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| ISSUE NO. 647 |
| This newsletter was written by Alma Valdez-Garcia, a farmer from New Mexico, as a follow-up to a newsletter about the fires we published in May 2022. Read the original newsletter here. WHEN MASS FIRES SWEPT THROUGH NORTHERN NEW MEXICO LAST YEAR . . . the focus was cast on the immediate look of life after the fires destroyed over 300,000 acres of land in a span of 2 months. People were affected by the loss of homes, land, livestock, food, security and support. Being across the country living in a place filled with water, I couldn't help but feel my desert body wanted to seep into the water around me and take it back home. It’s now been a full year since the fires began[1] and the forests haven’t been the same since. In the world we live in now, where people are mass fed news 24/7 at such intense rates, people move on quicker than ever. The fires were the first in a chain of emergencies that ran through the region and one has to wonder - what will happen now? It is important to revisit and to remember the loss and change that has occurred after disasters such as this. Lives are still being affected and will continue to be in the coming years. Following the wake of the fires, the northern NM counties affected continued to be struck by disaster. The area[2] was hit with unprecedented floods that were occurring every day because of erosion and the previous months' fires that had wiped out vegetation from the land[3]. Due to heavy monsoon rains, flood advisories dotted the burn scar area[4]. Fire debris, ash and sediment runoff from the floods proceeded to fill the Gallinas River and in turn the Reservoir, a major water supply for the surrounding area, which made it unsuitable for drinking due to the high pollution levels. Once again, people had to flee their homes, think about where they were going to eat and what was going to be there when they returned. Post fire, the ripple of change did not disappear; the emergency continued to impact the area and will continue to do so for years, until the land begins to grow back and rebuild itself. People's homes were rattled and repeatedly hit by these flood waters that were washing through the area's rivers and acequias, which are an integral part of the area's farming systems. Homes, wells, and streets were washed away and hit with debris from the burn scar, which no longer looks like the same lush forest scape it once was. Sandbags were being utilized, but to no avail. The rain just kept coming, and for the desert it is usually such a relief. This flooding was not a relief, though. It hit the same spot, where just months before the land was being pushed and shifted by the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon fire. Without the forest to slow the absorption of the rainfall, it can take just a couple minutes of heavy rain for a flash flood to occur. Power was being cut from the heavy storms, causing people to lose the food in their fridges, sometimes several times over. How can people continue to buy groceries every time the power cuts out, especially with the cost of food that we are seeing now? How can people be supported by their food systems when their access to food is in detriment? In Las Vegas, a state of emergency[5] was set in place when the city realized that the only access to clean water they had would run dry in a matter of 50 days. The people of the communities had already been evacuated prior to the flooding and had just begun to form an idea of what life was going to be moving forward[6]. Panic set in and people had to suddenly look at how they were being cared for in the aftermath of the initial fire, a fire that was caused by two U.S. Forest Service prescribed burns that grew out of control. The next available water source in the area was Storrie Lake located a couple miles out of town. When I was a kid, the lake used to be full and flourishing, but now it is less than a 1/4 of what it used to be, the edges dry and full of fish that couldn't get the water they needed. It is also a lake used for flood irrigation. With all the water possible going to the town, where were the farmers of the area supposed to get their water for irrigation? The water issue was later mended, as the Gallinas Reservoir[7] was cleaned and filtration systems were put into place. But who's to say that this won’t happen again? The continued risk of flooding remains high. As we look to this coming fire season, what steps are being taken to prevent the same emergency from happening? Due to the lack of forest cover, the snow from this past winter is rapidly melting, causing people in the community who depend on the snow and rain to irrigate their fields and keep their animals hydrated, to worry and wonder what water will be left. Now, we are still seeing people working to restore access to water for their homes. Many peoples' wells were burned - and to build new ones is not an easy feat or cheap. Fire evacuees were affected by loss of income, health impacts from intensive smoke inhalation throughout the whole region, lack of housing and food access and overall stress from the situation at hand. They needed immediate and long term support for lives that were forever changed. Many groups such as Tewa Women United, Pueblo Action Alliance, and Three Sisters Collective were working tirelessly to provide masks, emergency food and care, housing support, and air purifiers to evacuees and people throughout the region. Some worked to provide workshops for people to build their own air purifiers which were essential to handle with the heavy smoke. The elderly, children, and immunocompromised folks are the ones being most heavily impacted and these groups were already working to support them through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The relief efforts do not stop once the fire is put out. This change in livelihood is not one that is easily navigated, but necessary and in need of continued focus and conversation. The other side of flooding is drought. Even though the desert was affected by this major flooding during the monsoon season, the dry season is still powerful and has lasting effects. What does this mean for the farmers whose water access has been becoming increasingly threatened by drought, to now have to tackle this new threat of flooding that affects water quality for drinking, irrigation, and more? What does this look like for the farmers along the Rio Grande, which was seen dry for the first time in Albuquerque in 40 years[8]? Niagara Bottling Company has been trying to get billions of gallons of water in New Mexico, at the exact same time as the drying of the rivers. They were recently taken to court, and decided to back down after huge community efforts were made to push them out. This is not the first or last time this will happen. We also see that the loss of forest has been shown to reduce rain cloud formation, which threatens headwaters of rivers and creeks across the state[9]. We have to look closely at the effects of the drying rivers on agriculture. The movement of food across the country is impacted greatly as more rivers are drained, drying and polluted. How will food access become a necessity and not something put in the hands of corporations? As fire seasons across the country grow longer and more impactful, we must recognize the parallels between severe flooding and droughts. These contradictory things occur as two sides of the same coin. The natural disasters we are increasingly witnessing are happening because of long standing historical processes and continued harm. The human impacts that are leading to climate change and increased food scarcity are not new. The government and big corporations impact and alter the land and waterways that are a part of our daily lives for their own selfish wants. Fundamental shifts in government support and fire management are necessary to mitigate these fires from burning out of control and burning away Indigenous land. These are structural violences that have been ongoing since colonization and it is time to change how people are supported. Now, a year after the fires, what will this coming fire season look like[10]? How will land care and sovereignty be given focus? How will water rights be expanded? How will we center Indigenous knowledge for forest management/care? What does practice across generations look like[11]? how can we look at other mammals and how they engage with their life giving water to change our engagement with it in western and capitalist society? I ask one last question... What do we want this place to be in 500 years? [1] The Hermit's Peak fire sparked on April 6, 2022 from a prescribed burn by the U.S. Forest Department and Calf Canyon fire was a sleeper fire that stayed dormant since January 2022 and re-emerged in April. The merged into one quickly and became the Calf Canyon/Hermit's Peak Fire. [4] https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident-photos-gallery/nmsnf-hermits-peak-fire?page=1
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tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . If you are wondering how to more deeply learn from and engage with your local food community, especially through an anti-racist lens, Antiracist Dietitian has recommendations. |
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