El Paso Group

lN MEMORIUM
Rollin Wickenden
1947-2012
Rollin passed away at home Dec 3. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he was a lifelong E Paso resident. A 36-year member of the Sierra Club, he was Outings Chair and leader of many of the Group’s best backpacks. He sense of adventure was never-ending.

December 2012 issue of The Loryx - see attached PDF file

The December 2012 issue of the Environmental Flows Bulletin, produced by the Utton Center at the UNM School of Law , has several highly relevant stories on the ongoing drought in the southwest.
Environmental Flows Bulletin December 2012 issue

UPDATED JANUARY 1, 2013

Clean air and water had a good day in New Mexico on Election Day.
The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter made 32 endorsements in contested races. We won 22 and lost 10. Two of those losses were by fewer than 80 votes. The chapter mobilized our members in force to put many good candidates over the top.

At a public meeting regarding the Mexican Wolf Blue Range Reintroduction Project
Replacement Release Outline for Arizona 2013 held in Alpine, Arizona, Mr. Chris Bagnoli of the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) announced that public comments on the release proposal would be accepted through October 27, 2012. In response, the White Mountain Conservation League, has submitted a letter signed by 19 organizations, including the Grand Canyon and Rio Grande chapters of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Wildlife Conservancy and many others.

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.

New Mexico hit the conservation daily double on Sept. 27, when we gained two national wildlife refuges—America’s 559th and 560th. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, along with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Rep. Martin Heinrich and other dignitaries and community supporters were on hand for two ceremonies celebrating land acquisitions for the new refuges.

The mine will take an inordinate amount of water (perhaps a third of all groundwater used in the county) and not return any to the aquifer because of pollution.
Copper Flat Mine tempts residents with job promises but would rob county of a resource already in short supply.

Dear Sierran Editor:

By all accounts that I’ve read, hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) deserves
its destructive reputation and community outrage. Local elected officials must have the land-use regulatory tools and the political willpower to protect their communities. But these Community Rights Ordinances are not the solution, and so I must disagree with the piece about community rights and fracking in the July/August/September issue.

New Mexico Environment Department on Oct. 2 announced that it is proposing to retire two of the four units at coal-powered San Juan Generating Station and leave the two larger units in operation. The state also proposed building a natural-gas plant to add generation.