Democracy for New Mexico

Enchilada Dinner & Presentation on Environmental Impact of Sandia Labs Nuke Project

From CARD/Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping: Attention nosy neighbors! Neighbors and citizens concerned about harmful environmental effects caused by nuclear projects at Sandia National Labs, are invited to attend an informational presentation and enchilada dinner: Thursday, October 11, 2007 from 6:00-8:30 PM at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard SE. This informative community event is sponsored by Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD), Citizens Action and Southwest Information Research Institute.

Local experts and scientists will give updates on the recent environmental issues and concerns in reference to Sandia Labs. A complete enchilada dinner, rice beans and salad will be served. Please come hungry for food and information on environmental issues. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

Contact: Lucille Cordova or Janet Greenwald/CARD-Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping at 505-266-2663. Click for a flyer (doc) designed by Marlene Quintana a student at CNM and CARD's Youth Coordinator

Air America's Thom Hartmann in ABQ 11.3.07

Thom Hartmann: “Human Relationship to the Environment”
Live in Albuquerque
Saturday, November 3, 1:00 PM!
Hotel Albuquerque, Old Town
Celebrated broadcaster, author, psychotherapist and commentator Thom Hartmann has written widely on issues related to the environment, politics and social justice.

Thom will give the keynote address during the Holistic Management International conference luncheon from 12:00 – 2:00PM. After Thom’s talk, the afternoon continues with dynamic Round Table Discussions on Global Climate Change, Creating a Sustainable Local Food System, Fire-Proofing the West, and much more. The afternoon winds up with an inspiring presentation by HMI Founder Allan Savory on Healing the Land.

Tickets are just $35.00. Don’t wait! Tickets are sure to sell out soon. Call (505) 842-5252 today, or click this link. Don’t miss this exciting afternoon – call today!

Thom Hartmann Booksigning: November 3, Hasting Books and Music at 5:00 PM. Talk and booksigning, 12501 Candelaria Road NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111 (Northwest corner of Tramway and Candelaria), call 332-8855. Click for more info.

Say No To Dirty Pit Waste in New Mexico

From Earthworks:
This October, New Mexico will begin revising the state's rules governing oil and gas pits. Oil and gas pits contain a range of toxic, carcinogenic and hazardous materials. Take action to strengthen these rules! (NOTE: Please take action only if you're from New Mexico.)

Toxic pits for you, no questions asked (or answered). The oil and gas industry is pushing rules that would:

• permit on-site, in-place burial of drilling waste;
• not require notification of surface owners - let alone their permission;
• prohibit testing of pit contents before burial; and
• not require post-burial monitoring of any kind.

Burying toxic pit waste threatens our precious groundwater, the people who live in proximity to these dumps, and private property. Don't let the oil and gas industry leave thousands of unmonitored and dirty mini-waste dumps across the state!

What You Can Do
Take action! Tell Governor Bill Richardson, and Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Secretary Joanna Prukop these rules should protect land owners and the environment. Tell them the rules should prohibit on-site pit burial of toxic waste.

Thank you for your support,
Jennifer Goldman, Oil & Gas Accountability Project
Alan Septoff, EARTHWORKS

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Go to the action page.
• Read the sample letter and modify if you can. Personalized letter text and/or subject headers will increase the impact your letter has on your Representative.
• On the action page, clicking "Send My Message" will send your letter via email to Gov. Richardson.

Lastest Developments on Desert Rock Power Plant: EIS Problems and Fluor Corp.

Recent news about Desert Rock, the controversial coal-fired power plant proposed on Navajo Nation land near Shiprock, NM, centers on U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) concerns about the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), as well as the award of the initial program management contract to Fluor Corp., a major player implicated in the Iraq and Katrina recovery contract scandals.

Problems with Draft Environmental Impact Statement
The U.S. EPA is questioning the sufficiency and accuracy of the draft environmental impact statement on the plant, which would be built by Houston-based Global Sithe in cooperation with the Navajo Nation. According to an article in today's Albuqurque Journal:

The EPA questions some of the numbers and projections in a Bureau of Indian Affairs draft environmental impact statement, which was released this summer and was the focus of 10 public hearings across the Four Corners and in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

... In a 12-page analysis of problems with the environmental impact assessment, the EPA notes "unresolved concerns" with the BIA's analysis of groundwater contamination and air quality effects of the construction and operation of the 1,500-megawatt plant.

