From an overview the Río Grande neatly splits Taos County in two from north to south.
Yet, this "River of Destiny" for three states and two countries, draws New Mexicans together in our unique richness of life as it flows through our communities.
This river of life enters New Mexico in the most dramatic and unique manners in the lower San Luís Valley at the Colorado border near Ute Mountain. The Taos Plateau is as dramatic a landscape as exists on the planet.
For anyone who has ever entered Taos from the south it is nearly impossible to not be overtaken by the view rising above the horseshoe curve. There cradled against the peaks of the Sangre De Cristos is the expansive mesa of this high desert valley.
It is more a terrestrial ocean punctuated with the volcanic islands of an archipelago. Most dramatic is the massive cleft splitting the high mesa north to south and spreading it east to west. This canyon - the gorge - is one of the real signatures sights of New Mexico.
It is crowned by a geologic backdrop of free-standing volcanoes unmatched in the American landscape. These free-standing mountains are named: Ute, San Antonio, Chiflo, Cerro De Olla, Cerro Montosso, Cerro Aire and Guadalupe. Not only are they unique landmarks to people but they serve as ancient markers along our continental migratory highway that has directed the ebb and flow of wildlife in western America for all time.
These ancient migrations through our state are the aboriginal heritage of our continent and yet they are as vital and relevant to the diversity of bird and wildlife today as they were millenniums ago. The El Río Grande Del Norte National Conservation Area that Sen. Jeff Bingaman is now championing in Congress truly captures and preserves one of the last great American ecosystems.
It is home to large elk and antelope herds and nationally significant eagle and falcon nesting areas on the canyon walls. In the canyon bottom the river provides a world class trout fishery and a wild home for otter and beaver. Cougar, big horn sheep, bob cat, ring tail cat and bear are all residents and visitors to the broken layers of talus slopes of the gorge's basalt walls. Because this area is already 95 percent state and federal land there is a unique opportunity for it to be spared from parceling or development.
One of the primary reasons that it has remained undeveloped so far is due to the fact that the core of this National Conservation Area has been known as the "Land of No Water" since described by Don Diego de Vargas in 1695. It is an arid rugged landscape for people which is centered on the Punche (Tobacco) Valley.
This remoteness makes it a Mecca for our wild friends. It offers however, a unique opportunity for people to visit our wild friends in the setting that they have evolved and thrived in for generations. People of the Taos Plateau have found this place an important source of fishing, hunting and grazing sustenance from the times of the original pueblos and Spanish settlements until today. In the time of the first pueblos these were their buffalo plains.
Communities such as Questa, Hondo, Cerro, Pilar and Antonito have been bound economically and spiritually to this area west of the canyon since their establishment centuries ago. Under Sen. Bingaman's legislation all of these multiple uses and traditional ways of life will be preserved along with the natural values of this area. This national conservation area will truly capture the full character of this unique natural habitat where both wild and human communities co-exist in a balance that serves both. You cannot read the histories of the pueblos, the acequia culture, the mountain men, and the Taos painters, Kit Carson or Aldo Leopold without being aware of this landscape as the stage on which much of our rich history has played out.
The landscape that we enjoy daily is truly our country's treasure and should be treated as such. We should support Sen. Bingaman and the New Mexico delegation in their efforts to write the next chapter of history that recognizes this place as a national treasure and a gemstone in the eternal character of New Mexico.
Ron Gardiner is a land and water use consultant. He established extensive wildlife and raptor surveys.
