BLM Wilderness Study Areas in NM

A clickable map with links to all 57 Wilderness Study Areas is available at the BLM Website.

This website has an online map of ACECs.

Pinacate Biosphere Reserve

Nature is more than the sum of its parts -- it possesses a magic unifying principle, spark of life, existence beyond and apart and aloof from the simplifying, pattern-making mind of man.


This was a landscape alive: humming, buzzing, chirping, ...
What Mexico looked like before fast food, trash, and grazing: undisturbed, incredibly luscious and beautiful.


Lava flows jumbled like bulk food; angular irregular boulders of roungly similar size tumble down toward Big Rock Wash, where a curious all-green tree called Palo Verde grows alongside the Elephant Tree (green under crinkling off gold paper) and the Ironwood Tree --...an alive, verdanmt buzzing blooming profusion: "a vibratory place". WIthout illusion or pretense - yet still hard to see -- perhaps things are the wrong size, strange shapes in complicated, yet ordered landscapes. Only a few species of grass. WIldflowers everywhere - if you look. (I had to crunch a patch to lie down and write this).


At the (dry) stream banks (marked by whitened rocks) grow bush-nightshade and desert lavender, not holding back rock erosion, intermixed. At intervals crazy flowers bloom: hibiscus... High scree slope of creosote, burro bush , brittlebrush, jr. elephant trees, ocotillo. The rocks are dry, brittle: some pummice. B.O. Flower. Mallow. Stickleaf Mentzelia. Dahlia.



Soil (between jammed gravel jammed between boulders) is tan and almost entirely clay plus a few sub-sandgrain particles. THe parent rock is basalt w/ quartz crystals scattered in. Black rock remains hot to the touch after the shadow has replaced sun. Probably dehydrated, discombobulated, waiting in the shadows, feeling the ever-moving air breeze cool my skin. A vulture circled me, left, came back. When the wind leaves, the buzzing rises, busy coevolution.













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Map of Tinajas (water holes) in the Sierra Pinacate, prepared by Julian Hayden, archeologist.

Gallinas Peak, or, on the Topographic Asymetry of Mountains

Topographic Signature of life, or ice:


Which is steeper: North Face (ice shaped) vs, South Face (life shaped)?



"Without life, there would still be asymmetric mountains. Rainfall patterns affect the height, width and symmetry of mountains.


Landscapes are shaped by the uplift, deformation and breakdown of bedrock and the erosion, transport and deposition of sediment. Life is important in all of these processes. Over short timescales, the impact of life is quite apparent: rock weathering, soil formation and erosion, slope stability and river dynamics are directly influenced by biotic processes that mediate chemical reactions, dilate soil, disrupt the ground surface and add strength with a weave of roots. Over geologic time, biotic effects are less obvious but equally important: biota affect climate, and climatic conditions dictate the mechanisms and rates of erosion that control topographic evolution. Apart from the obvious influence of humans, does the resulting landscape bear an unmistakable stamp of life? The influence of life on topography is a topic that has remained largely unexplored. Erosion laws that explicitly include biotic effects are needed to explore how intrinsically small-scale biotic processes can influence the form of entire landscapes, and to determine whether these processes create a distinctive topography."


"Precipitation is a fundamental driver of erosional processes and exerts a strong control on ecosystem distributions, suggesting that these precipitation patterns may be important in understanding mountain geomorphology."
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/geomorph/vignettes/25201.html


Notes: Ponderosa and alligator juniper and pinon, but where are the shrubs, the Ceanothus, the mountain mahogany, the apache plume, the Ribes, not to mention all the riparian sumac, grape, hibiscus, false indigo, etc?

the north facing slopes are steeper and rockier, the south facing have a rock-flour consistency, less vegetated, less lichen on rocks...indicating more erosion, less life

Climbing Dutchwoman Butte, AZ

From Dutchwoman Butte

Dutchwoman Butte is one of the few, original, intact wilderness areas in the country that have never been grazed by domestic livestock. The Butte, or mesa, is ringed all about by high cliffs...

From Dutchwoman Butte

Its base floats in a sea of Sonoran desert cacti, while its high flatlands support a lush grass-and-wildflower community.

From Dutchwoman Butte

Crucifixion thorn is a prominent shrub. While Agave stalks shoot up individually-unique pastels.

From Dutchwoman Butte

Southwest Exploration: A Timeline and Bibliography

The more I study ecology, the more I need to study history. Everything from the extinction of the paleolithic megafauna through the grenshorizont of peatland bog studies (shift in peat formation two to three thousand years ago as the midwest became wetter and cooler) to the presence or absence of bufalo (Bison bison bison) in the Arid West....Ecology is paleoecology, which is forensic and contingent on largely unknowable past events. But without that past the changing movie of life is only a single strobe, an event, a stained glass window that we can look at but now through. This perspective is important for science, but equally important for public policy. We can't protect what we've already forgotten.