Representatives of Diné C.A.R.E., the San Juan Citizens Alliance and the Energy Minerals Law Center issued a joint press release dated September 12, 2007 in response to the EPA's comments. Excerpt:

"We commend EPA's recognition that Desert Rock presents unresolved environmental justice issues. The two existing power plants and three coal mines in the region have created a legacy of disproportionate impacts to the Diné people," said Dailan Long of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (C.A.R.E.), "Like its predecessors, Desert Rock will result in the permanent removal and relocation of Navajo Nation tribal members including elders many of whom only speak Navajo, do not have phones, electricity or running water, and use these areas for ceremonial, customary and medicinal purposes. The BIA and industry have to date failed to treat local Diné people humanely."

"The EPA rightfully notes that the DEIS for Desert Rock fails to evaluate the impacts of continued dumping of coal combustion wastes in Navajo Mine with no valid conclusion concerning the legacy of dumping practices in the region." said Brad Bartlett, attorney with the Energy Minerals Law Center. "Tens of millions of tons of hazardous coal combustion waste have already been dumped in the existing Navajo Mine from the existing Four Corners Power Plant. Desert Rock would expand the Navajo Mine by 17,000 acres and increase the unmitigated dumping of these wastes ten fold."

"The EPA comments on the Desert Rock DEIS reinforce unresolved environmental and economic problems for Sithe Global's proposal," said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance. "The notion that Desert Rock is a clean coal-fired power plant has been clearly refuted. It is now time for the BIA and the Navajo Nation to move beyond the ill-advised, conceptual Desert Rock project to economic development for the Navajo Nation that truly accounts for economic and environmental progress and success."

EPA's comments include the unevaluated impacts to groundwater from continued and expanded Coal Combustion Byproducts (otherwise known as coal combustion waste) disposal in Navajo Mine (the proposed source of coal for Desert Rock); the failure of BIA to require aquifer testing and impact assessment; the lack of a groundwater monitoring program for the project; deficient conclusions concerning groundwater; insufficient particulate matter emission calculations for air quality impacts; improper conclusions concerning mercury content of coal proposed to be burned for Desert Rock; and failure to include a public health discussion that includes the latest scientific information about air pollution and public health, including impacts from ozone.

In addition, the EPA documented several deficient Environmental Justice issues including lack of local citizen access to power and no proposed mitigation in the DEIS; the failure to identify information concerning potential relocation of minority and low income populations as a result of Desert Rock; and the failure to properly evaluate the potential impacts of Desert Rock on groundwater and agriculture.

"Disaster Profiteer" Fluor Corp. to Manage Development
Fluor Corp., a generous contributor to Republican candidates, was selected to provide initial comprehensive program management services in the development of Desert Rock starting in 2008. Fluor was also the recipient of $100 million in no-bid contracts from FEMA for services in the Katrina recovery effort. FEMA's entire contracting process is being audited by the Department of Homeland Security after complaints from Congressional Democrats and others about cronyism and serious mismanagement.

According to a September 2005 article by the Institute of Southern Studies, the corporation has also been heavily involved in questionable and costly Iraq recovery projects and other boondoggles:

A California-based engineering firm, Fluor has been one of the government's biggest go-to contractors for overseas engineering work, accumulating contracts worth $8.5 billion (source: The Center for Public Integrity) from 1990 to 2002. Iraq was no exception, where they pointed to their long history in the region (mostly Saudi Arabia) to land over $1.6 billion in contacts for rebuilding Iraq. According to an August 2004 report in the Los Angeles Times, they also had the right political connections:

Suzanne H. Woolsey is a trustee of a little-known arms consulting group that had access to senior Pentagon leaders directing the Iraq war. In January, she joined the board of Fluor Corp. Soon afterward, Fluor and a joint-venture partner won about $1.6 billion in reconstruction contracts in Iraq.

