June 2000
Cerro
Grande Fire: This summary of the fire is intended for our
out-of-town Friends. Los Alamos people are painfully familiar with
the details. The fire was started by Bandelier personnel as a
prescribed bum, intentionally set to bum underbrush and accumulated
fuel on Cerro Grande. The flames got out of control and high winds
spread the fire rapidly across the east face of the Jemez Mountains.
In Los Alamos, over 400 homes were completely burned. Mercifully,
there were no deaths or injuries, but the impact on the town is
traumatic. Almost everyone in town knows someone who is affected.
I've identified 10 members of the Friends of Bandelier who homes were
lost. The fire burned over 47,700 acres, only a little in Bandelier
itself, mostly along State Road 4. Even Cerro Grande doesn't look
badly burned. (Cerro Grande is the peak south of Pajarito Mountain.
You can see it well from State Road 4, but not from Los Alamos.)
On the hills above Los Alamos National
Laboratory, the canyon walls are badly burned, but there are large
tracts of unburned trees scattered along the slopes. Not so for the
hills above Los Alamos townsite, which are incinerated - nothing but
black tree trunks looking like eerie toothpicks. The fire burned
north into Santa Clara Canyon, where the Indians have recreation and
camping sites. It appears that the fire did not bum down from the
crest of the mountains into the Valles Caldera that the government is
currently purchasing. It is difficult to be more precise because the
forests are closed due to drought or post-fire hazards. Final
authority to conduct a prescribed bum lies with the superintendent of
the affected park. Roy Weaver has accepted responsibility and will
retire on July 2. He faces possible disciplinary action. What a
devastating blow for Roy! He truly loves Los Alamos, Bandelier, and
the National Park Service and wanted only to protect them. This awful
event follows the death of his son in December and illness of his
wife that forced her to curtail her job as a teacher. Truly a
biblical tragedy, like the trials of Job. At our June 10 meeting of
the Board of Trustees, board members directed me to write a letter to
Roy thanking him for his service and leadership. During Roy's term,
Bandelier became a leader in ecological research and restoration,
resource protection management, and relations with American Indians
under the Native American Graves Protection Act. The monument took
the lead for many Park Service initiatives. Roy consulted with local
pueblo leaders about management of Tsankawi and hired local puebloans
to do restorative work. I have to add that Roy strongly supported and
encouraged the efforts of the Friends of Bandelier. As I have said
many times, the effectiveness of a Friends group is solely dependent
on support from their park.
Grants
Bandelier personnel are trying hard to
get back to normal operations as visitors arrive for the summer. Alan
Cox, supervisor of Chiricahua National Monument in southern Arizona,
is acting superintendent. Bids are out service-wide for a new
superintendent, a process that normally takes about three months. We
asked Alan if he wanted to change any of Roy's requests for our
grants, but he declined. Our grants for the year 2000 are much the
same as in the past: items that would not otherwise be funded. Here
is the list, for a total of $14,400.
Once again we fund the daily summer
Coffee-with a-Ranger sessions and share expenses of the
Cultural Awareness Pueblo Crafts weekly demonstrations
with Southwest Parks and Monuments and Bandelier Trading Company.
Also, each year we purchase a craft
item from one or more of the demonstrators. ($1,300 total)
Interpreters also want to mount a millennium
exhibit showing 1000 years at Bandelier ($1,500). We'll
fund cleaning and conservation of a prehistoric hafted
ax (ax with handle still attached) ($400). The ax was
spotted in Frijoles Canyon by a young visitor and recovered by
rangers. We will purchase a new drinking
water hydrant for the far end of the Cottonwood picnic
area ($500). This money was donated by the Los Alamos Pathways
Association in recognition of work by maintenance supervisor Carlos
Gonzales, who restored retaining walls for a historic trail in Los
Alamos. In addition, the rangers need a projector
for portable PC computers so they can give better presentations
($2,000).
Bandelier has a new staff
archaeologist. Rory Gauthier is from Los Alamos, an archaeological
expert on the Pajarito Plateau where Bandelier is located. Rory
worked at Chaco Canyon, Glen Canyon, and EI Malpais. He is happy to
be back home. Rory reports that 60% of Bandelier has now been
surveyed for archaeological resources. He asked for $6,000 to augment
the $13,100 from other sources to survey
200 more acres and for $200 to develop
38 rolls of film taken during past surveys. Also on the
request list was a map
cabinet for storing survey maps. We were all delighted
when board member Fletcher Catron offered a map cabinet from his
firm. We also agreed to fund butterfly
research in the elk study areas in the backcountry
($2,500). Butterflies are good indicators of healthy environments,
much like canaries in coal mines.
Here we ran out of money.
Other
News
Chief of Interpretation Al Seidenkranz
is retiring July 2, mostly for medical reasons. Al has been our
liaison since 1991. Resource Manager Charisse Sydoriak is moving to
the Santa Fe Regional Office. We wish them both well. This represents
a complete change of management at Bandelier. These two positions
will be filled by the new superintendent.
The Nightwalks have started at
Bandelier on Tuesday evenings: $6.00 per adult/$3.00 per child,
reservations required at (505) 672-3681, ext. 517. The walks are as
lovely as ever. I've canceled the annual butterfly count for this
year because of postfire closures and drought on Burnt Mesa.
Bandelier is a wounded place. Bitter
resentment against the Park Service is rampant in Los Alamos because
of the fire damage, although most people here are just profoundly
sad. We are sad too. It is a hard time, but we are still Friends.
Dorothy Hoard, President, Board of
Trustees.
Thank You, Los Alamos National Bank for
faithfully reproducing our Newsletters for 12 years and for helping
with the website
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