Fourth Estate
In hot pursuit
of the truth...

AWARD WINNER 1997-2003

CLICK ON AWARD TO ENLARGE

FREE WEBSITE THROUGHOUT 
Welcome to Desert Journal Online, established in May 2001 in New Mexico. Our website offers our true crime book, Satan's Den Exposed - The David Parker Ray Story, and poetry and photo collections, Bombshell Liberation and Interference, and provides free access to our featured columns, photos and news archives.











Directory Page
Site Map
best of DJO videos
best of 1000You2b0001 videos
PersecutedEditor videos
BossyAlien videos
LeoDaileyPoet videos
FDR - The New Deal
Tribute to Ernie Pyle

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ THESE! 

Satan's Den Exposed
The David Parker Ray Story

True crime book about a criminal sexual sadist and cohorts busted in kidnap, rape and sexual torture cases in New Mexico
By the Desert Journal's award winning investigative reporting team of Bill Johnson, Fred Mramor & David Pierre

SPECIAL OFFERS EXTENDED

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS!

2012 began in 1999
by Peter Appleseed
of the Kyyboa Tribe
Book about true revolution, civilogy and creating positive alternatives.

BOMBSHELL LIBERATION
&
INTERFERENCE

Poetry & Photo Collections
By Leo Dailey
NEW RELEASES OCTOBER 2006!!!
Electronic Books - $2.95 each ($2 off)
For details, click HERE!

SEE OUR WEB PAGE
ANTI-WARSONGS!!!

VISIT LEO DAILEY'S WEBSITE - www.LeoDailey.com

Desert Journal Online
Contact Information

Bill Johnson
Editor, Publisher & Webmaster
Vic Arvizu
Honorary Web Guru

Electronic mail

desertjournal@hotmail.com

desertjournalonline@yahoo.com

 

Location

We are an electronic submissions only website located in Albuquerque, NM, and have no physical business address.

 

Copyright © 2001-2008 Desert Journal Online
 

Last modified: December 1, 2008

Headline News From Sept. 20, 2002 Issue

Pipestem pups destroyed 

  Ranchers in the Beaverhead area were relieved when after a long stretch of livestock depredations the Mexican wolves, known as the Pipestem pair, were finally captured.

Forest health petition to be signed this month 

  Catastrophic wildfire history continues to be made in New Mexico today, as the next step in the process of forest cleanup is taken.

The Myth of Old Growth

  "Save the old growth" has been the recurrent chant in the environmentalists' campaign to prevent timber harvesting and forest restoration.

Elephant Butte sets sites planning its future course 

  The City of Elephant Butte is starting to plan how the city will look and develop during the next 20 to 30 years. 

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR MORE 

Flooding last week ripped through Cuchillo Creek and the Monticello area, leaving behind its destructive path.

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR MORE

The Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta got up into the air for its first fall debut at the lake.

OBITUARIES 

    Notices for Delpha R. Bletcher & Lilly Livya Bollig.

…Plenty-A-Maze-N

The 4^th annual Mesilla Valley Maize Maze & Pumpkin Patch in Las Cruces, NM, will open this Saturday, Sept. 21. Located just west of the Rio Grande, at 3855 W. Picacho, the Maze is one of the premier family events in the Mesilla Valley. Hay rides, a 9-acre pumpkin patch, picnic areas and an 8-acre corn maze, all combine to provide plenty of fun for kids of all ages. The Maze will be open only through Oct. 31. To schedule a school or church group, or for more information, call 505-526-1919.

Flood water inundated Highway 51 in Cuchillo a week ago during heavy thunderstorm activity over New Mexico and after a levee broke just north of the town.

Photo courtesy of Dale Harrison, Sierra County EMO  

Pipestem pups destroyed

Mexican Wolf Recovery Set Back

BEAVERHEAD - Ranchers in the Beaverhead area were relieved when after a long stretch of livestock depredations the Mexican wolves, known as the Pipestem pair, were finally captured.

The pair recently reunited after a stretch of time traveling apart. Prior to the capture of the wolves by helicopter, a litter of pups was found in a cave being frequented by the female wolf.

Seven healthy pups were pulled from the cave a week before the parents were captured. Ranchers and wolf recovery personnel were surprised to see that at least one of the tiny pups had spots.

DNA tests preformed on the litter proved that they were from a male dog or wolf hybrid and not the Mexican wolf that was supposed to be their sire.

Ranchers in the area were plagued with a series of calf losses from the time the wolves were first reported in the area.

Fish and Wildlife service employees were called in to investigate the few carcasses found from about 23 missing calves. Cowboys of the Slash and O bar O ranches had seen what they believed to be a feral dog pack in the area and had in fact killed three feral dogs.