Woolsey's husband, the former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, a leading advocate for the war, also serves as a government policy adviser. He, too, works for a company with war-related interests.

The Woolseys' overlapping affiliations are part of a pattern in Washington, in which individuals play key roles in organizations advising officials on major policy issues, whileinvolving themselves with businesses in related fields.

What's their work record? Like many of the politically-connected contractors, Fluor keeps landing contracts despite a long rap sheep of scandal and abuse, including repeated claims of overcharging and gouging taxpayers. Among the most recent include charges of falsely claiming millions of dollars in costs on DoD contracts in 2001 (the company settled for $8.5 million), and in 2002 being sued for $24 million for "numerous design and construction failures" at the Refugio Mine in northern Chile.

And their work state-side? In 1994, Fluor paid a $3.2 million fine for "submitting heavily padded repair bills for work on Navy bases after hurricane Hugo."

In addition,

Fluor manages the government's Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, one of the most heavily polluted sites in North America. Since Fluor took over the site in the mid-1990s, workers and local citizens have charged the company with cost cutting measures that have created potential environmental and health concerns. The company responded by firing whistleblowers and shutting down the Hanford Joint Council, a public forum established eight years ago to air employee and local government concerns over plant safety. (Ref: Gov. Accountability Project)

As reported in the New York Times, Fluor Corp. as an entity within the Fluor comglomerate, was incorporated in Delaware on September 11, 2000 after splitting with their coal production unit, which is now called Massey Energy. Massey is the nation's fourth largest coal producer according to CorpWatch.

State of NM Seeks Consultation with Navajo Nation
In late July 2007, Gov. Bill Richardson issued a statement expressing his serious concerns about the Desert Rock Plant due to the significant amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants the plant would emit. In a letter dated August 20, 2007 to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., Richardson requested "formal government-to-government consultation between the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation" to discuss the concerns and explore options for addressing them. Ron Curry, Secretary of the NM Environment Department, was designated as the State's lead person in the consultation. No word yet on a response from President Shirley.

Still Time to Submit Comments
Gov. Richardson also requested an extension of the comment period on the project's draft environmental impact statement and others have complained about the short time allowed for public input. The comment period, in fact, has been extended and now ends on October 9, 2007. You can electronically submit comments on the project to www.desertrockenergy.com. There is a 40,000 character limit. It's recommended that you also mail a copy of your comments to:

Harrilene Yazzie, NEPA Coordinator
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo Regional Office
P.O. Box 1060, Gallup, New Mexico 87305
505-863-8287

To learn more about the Desert Rock Power Plant controversy and stay current on developments, visit the desert-rock-blog operated by Doodah Desert Rock activists, the San Juan Citizens Alliance website and the website of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Also check out the indepth commentary in this previous post, which includes links to our past Desert Rock coverage.

(Updated) Free Introductory Course on The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

UPDATE 9/15/07: A reader submitted info on additional activities relalated to The Great Turning. I've added it to the end of this post. (Hat tip to M.M.)
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From the Conscious Aging Network of NM:
An introductory course will be presented by Mary Fogarty, President of the Conscious Aging Network of NM, and UNM instructor Dr. Gary Carlson on Dr. David Korten’s groundbreaking book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community:

October 4th, 2007, 1:15 to 3:30 PM
UNM-Valencia Campus, Student Community Center,
280 La Entrada, Los Lunas, NM  87031
—FREE Beverages—
Click for a course description (doc)
Click for flyer (jpg)

For additional information call the UNM campus at 925-8970.

Dr. Korten beleives that more than ever before in history, our families and communities experience the fallout from inequities within our institutions, the state, and governing bodies resulting in fragmentation, a decline in social cohesion and an increase in social exclusion. Individually, we exist in connection with a larger composition, a grander collective, a universal body of parts in which we, as individuals, contribute to the productivity and harmony of the whole. We can make conscious collective decisions and work together to bring forth a new era of Earth Community grounded in the life-affirming cultural values shared by most all the world’s people and eloquently articulated in the Earth Charter.