Below is a partial list of early explorers and colonists of the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, which has a 500+ year written history. We desperately need an ecological historian to compile these original observations, translate and condense, collate, draw conclusions, and eventually inbed it all in a google earth kml layer, like the Mannahata project.

This is a New Mexico centric list, prepared with much help from to William Goetzmann http://www.nps.gov/history/history/categrs/explr/biblio-g2.htm and Ruth Marie Colville, "La Vereda: A Trail through Time."

1537 Cabeza de Baca seven year trek from Texas to Sea of Cortez, fording the Rio Grande "breast high".
Journal: unreliable "recounting"
Book: Cyclone Covey, ed. And trans., Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America, Univ. of NM Press, Albuquerque, NM, 1993.

1540 Francisco Coronado two years exploring Rio Grande Valley as far north as Taos, east to Kansas, west [in]to the Grand Canyon.
Journal: ?
Book: Coronado, Knight of Pueblo and Plains, Univ. NM Press, by Herbert E. Bolton, Albuquerque, NM, 1964
Book:[?]Pedro de Castañeda, The Journey of Coronado, repr., Dover, San Francisco, 1990,

1580 Rodrigues expedition: Fray Augustin Rodrigues and Captain Francisco Chamuscada. Rio Grande valley east to Pecos River
Journal: "Relaciones"

1582 Espejo party rescue mission: Antonio Espejo went east beyond the Manzano Mountains, west to ZUni and Hopi, as far as Flagstaff, then back home along the Pecos.
Journal: Diego Perez de Lujan

1590 Gaspar Castano de Sosa illegal colonization: went up the Pecos river to Pecos Pueblo
Journal: Castano de Sosa.
Book: "A Colony on the Move" by Albert Schroeder and Dan Matson.

1598 Don Juan de Onate colonization, settled at head of Espanola Valley.


1776 Escalante Expedition from Santa Fe, through SW Colorado, SE Utah, and NE Arizona.
Book: Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of Escalante's Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776, Univ. of Utah,Salt Lake City, Utah, 1950,


1806 Pike Expedition: Zebulon Pike
Journal: "The expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike to headwaters of the Mississippi River, through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, during the years 1805-6-7
Book: Donald Jackson, ed., The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike With Letters and Related Documents, U. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 1966.
Book:Elliott Coues, The Expeditions of Zebulon Montygomery Pike, 2 vols., Dover, NY, 1987.

1821 Fowler Adventure to eh Sources of the Rio Grande
Jounral: Cous, E. (editor) 1965 The Journal of Jacob Fowler: Narrating an Adventure From Arkansas Through the Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, to the Sources of the Rio Grande Del Norte, 1821-1822. Ross & Haines, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.

1846 Kearny-Emory expedition. US Mexico Boundary Survey. Lieutenant W.H. Emory. Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers
Book: Ross Calvin, ed., Lieutenant Emory Reports: A Reprint of Lieutenant W.H. Emory's Notes of a Military Reconnaissance, U. of NM Press, Albuquerque, NM, 1951.
Book: William H. Emory, Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, 3 vols., 34th Cong. 1st Sess. H. Exec. Doc. 135, Serial 861-63, Washington, D.C., 1857-59, and repr. William H. Goetzmann, ed, 3 vols., TSHA, Austin, TX, 1997.
Book: John Russell Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, Connected With the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission During the Years 1850, '51, '52 and '53,, 2 vols., Appleton, NY, 1854, repr., 2 vols., Rio Grande Press, Chicago, IL, 1965.
Book: Dawn Hall, ed., Drawing the Borderline: Artist-Explorers and the U.S.-Mexico Boundary Survey, The Albuerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM, 1996, P.B.

1849 Washington Expedition to make peace or prosecute a war with the Navajo
Book: Navajo Expedition: Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the Navvaho Country Made in 1849 by James H. Simpson, Durwood Ball, Frank McNitt

1851 Sitgreaves
1853 Whipple
1854 Parke
1854 Pope
[misc ]
see Herbert E. Bolton, Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706, Scribner, NY, 1916, repr. Barnes & Noble, 1995, ...

David Weber, The Taos Trappers, the Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846, U. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, 1982.

Ralph P. Bieber, ed., Exploring Southwestern Trails, 1846-1854, Clark, Glendale, CA, 1938, William H. Emory,

Welcome to Rio Puerco

The Rio Puerco Preserve is located approximately 10 miles South of Cuba, NM. Marion Butte is visible in the background.

The river has deeply downcut because of erosion. There is not much rock in this valley alluvium and, with overgrazing, the plant life has not been able to hold together the soil. It is estimated that the Puerco is responsible for 50% of the silt flowing into the Rio Grande. Marion Butte in the background again.