FWS employees of the Mexican Wolf Program only confirmed three depredations attributed to the wolves though the hybrid/dog problem was in fact dealt with before the deaths skyrocketed into the 20s.

FWS would not confirm more calves than carcasses found, determining instead that hybrid animals were responsible for any losses that could not be accounted for.

Two weeks prior to the recapture of the Pipestem wolves, a coalition of agricultural, ranching and county groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue over a violation of NEPA for allowing wolves to have access to hybrid and feral animals, a violation of their environmental impact statement and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Included in the notice is the claim that an incorrect equation is used in the EIS to determine potential livestock deaths by wolves.

"The Pipestem female made our case for us," said rancher Matt Schneberger. "Though it was a surprise to see the puppies weren't pure wolves, it was not a surprise to know there were opportunities for her to breed with something else, but I did not expect it so soon."

Ranchers say at issue is the fact that in spite of FWS claims that wolves are breeding successfully in the wild, how many of the wolves born in Arizona are in fact pure wolves?

Ranchers believe this is a chronic and un-addressed problem within the reintroduction area.

Arizona rancher Barbara Marks has seen Mexican wolves in heat trying to attract her cow dog during the breeding season.

"We have had to stop using our dogs when the wolves are in the area. They are attracted to them," she said.

The Schnebergers in New Mexico have discovered the same thing. "Wolves covered many miles to be near our dogs we feel we have to build kennels to keep them safe," said Matt.

Rancher Gene Blair sent his dogs to a friend over a hundred miles away so they wouldn't be killed by the wolves and yet another rancher had his female cow pup stalked by a female wolf in the same area the Pipestem pups were found.

"Until this problem is sorted out by testing all the uncolored and young wolves our there, we think this program and any further releases should be put on indefinite hold," says Schneberger.

“These wolves seem to have a very strong need to diversify their gene pool and with the amount of feral dogs out here, it is going to be a tremendous problem the recovery program should not ignore," he said.

Source: story courtesy of the Gila National Forest Permittee’s Association.

<<<   >>>

At top, a flood cut through Cuchillo-Negro Creek like a black, razor sharp knife cuts through a bright, white piece of paper during heavy rains Sept. 10-12. In middle photo, flood water passes under the highway through tunnels during last week’s torrential monsoons in Sierra County. At bottom, some folks went for higher ground in Cuchillo, and Monticello residents found themselves stranded after floods washed out Highway 52 – their only lifeline to civilization.

Photos courtesy of Dale Harrison, Sierra County EMO

Forest health petition to be signed this month

By Clifford Nichols, Esq.

Catastrophic wildfire history continues to be made in New Mexico today, as the next step in the process of forest cleanup is taken.

Last year, the state took the bold first step by passing into law Senate Bill 1. The bill declared a state of emergency in the state's national forest lands, citing excess fuel loads, which will lead to catastrophic fires in the foreseeable future. The bill also called on counties to begin plans for removing those excess fuel loads to protect their communities and mitigate the state of emergency.

The second step began this week. The state is petitioning Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman for transfer of limited jurisdiction over national forest lands within state boundaries to allow the emergency cleanup efforts to move forward.

Also this week, the formal petition to the Secretary of Agriculture arrived in the hands of the Governor and each state legislator and county commissioner in New Mexico. Once the lawmakers have signed the petition, it will be presented to Secretary Veneman on Oct. 7.

The petition calls on the federal government to either act responsibly or assume responsibility for the state of emergency in New Mexico's federal forests.

If granted limited jurisdiction to remove excess trees and promote forest health, the counties can each develop plans to protect their constituents for years to come.

Also at issue is the widespread shortage of water throughout the state. Each tree can consume up to 200 gallons of water per day, and some officials estimate there are billions of excess trees in the national forests.

Downstream from these watersheds, many areas of the state are starved for water. Thus, the removal of excess trees necessarily contributes to watershed health as well.

If the Secretary of Agriculture is unwilling to transfer limited jurisdiction over the national forests within New Mexico's boundaries to the state, as allowed under federal law, then the state must assume that the federal government will either:

1) take action to remove the excess forest growth themselves, or

2) take ultimate responsibility for damage to property or injury to people caused by catastrophic forest fires in this state in the future.

 The accompanying fact sheet and Petition to Secretary Veneman will provide you with a framework of information on the facts of the law and the situation within the state. For more information, please contact Clifford Nichols at (505) 243-4682 or via email at cnic9@yahoo.com.

Facts:

In Senate Bill 1, passed and signed into law in March 2001, federal lands within the state's boundaries were declared to be in a state of emergency. SB 1 declared the state of emergency, and authorized counties to begin work on plans to effect immediate cleanup in the national forests impacting their communities. It is a government's fundamental sovereign duty to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

Nearly 6.4 million acres, both public and private, have burned during this fire season. That figure includes 309,000 acres in New Mexico.