Dr. Korten is an internationally renowned author, speaker and thinker who is scheduled to visit Albuquerque sometime in November. He's also the author of When Corporations Rule the World, an international bestseller that helped expose the attack on democracy and economic justice being advanced through free trade agreements and the institutions that negotiate and enforce them. Partial bio:

• received his degree at Stanford
• taught at Harvard
• served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War
• lived 21 years outside the U.S. in Southeast Asia, traveled to Pakistan, India,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, & the Philippines as regional manager for (USAID), and founded the People-Centered Development Forum

Extensive information about Dr. Korten's books, presentations, articles and work can be found at his website, including a complete bio. Also read this article from the Fall edition of Yes! magazine to learn more about Dr. Korten's views about what's happening in the world and where we need to go from here to reinvent and reinvigorate our culture, economics and lives to achieve sustainabilty and harmony.
****************
UPDATE 9/15/07: Additional activities related to The Great Turning:

Gary Carlson and Mary Fogarty are teaching more classes based on the book. From the events calendar of The Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico:

October 3-November 7, 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Creating Earth Community, UNM Continuing Education, 6-week class on David Korten's book, The Great Turning, by Gary Carlson. Contact UNM at 277-0077 for registration. New class!

October 18-December 13, 1:30-3:30 PM, Creating Communities, UNM Valencia Campus, 1-credit, 8-week class based on David Korten's book, The Great Turning, by Gary Carlson and Mary Fogarty.  Contact UNM Valencia campus for registration: 925-8580.
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From the New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light calendar (at the bottom):

Saturday, November 10, 7 PM: Free public address by Dr. David C. Korten at the UNM Sub Ballroom A. Click for flyer (PDF).
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Dr. Korten was on Democracy Now this past Friday: David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World". He is the co-founder of Positive Futures Network, and publisher of the magazine YES! A Journal of Positive Futures. His most recent book is titled The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community. To watch, listen to or read the transcript of the show, click here.

Al Gore at Santa Ana Star Center

Al Gore and his presentation on "An Inconvenient Truth" will be coming to Rio Rancho's Santa Ana Star Center on October 3, 2007 at 7:30 PM. Click for info and tix. By the way, Gore is writing a sequel to his book An Inconvenient Truth entitled The Path to Survival, scheduled for publication on Earth Day next April. According to the publisher, Rodale Books, Gore will spell out a blueprint for the changes that individuals and governments need to make to avoid catastrophic climate change.

RSVP Now for Otero Mesa Camp Out

Video of Otero Mesa and 4/2007 Alamogordo Public Forum

From the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance:
Otero Mesa Camp Out / September 21-23, 2007 -- It's that time of year again when the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance will be leading a weekend outing to Otero Mesa. This is one of the best times of year to visit the largest and wildest Chihuahuan desert grassland left on public lands in America. For the past two years the grasses have been 2 to 3 feet high, and with a good rainy season down south, we are sure to experience the full magnitude of this wild landscape.

We will explore the expansive grasslands, plus Flat Top Mountain. Additionally, we will be conducting some surveys of raptor nests and cactus identification on Alamo Mountain. Raptor nests are commonly used by Aplomado falcons during the spring, so it will be great to document where these nests are located. f you've never been to Otero Mesa, this outing is the time to be there and experience the wildness of America's largest Chihuahuan desert grassland.

This is a car-camping weekend, so feel free to bring extra stuff to make the weekend that much more enjoyable. During the evenings there will be a social campfire and this time we're going to provide green chile chicken enchiladas for Saturday evening! Bring musical instruments if you've got them. Let's get together and have some fun in the desert!

Reserve Your Spot
Contact: Nathan Newcomer at 505-843-8696, nathan@nmwild.org to reserve your spot today! Space is limited.

Learn More
To learn what you can do to help save Otero Mesa from oil and gas drilling, watch the video above and visit OteroMesa.org.

American Democracy: Time Has Come Today

I often feel speechless these days, which isn't a natural state for me. But what more can really be said about the eternal, unabated horrors of the Bush administration and its assaults on government accountability, reason, democracy, the Constitution, civil liberties, the rule of law, the environment, the economy and even common decency? It's all been said -- the savaging of so much has been documented infinitely clearly, repeatedly. And there's more new evidence every day.

