Hiking

Sign up to receive the Mission Outdoors newsletter. The goal of Sierra Club's Mission Outdoors Initiative is to get America outdoors. Explore and enjoy!
CLICK HERE

By Mary Katherine Ray, Chapter Wildlife Chair

Trapping season began in New Mexico on November 1 and will not end until March 15. This is the season when fur is its thickest and most valuable, so trappers are out to make a profit by killing wildlife such as bobcats, foxes, coyotes and badgers.

They can set their traps on public lands where the rest of us go to enjoy these same animals and their habitats. No warning signs are required, and the distance a trap can be set from roads and trails is a mere 25 yards. How much trapping occurs depends on current fur prices. The more money pelts are bringing, the more traps there will be.
In order to protect your dog and yourself while hiking, please take a look at these photos of traps that could be encountered and note how to open them if your dog is caught.

Sierra Club Mission Outdoors - The Organ Mountains Campout
by Liz Walsh

As you know the Sierra Club’s mission is to explore, enjoy and protect the planet. Through our four Mission Outdoors programs, we are expanding the conservation movement by providing access to outdoor experiences for more people, organizing grassroots and administrative support for the value of outdoor experiences, and building alliances and partnerships that involve diverse communities in protecting their natural heritage. Part of this initiative focuses on engaging military families and veterans.

Last legislative session our leaders almost did the right thing. They very nearly passed a Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights, which would set the stage for connecting every New Mexico child with the outdoors. There was no real reason this bill didn’t pass, other than lack of time.

Why do we even need a Bill of Rights that gets our children moving outside?

By Kristina Ortez de Jones, Southwest Youth Representative

John Muir loved the outdoors, and when the Sierra Club was founded back in 1892, outings to special places in the Sierras inspired passion among the Club’s early members. Outings have always been a special part of the Club, and it’s been integrated with two of Sierra Club’s Youth Programs.

Our intrepid Badlands explorer, Mike Richie, made a major effort in October and November to introduce these spectacular badlands to more individuals through a series of independent Saturday and Sunday hikes every weekend, drawing many newcomers as well as those already hooked by these other-worldly landscapes.

This spring President Obama created the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. This weekend leaders from the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency met with New Mexicans in Albuquerque to learn about our views of this program. This is my viewpoint on this issue.

• We should all increase our use of the world-class outdoors opportunities that exist here in New Mexico.
• The Federal government should provide new, expanded, and better protected public lands.
• Increase opportunities for youth in the Great Outdoors.
• Support local economies by investing in public lands.
• Manage all public lands to comprehend climate change.

Saturday, July 24.
Hike Sawyer's Peak ~9mile RT, interesting warblers and ladybugs. Margot Wilson (575-744-5860).