TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Sagebrush invades landscape near Farmington
Sagebrush rebellion near Farmington — with herbicide
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will poison up to 31,000 acres of sagebrush with herbicide near Farmington later this month in what officials are calling an attempt to restore the landscape to ecological health, The Farmington Daily News reports.
Beginning Sept. 15 and continuing into October, the agency will use an airplane to drop pellets of tebuthiuron in an area south of Bloomfield on BLM and traditional Navajo land. An agency official told the Daily News that thinning the sagebrush density should result in an increase of native grasses and other vegetation. “Our goal is to improve species diversity which will benefit wildlife. Rangeland and the watershed also will benefit, “said Jeff Tafoya, a rangeland management specialist for the Farmington Field Office.
Tebuthiuron is needed, Tafoya said, because wildfires no longer provide the natural control for sagebrush. The herbicide has been used to control sagebrush since the 1980s to thin, not eradicate the plant, he told the Daily News. The effort is part of a larger, statewide program to restore ecological health under its “Restore New Mexico” initiative. To date, 750,000 acres have been restored since 2005. The agency’s goal is to reclaim 1 million acres of land by 2010.
Elsewhere in the San Juan Basin, the BLM is closing and rehabilitating roads to improve wildlife habitat and decrease erosion. Near Taos, the BLM is shaving patches of dense sagebrush on public lands each winter, creating rich grass-sage mosaics for wildlife.
The BLM has consulted with Navajo Nation chapters in the treatment areas and with Navajo ranchers who graze livestock and reside in the areas.
Pearce’s father dies in Texas
Rep. Steve Pearce is taking time off his campaign schedule after his father passed away Monday in Texas, The Las Cruces Sun-News reports. Melvin Pearce was 86.
Steve Pearce canceled all his appearances Monday as memorial services were arranged. Details have not yet been released.
The elder Pearce lived in Temple, Texas. He is survived by his wife, Jane Pearce, and his five children: Mike Pearce of Denver; Steve Pearce of Hobbs; Tanis Stanfield of Tomball, Texas; Philip Pearce of College Station, Texas; and Greg Pearce of Conway, Ark.
Melvin Pearce was a sharecropper who was affected by a regionwide drought in the 1940s. He brought his family to southeast New Mexico in 1947, when son Steve was 2, according to the People For Pearce Web site.
Guard mobilized to help on Gulf coast
More than 400 members of the New Mexico National Guard headed toward the Gulf of Mexico coast early Monday as Hurricane Gustav bore down, The Associated Press reports.
Two Black Hawk helicopters and their crews from Company C, 1st Battalion, 171st General Support Aviation Battalion flew to Louisiana and were prepared to conduct search and rescue missions, Guard spokesman Tom Koch told the AP.
An estimated 350 soldiers from the National Guard’s 717th Battalion in Roswell and the 2/200th Infantry Battalion in Las Cruces left Monday to provide manpower in Louisiana in the wake of Gustav, Koch said, and another 120 soldiers from the 720th Transportation Co. based in Las Vegas were called up to haul materials and supplies for hurricane relief.
New Mexico officials said they were prepared to provide food and shelter to hurricane evacuees, who were said to number 2 million.
UNM hoops coaches’ pay questioned
The Albuquerque Journal reports that UNM women’s basketball coach Don Flanagan and three assistants all got what were described as “retroactive” raises this year, totaling nearly $100,000, despite a state law that prohibits such raises to state employees.
University attorneys told the paper that, in fact, the raises weren’t retroactive, and that UNM Finance Vice President Ava Lovell misspoke when describing the raises that way. The money was not a raise but a “late payment” on a verbal agreement proffered by athletics officials earlier, UNM attorney Lee Peifer said.
The Journal pointed out that the verbal agreement was made at a time when Flanagan had a contract in place that required any changes to be made in writing and signed by both parties. Flanagan signed his contract in February 2008, but was made retroactive to July 1, 2007.
UNM also provided documents to the Journal that show administrators have been given similar late-pay deals, even as the school has refused to provide retroactive payments to its union workers. In November, the Journal noted, the university fought an arbitrator’s decision to award union workers a $500 bonus by calling it a retroactive raise and therefore unconstitutional.
Today’s headlines come after the men’s basketball program got a black eye in July, when UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs set up coach Steve Alford to attend a fund-raiser for Republican Congressional District 1 candidate Darren White. The White campaign announced Alford would be available for photos at $1,000 a pop. The ensuing uproar caused both sides to back down, and while Alford attended, no photos were taken.
Be the first to comment