What's needed is some listening and, most of all, action on the part of people who have the power to do something about this lawless demogogue and his complicit cronies. We need them (if there are any) to get real -- to be as serious about their opposition as BushCo is about its relentless assault on justice and democracy. Without that, we are dead. Our democracy is dead. Our future is dead. The planet is dead.

Instead, we have business as usual in the Congress, business as usual in the traditional media, business as usual in the citizenry, business as usual everywhere. Are we really supposed to content ourselves with weak, toothless, picky complaints about minor, peripheral matters as the infrastructure of self-government implodes in full sight of anyone willing and able raise their eyes to it?

I do it myself. Busy myself with political day-to-day, with the latest wrinkles in the latest political maneuverings, with the minutia of the machine. I convince myself that doing things that might possibly help to mitigate the worst of BushCo's impacts is worth it, at least for now. But with almost zero in the way of genuine, effective or honest responses from our "leaders" and "representatives," how much longer can I keep it up?

I'm sure many of you reading this can relate. We can't afford any more beating around the bush, literally or figuratively. What we need is for people with real power to wake up and use it on behalf of the people and the democracy. As ex-Marine Bruce Clark (whose son is stationed north of Baghdad) said at the recent Iraq Summer event -- this is TREASON, this is TYRANNY. More and more of the people -- some in relatively high places -- are admitting it, yet our public figures and power brokers limp on, murmuring platitudes. We raise our voices, we protest, we petition, we build cases, we attempt to apply pressure but no matter how convincingly or loudly we do these things, the status quo is allowed to carry on or worsen.

There is a sort of deadly paralysis infecting those who should know better, those who know in their hearts they must act now or forever be silent. We can only do so much out here in the hinterlands. Those in the circles of power are the ones who must, at last, LEAD. They must take it all seriously, for what it is: a no-holds-barred attack on our democracy and everything positive it has ever achieved or can achieve. But is it already too late for even that?

Eloquent critic and writer Chris Floyd says it is in his very long, chilling, but eminently logical piece entitled, "Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph and the Hard Way Ahead." I can't possibly quote enough for you to get the full flavor, so please do read the entire post. Here are just a few nuggests, to lure you into reading the whole thing:

The Republic you wanted -- and at one time might have had the power to take back -- is finished. You no longer have the power to keep it; it's not there. It was kidnapped in December 2000, raped by the primed and ready exploiters of 9/11, whored by the war pimps of the 2003 aggression, gut-knifed by the corrupters of the 2004 vote, and raped again by its "rescuers" after the 2006 election. Beaten, abused, diseased and abandoned, it finally died. We are living in its grave.

The annus horribilis of 2007 has turned out to be a year of triumph for the Bush Faction -- the hit men who delivered the coup de grâce to the long-moribund Republic. Bush was written off as a lame duck after the Democrat's November 2006 election "triumph" (in fact, the narrowest of victories eked out despite an orgy of cheating and fixing by the losers), and the subsequent salvo of Establishment consensus from the Iraq Study Group, advocating a de-escalation of the war in Iraq. Then came a series of scandals, investigations, high-profile resignations, even the criminal conviction of a top White House official. But despite all this -- and abysmal poll ratings as well -- over the past eight months Bush and his coupsters have seen every single element of their violent tyranny confirmed, countenanced and extended.

What can we do? What can we do? What can we do? Does anyone know the answer? How can we get those in positions of power to act -- appropriately, strongly and now?

In certain circles words like rebellion and revolution and anarchy and resistance are bandied about as necessities, as the only ways to counteract the forces of high tech fascism. But even in these enclaves, there is no movement strong enough to make a dent. There is only more hand-wringing, criticism, fatalism, empty gestures, rote responses. I suppose this post is just more of the same. The truth is, no-one seems to know what to do or how to do it or how to foment it or how to shape it and inspire it.

