ESPAÑOLA, New Mexico — Kathleen Ramsay found her calling in a veterinary school lab, when a man brought in a golden eagle caught in a foothold trap. “He threw the trap and chain at me, with the eagle flapping in the trap,” she says. “(That’s when) I decided … to help animals that could no […]
Deborah Begel
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Debate rages over fish poisoning
Supporters say pesticide is the best tool for recovering native species
Posted inOctober 12, 1998: A river becomes a raw nerve
A county writes strict logging rules
A pro-logging northern New Mexico county has passed a far-reaching law that mandates watershed-friendly logging practices on private land. “There’s nothing else like this (in the U.S.),” said attorney David Gomez of the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos, N.M., who helped draft the ordinance. The three-man Rio Arriba County Commission passed the ordinance unanimously […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Congress drags its feet on Baca Ranch deal
If there is one property that ought to be bought and preserved as public land for all Americans, say Forest Service officials, it’s the 95,000-acre Baca Ranch – most of the Valles Caldera – a place almost completely surrounded by the Santa Fe National Forest. So this summer, Forest Service staffer Denise McCaig has been […]
Posted inOctober 27, 1997: Deconstructing the age of dams
Locals rally against logging
Northern New Mexico’s Chama Valley is the last place to expect a battle over a logging operation. The valley is full of people who for generations have harvested the resources of the land. But in July, that started changing when hundreds of “No Trespassing” signs went up on the thickly forested mountains that are part […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Grazing combatants vow to keep feuding
The day after he didn’t get appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt dove back into grazing reform. At a U.S. Senate hearing in Albuquerque, N.M., on May 14, Babbitt told several hundred ranchers and environmentalists that he expects to “stay in the middle of this grazing issue until we work out […]