico.” Share our stories with our legislators so they understand why water matters to us personally. Convince them it’s urgent to invest enough in data collection to make informed decisions that defend our water future.

Google “Draining Aquifers to Extinction.” Scroll down to “Description of the Issue” for more ways our laws need updating to meet our drier future. Email early and often.

It’s up to each of us to defend our water, our neighbors, our forests and river — ourselves — while we still can.