The war which we were told the Democrats and ISG consensus would end or wind down has of course been escalated to its greatest level yet -- more troops, more airstrikes, more mercenaries, more Iraqi captives swelling the mammoth prison camps of the occupying power, more instability destroying the very fabric of Iraqi society. The patently illegal surveillance programs of the authoritarian regime have now been codified into law by the Democratic Congress, which has also let stand the evisceration of habeas corpus in the Military Commissions Act, and a raft of other liberty-stripping laws, rules, regulations and executive orders. Bush's self-proclaimed arbitrary power to seize American citizens (and others) without charge and hold them indefinitely -- even kill them -- has likewise been unchallenged by the legislators. Bush has brazenly defied Congressional subpoenas -- and even arbitrarily stripped the Justice Department of the power to enforce them -- to no other reaction than a stern promise from Democratic leaders to "look further into this matter." His spokesmen -- and his "signing statements" -- now openly proclaim his utter disdain for representative government, and assert at every turn his sovereign right to "interpret" -- or ignore -- legislation as he wishes.

What we lack are leaders up to the task, no matter where we look, whether within or without. We need a new Martin Luther King, Jr., a new Mahatma, a new Mother Jones, a new Jefferson, a new suffragette city of sorts. I don't sense anything or anyone like that on the horizon, do you? And I certainly don't sense anything truly up to the task within myself. How about you? Can we the people rise at last, bidden or unbidden, and make any difference at all? Isn't there at least intrinsic value in trying something? But what?

Again, as Floyd writes:

... there is no place left for the kind of [civil disobedience] action that Thoreau advocated. His way – and that of Gandhi and King, who took so much from him – envisions a state opponent which one could hope to shame into honorable action by the superior moral force of principled civil disobedience. But the very hallmark of the present regime is its shamelessness, its utter lack of any sense of honor or principle, its bestial addiction to raw power.

Still, there is this, if only this:

So whatever we can do, we must do it ourselves. If we have no power or influence, if we cannot take large actions, then we must take small ones. Every word or action raised against the overthrow of the Republic will find an echo somewhere, from one person to another to another to the next -- each isolated, individual voice slowly finding its way into a swelling chorus of dissent.

ABQ Council May Use Blight-Fighting Tool to Spread Urban Sprawl

From the New Mexico News Connection:
A financial tool meant for local governments to help revitalize run-down neighborhoods and blighted inner cities could be used instead to increase Albuquerque's urban sprawl. Developers have proposed using "tax-increment financing" to subsidize new developments on empty land near the edge of the city -- at the huge new Mesa Del Sol development near the Sunport and at an even bigger development on the West Mesa. The Albuquerque City Council will be taking final action on a related measure tomorrow (Wednesday).

The developers say their plans will boost the city's economy -- but Gabriel Nims with says they will take public funding away from where it's needed most. He said, "We should be focusing on re-investing in our core community. We've identified a over 1.7 billion dollar backlog in infrastructure costs or needs. Why should we be throwing the bank at further development on the fringe? "

The new developments could increase Albuquerque's population by over twenty percent. Nims says there needs to be more study of the impacts of such large developments on the local economy.

Eric Schmeider from the Southwest Organizing Project says the subsidies actually take money out of the state's general fund and away from more needy rural communities. He said, "Taxpayers from Clayton to Carlsbad are subsidizing development in the Albuquerque - Rio Grande corridor."

Click to get for your Albuquerque City Councilor.

3rd Annual Gila River Festival: Celebrating NM's Last Free-Flowing River

From the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance:
The 3rd Annual Gila River Festival is a weekend celebration and interpretive event focusing on increasing the awareness of the natural and cultural history of the Gila River:

3rd Annual Gila River Festival
Celebrating New Mexico's Last Free-Flowing River
September 13 - 16, 2007
Silver City, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument

Featuring talks, walks, stewardship projects and puppet theater, this year's event also features an evening campfire program with community storytellers, a "star party," and an opportunity for families to camp at the river's headwaters. The theme for the festival this year, "Flowing Into the Future," emphasizes the role of flooding in maintaining the natural integrity of the river, and the cyclical nature that people living alongside it continue to adapt to. For information: Call (505) 538-8078, visit www.gilaconservation.org or email info@gilaconservation.org.