In many places there is not enough vegetative seed source to provide ground cover.

Although there is some grass growing, and at least one large cottonwood remains.
So I decided to climb Marion butte for a better view. There was a storm brewing, however.
Under the dark clouds New Mexico's colors showed stronger.
There was something of a stairway leading up the Butte.
On top of the peak I found a thriving pack rat nest, layers of petrified wood, scarified pinyon, and an interesting insect living among the dry leaves of the mountain willow. Sunset looking west over Mesa Portales:
I walked back to camp under the gathering twilight, with one last look at Marion Butte, who watches with eternal vigilence over the Preserve.

Santa Fe River Mesa Overlook Petroglyphs

In a recent trip to the Santa Fe River jobsite I was lucky enough to take a side-trip through the horizontal snow up onto the low mesa overlooking La Cienega and Arroyo Calabasas. There, in the fragrant pollinating juniper there are hundreds of classic Pueblo petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are distinguished from pictographs because they are pecked into the desert varnish of large granite boulders to reveal the lighter rock underneath. Their age can sometimes be determined by the extinct of varnish re-growth. These petroglyphs are at least serveral hundred years old. Furthermore, the amount of work required to hammer away detailed images is unlikely to be tolerated by modern day copycats.


Shaman/Huntress Female (note characteristic vagina)

Kokopelli (with prominent archaic jackrabbit ear and separate flute/penis)


Lizard (probably not a turtle due to lack of stereotypical shell markings)


I did not find any kachinas (faces). Here is a comparison of common Kachina elements from Puerco Ruin (Petrified Forest National Park) and vicinity. a-c Antelope or deer kachinas; d-e solstice kachines; f-h, k-u unknown types; i-j Mudheads; v-x possible kachines; y-ii ogre kachinas.

In Search of the Elusive Elephant Tree

The Elephant Tree (Bursera microphylla) is a rare member of the Sonoran scrub community, left behind in a few relictual populations after the ebbing of the last ice age. Our amateur expedition convened to verify its rumored existence with our own senses. Lacking professional expertise, we relied on a map of hearsay and riddles. Intoning these raw directions with varying emphasis, turning the map while squinting, convincing ourselves of our own speculation, falling back into self-doubt at the next turn in the road...by faith and blind reckoning we journeyed and when we couldn't drive any more we got out and walked.

The crunch of desert gravel, second-growth ironwoods twisted like deep time, patches of magically incongruous moss growing in the deep shadows, a butterfly (Hemiluca tricolor) warming to the January morning. It seemed nothing could hide in the glorious panopticon of brilliant Sonoran sunlight. But it was only the illusion of omniscience - we knew the elusive Elephant Tree lurked somewhere in the thick desert scrub, but we didn't know where.

We pushed on. Past abandoned mines, over barbed wire and barbed cacti. The steep and gutted tracks curved around a dry valley, attained the saddle, and continued up the south-facing slope of Mt. Silverbell. There, tucked in a cozy drainage of austere smooth rock waterfalls, clinging to unlikely toeholds on the sheer wall, were the Elephant Trees; the thick trunks peeling elegantly in the sparse shadows. Fragrant limbs and resinous (juniper-like) berries carried a pungent and uniquely fragrant odor, a benediction to the dry dust desert.

We watched the sun cross the sky from our perch among them, tucked away with them in cozy niches, waiting patiently or perhaps resigned to fate, relicts in a strange world. They are safe and comfortable raising small families in their isolated enclave. We thanked them for their time and magnanomous patience when posing for our photographs. None of us wanted to leave, but we have faith now that the elusive Elephant Trees can abide without us.

Endangered: Pima Pineapple Cactus

This expedition, led by Patrick Dockens of EcoPlan Associates, traveled beyond the mine tailings of Green Valley and skirted the variegated edge of the beautiful Sonoran Desert to map the homeland of the rare & Endangered Pima Pineapple Cactus (PPAC). The PPAC is named for its shape, not its taste, and is primarily threatened by the voracious appetite of development & accompanying habitat destruction.

This quite large mother is shown carrying a single "pup" (at bottom of photo), a vegetatively propagating bud. The really cool thing about these surveys is that they provide an excuse to thrash around in the prickly heart of the Sonoran desert. Unless science mandates straight-line transects for statistical rigor, few would dare to brave the physical rigors of the desert for days and weeks on end. This labor bore the fruit of knowledge: we located several isolated populations of the Pineapple, and since we had also observed many places without populations of the cactus we began to form an idea of the microclimate and plant associations that the Pima Pineapple Cactus favors. Although it is only a hunch or an intuition, I believe that the members of this field crew are probably now better able to find this cactus than are any other people on Earth.

I wonder if this intuition could be quantified....here is an effort to use non-hypothesis-based factor analysis to do just that in the Colorado Rockies.