President Bush, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, and the U.S. Forest Service have all publicly declared that the catastrophic fires of the past fire season have been the result of the excess fuel load in the national forests resulting, in part, from environmental litigation.

Both the administration and the Forest Service have acknowledged poor management of the forests to be part of the cause for the emergency.

President Bush and Secretary Norton have also publicly declared that the conditions in the foreseeable future are likely to result in more catastrophic fires if not corrected.

Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota has publicly acknowledged that environmental litigation has been responsible for holding up cleaning efforts in his home state.

In August, Senator Daschle passed federal law exempting South Dakota from environmental litigation until the state of emergency in the national forests in South Dakota has been addressed.

Forest conditions not only impact the fire debate, but also affect the watershed. Officials estimate that a mature tree consumes two hundred gallons of water daily. The Forest Service estimates that the Lincoln National Forest alone contains about four billion excess trees.

Even young trees impact the watershed in the Lincoln National Forest at the rate of hundreds of billions of gallons of water daily.

At the joint meeting of the Water and Natural Resource Committee and New Mexico Finance Authority Oversight Committee held in Ruidoso Wednesday and Thursday of last week, state lawmakers and water experts called for the state to take the next step in putting SB 1 into action.

<<<   >>>

These two hot air balloons were among about a dozen participating in last weekend’s Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta, sponsored by the Elephant Butte Chamber of Commerce.

Photo courtesy of Julie, Pat & Jill Hart  

The Myth of Old Growth

Size does matter

By Howard Hutchinson

"Save the old growth" has been the recurrent chant in the environmentalists' campaign to prevent timber harvesting and forest restoration.

Old growth is the habitat necessary to support spotted owls, goshawks and other forest critters, they say. The problem has been defining what constitutes old growth.

Like other environmental myths, old growth has been portrayed as stately monarchs coveted by greedy timber companies.

George Duda, a forester with New Mexico State Forestry, contradicts the propaganda with a single photograph. In one hand is a 20-inch diameter, 66-year-old slice and in the other an 88-year-old slice that is four inches across.

The current debate over forest health has been fueled by successive years of massive fires across the west.

The unfortunate loss of nearly 400 homes in the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 focused public attention on a growing menace. Millions of acres and hundreds of homes later, government policy may be changing.

Congress is pouring billions of dollars into battling these monster fires to save homes in the wildland/urban interface. Millions more are going into setting up defensible space around communities.

The environmentalists claim they do not oppose this effort as long as old growth is protected from the evil timber industry in the process.

The new preservationist chant is small diameter thinning and only immediately surrounding homes. Management actions outside of this zone and sometimes within it are attacked with appeals, litigation and protests.

They insist on diameter size cut restrictions. Again, claiming the desire to protect old growth trees.

What science reveals is that 70 years of fire suppression has created forest densities that are unsustainable. Pre-European settlement Ponderosa pine forests had 30 to 50 trees per acre. Sixty percent of New Mexico's forests are Ponderosa. Tree densities in some of those stands are as high as 3,000 trees per acre.

These stands are severely stressed. This results in stunted growth, being subject to increased disease and insect infestation and disposed to catastrophic wildfire.

An equal hazard created by this unnatural condition is a conservatively estimated 30 percent reduction of water to surface flows and nearly equal reduction in ground water recharge.

Reduced water flows increase the concentration of pollutants in our streams and rivers. The unhealthy watersheds are more susceptible to erosion thereby increase the largest single contributions to stream pollution impairment in the state - sediment and turbidity.

While the environmental champions block forest restoration they litigate for increased river flows for threatened species. At the same time they deride and litigate against municipalities, agriculture, and industries for water pollution.

Like schizophrenic dervishes they whirl from one campaign to another not recognizing the destruction they leave in their path.

The Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties joined with thousands of New Mexico citizens and organizations to support passage of Senate Bill 1 in the 2001 legislative session. This bill made a declaration of emergency on the threat of catastrophic fire to the State of New Mexico and authorized county governments to take action to eliminate the threat.

The Coalition is now joining with the Paragon Foundation in a petition drive to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to transfer management authority of the national forests to state and local authority for the purpose of restoring our forest health.

The myth of old growth is no excuse to stand by while our forests, wildlife habitat and water sources are destroyed.

About the author - Howard Hutchinson is Executive Director of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties. He also is Chairman of the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District and serves on the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission. He lives on the San Francisco River in the Gila National Forest in Pleasanton, NM.

<<<   >>>

A hot air balloon meanders in the sky (at top) and a couple of hot air balloons (bottom) are spotted in the morning light during the Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta held last weekend at Elephant Butte Lake.

