Current:Home > MarketsVolunteers help seedlings take root as New Mexico attempts to recover from historic wildfire-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Volunteers help seedlings take root as New Mexico attempts to recover from historic wildfire
View Date:2025-01-09 22:13:20
A small team of volunteers spent a few hours scrambling across fire-ravaged mountainsides, planting hundreds of seedlings as part of a monumental recovery effort that has been ongoing following the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history.
The Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon blaze was spawned in 2022 by a pair of botched prescribed burns that federal forest managers intended to lessen the threat of catastrophic fire in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Instead, large swaths of northern New Mexico were reduced to ash and rural communities were upended.
It rained overnight, making for perfect conditions for the volunteers in the mountains near the community of Mora. It was just enough to soften the ground for the group’s shovels on Saturday.
“The planting was so easy that we got done a little early and ran out of trees to plant that day. So it was a good day,” said David Hernandez, a stewardship ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, which is partnering with the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance on the project.
Nearly 400 ponderosa pine seedlings were placed in spots identified by the U.S. Forest Service as high priorities, given the severity of the burn. Those locations are mostly areas where not a single live tree was left standing.
It’s here where land managers, researchers and volunteers hope the seedlings will form islands of trees that can help regenerate more trees by producing their own seeds over time.
The Nature Conservancy used donations to purchase a total of 5,000 seedlings. New Mexico Highlands University is contributing another 3,500 seedlings.
The trees will be monitored to gauge success.
Researchers at New Mexico State University’s Forestry Research Center in Mora are experimenting with drought-hardening some seedlings to prepare them for the warmer and drier conditions they could face when they put down roots in burn scars. That means the plants are watered less frequently to make them more drought tolerant.
Owen Burney, the center’s director, said his team has yet to scale up the number of drought-conditioned seedlings, but more will be ready to plant in the spring.
The Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance team was on its way up the mountain again Monday to do more work. They will continue daily through early October, with a couple more weekend planting sessions for interested volunteers.
The goal is to get the seedlings in the ground before the first freeze.
There have been days when 20 volunteers have been able to plant around 1,000 trees, said Joseph Casedy, who works with alliance.
“It’s strength in numbers,” he said, acknowledging that repeatedly bending down to drop the trees into their holes before compacting the surrounding soil can be fatiguing work.
Burney, Hernandez and others say there’s a need to bolster the infrastructure required to develop seed banks, grow seedlings and do post-fire planting as wildfires have decimated large swaths of the U.S.
This year alone, more than 11,460 square miles (29,681 square kilometers) have been charred, outpacing the 10-year average. The National Interagency Fire Center also notes that there have been delays in reporting actual acreage burned given the “very high tempo and scale” of fire activity across the nation over recent months.
In northern New Mexico, reseeding started soon after the flames were dying down in 2022 as crews began working on mitigating erosion and flood damage within a burn scar that spanned more than 534 square miles (1,383 square kilometers) across three counties. In the first phase, federal agencies were able to seed about 36 square miles (93 square kilometers) and spread mulch over thousands of acres more.
In the last two years, tens of thousands of more acres have been seeded and mulched, and sediment catchments, earthen diversions and other flood control structures have been built at countless sites. Still, runoff from heavy storms the last two summers have resulted in damage.
There are certainly patches of ground that aren’t taking seed because they were burned so severely, and Casedy said it will take more time and funding to address problems in those areas. But he said other spots are bouncing back, providing some hope.
“Ground cover is looking a lot better this year,” he said. “At the place I’m standing right now, there’s 10-foot-tall aspens coming in.”
veryGood! (282)
Related
- Diamond Sports Group will offer single-game pricing to stream NBA and NHL games starting next month
- Wyoming Bill Would All But Outlaw Clean Energy by Preventing Utilities From Using It
- Deaths from xylazine are on the rise. The White House has a new plan to tackle it
- Analysts See Democrats Likely to Win the Senate, Opening the Door to Climate Legislation
- MVSU football player killed, driver injured in crash after police chase
- Zombie Coal Plants Show Why Trump’s Emergency Plan Is No Cure-All
- Antarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level Rise
- Honda recalls nearly 1.2 million cars over faulty backup camera
- The Best Gifts for People Who Don’t Want Anything
- Teresa Giudice Accuses Melissa Gorga of Sending Her to Prison in RHONJ Reunion Shocker
Ranking
- The Latin Grammys are almost here for a 25th anniversary celebration
- 'Forever chemicals' could be in nearly half of U.S. tap water, a federal study finds
- Pink’s Nude Photo Is Just Like Fire
- When Trump’s EPA Needed a Climate Scientist, They Called on John Christy
- These Michael Kors’ Designer Handbags Are All Under $150 With an Extra 22% off for Singles’ Day
- New Study Shows Global Warming Intensifying Extreme Rainstorms Over North America
- Shooter in attack that killed 5 at Colorado Springs gay nightclub pleads guilty, gets life in prison
- Get $150 Worth of Clean Beauty Products for Just $36: Peter Thomas Roth, Elemis, Osea, and More
Recommendation
-
After years of unrest, Commanders have reinvented their culture and shattered expectations
-
Living with an eating disorder, a teen finds comfort in her favorite Korean food
-
The Canals Are Clear Thanks to the Coronavirus, But Venice’s Existential Threat Is Climate Change
-
China, India to Reach Climate Goals Years Early, as U.S. Likely to Fall Far Short
-
Lost luggage? This new Apple feature will let you tell the airline exactly where it is.
-
Vaccines could be the next big thing in cancer treatment, scientists say
-
Cheer's Morgan Simianer Marries Stone Burleson
-
988 mental health crisis line gets 5 million calls, texts and chats in first year