Photos courtesy of Julie, Pat & Jill Hart

Elephant Butte sets sites

planning its future course

The City of Elephant Butte is starting to plan how the city will look and develop during the next 20 to 30 years.

With a state grant, city officials recently hired Sites Southwest LLC, a planning and landscape architectural firm from Albuquerque, to prepare a comprehensive plan for the city.

The plan will be an official public document adopted by local government to guide decisions about the physical development of the community. It will analyze current conditions and set future goals and policies in areas such as housing, land use, roads, water supply and use, natural resources and economic development.

Residents will have a chance to review progress on the city’s plan and give their input at two public meetings. The first will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the Elephant Butte Community Center on Rio Grande Circle just west of and behind the fire hall on Rock Canyon Road.

Sites Southwest will prepare the plan under the guidance of a steering committee comprised of Elephant Butte residents and officials. They are: Mayor Bob Barnes, Harriette Bolling, past president of the Elephant Butte Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Planning and Zoning Committee, and Rod Anderson, a local businessman.

A community must have a comprehensive plan that is approved by the State of New Mexico in order to apply for more project funds from the Community Development Block Grant program. These funds can be used for needed infrastructure such as roads and pipes, public buildings, housing rehabilitation, economic development, planning and other critical purposes.

The new planning effort will build on work completed for a previous comprehensive plan that failed to gain State approval in 2001. The previous plan was created by a planning group from the community and included several public meetings and a survey of all households and businesses.

Sites Southwest will work with the community to bring the plan into compliance with state requirements. The firm also will look in more detail at topics that are of key importance to Elephant Butte. These may include economic development, community character and appearance, and land use in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.

With an approved comprehensive plan in place, Elephant Butte will have a better chance to obtain state and federal grants to fund physical improvements in the community.

<<<   >>>

Julie Cooper of the Elephant Butte Chamber of Commerce presented to Cathy Vickers of R.C. Vickers Lathe & Plaster an award for first place sponsor in the Elephant Butte Balloon Regatta last weekend.

OBITUARIES

Delpha R. Bletcher, 80, a resident of Truth or Consequences since 1964, died Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2002, at her home.

She was born April 3, 1922, in Dry Creek, NM, to Delmar and Edrie (Maxwell) Haynie. She was a retired U.S. Forest Service Information Officer and former member of the T or C Hobby Club; T or C Rock Club; Sierra Sam's, T or C Moose Lodge 2050; VFW Post 3317 Ladies Auxiliary; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Church; Order of the Eagles in Arrey and Sheriff's Reserve.

Survivors include her three sisters, Georgia Mae and husband Tom Bigaouette of Moore, OK, Edrie L. Kenny of T or C, and Retha and husband Ron Stoval of Tacoma, WA; her brothers, Robert and wife Frances Haynie of Los Lu-

nas, NM, Bill and wife Bonnie Haynie of T or C; her brother-in-law, Gerald and wife Veda Bletcher; her sisters-in-law, Stella & Kelly Palmer; an aunt, Retha Thorn; and very good friends, Kennon and Martha Bell Howell; Bob Cordtz and children; Barbara Cordtz; Virgie Smith, Audrey Brown, John and Sue Able and Dottie Clark; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard B. Bletcher, in 1982, and by two brothers, Virgil and Kenneth Haynie.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. today (Friday, Sept. 20) in the Chapel of French Mortuary of T or C with Rev. Shon A. Wagner officiating. Serving as Casket Bearers are Jessie Robinson, Bill Johnson, Delmar Robinson, Cody McDaniel, Robert Brahm and Richard Lopez.

Arrangements are by French Mortuary of T or C Inc.; 505-894-2574.

Lilly Livya Bollig, 75, of Denver, CO, died Sunday, Sept. 15, 2002, in Aurora, CO. She was born April 29, 1927, in Fourmies, France, to Marcelle and Germaine (Chevreoux) Freund. She married Benedict A. Bollig on July 8, 1945, in La Capelle, France. They were united for 57 years. She loved cooking, volunteering at the hospital, was a great artistic appreciator, had many esoteric interests, loved her children, husband, and her grandchildren. They owned and operated Woody's Café, B and L Pancake House, and the Gold Nugget.

Survivors include her husband, Benedict A. Bollig of Truth or Consequences, NM; her daughters, Deborah Bollig of Aurora, CO, and Patricia Bollig, Barbara Bollig and Lauretta Bollig, all three of Greeley, CO; her sons, Charles Bollig of Rochester, MN, and Robert Bollig of Hepizabah, GA; several grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents.

Rosary was recited and mass of Christian burial was celebrated Thursday, Sept. 19, at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Denver. Cremation visitation was Wednesday at Stoddard Funeral Home in Denver.

	Web www.desertjournalonline.com