Habitat Improvements on New Mexico's San Juan River a Huge Success

Mark Wethington,Fisheries Biologist for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish shows off a San Juan River Rainbow Trout.

Recent fish habitat improvement projects on the San Juan River have surpassed expectations at the state’s top trout fishery.

And it would appear most anglers are thrilled with the results.

“It’s like a whole new river,” exclaimed Andy Avery, 41, of Placitas after spending a mild, mid-winter’s day fishing the world renowned river below Navajo Dam in northwestern New Mexico. “I’d like to shake the hand of whoever’s responsible for all this.”

Avery could start with state Department of Game and Fish Biologist, Marc Wethington, 48, who has been stationed on the river since joining the agency back in 1995 and has overseen all the improvements.

Wethington, a 1994 graduate of Highlands University, has administered four different projects in the last six years designed to improve fish habitat and angler satisfaction over about five miles of the famous fishery.

“And it’s been very worthwhile judging from the amount of positive feedback we’ve been getting from the angling public,” says Wethington, who grew up in nearby Waterflow and fished the river himself as a kid.

The latest phase of the improvement projects in the Braids area just above Texas Hole has produced such good results that even critics who at one time opposed the projects are now singing its praises.

“On first assessment, I would say this has the potential of real improvement for that part of the fishery and job well done,” wrote Andreas Novak of Farmington who frequently posts comments about the river in Mike Mora’s online chat room dedicated to the San Juan.

Just a few years earlier Novak was writing on the same forum that the department’s improvement projects were “a huge waste of time and money” and wouldn’t make “a bit of difference” to the river.”

What a difference a few tons of well placed boulders, some downed tree trunks and over 20 new fishing holes carved into the riverbed can make.

“It’s really been rewarding to see this kind of response,” Wethington says.

The latest improvements were made this past winter to the Braids area below the dam where fishing was marginal due to shallow water that coursed through a maze of islands.

So a diversion was constructed to direct more flow into the Braids area to increase the water’s depth and velocity.

Then some side channels were blocked off to maximize the effect and lastly dozens of deep holes were carved out of the bedrock to provide new fish habitat.

Shortly after the Braids project work was completed and the area opened to fishing Wethington inspected the area and consulted with anglers.

Most everyone expressed happiness with the work and some noted the intimacy that the new fishing holes hidden deep among the islands provided.

The area has since been reseeded with native plants and shrubs and is expected look completely natural within just a few seasons, Wethington says.

And within days of the project’s completion, trout were already moving back into the Braids, making it their home, much to the delight of anglers.

One of the outcomes of the Braids projects has been its popularity and what that has done to other areas of the river.

In the weeks after the Braids were reopened anglers found they could have other stretches of the river to themselves as everyone was apparently fishing the Braids area.

“The results have been beyond our wildest expectations,” says Larry Johnson of the San Juan River Guides Association. “Everyone’s just been raving about it.”

The engineering work was done by Riverbend Engineering of Albuquerque and Pagosa Springs, Colo., while AUI of Albuquerque provided construction services with assistance from Aquatic Consultants of Albuquerque.

The $350,000 project cost was funded in part with $250,000 earmarked by former Governor Bill Richardson and another $100,000 from federal sport fish restoration funds.

Those federal funds are generated through excise taxes on fishing tackle, motor boat fuel and other sporting goods, says Mike Sloane, Chief of the Fisheries Division for NMDGF.

Wethington says his boss, Sloan, and state game Commissioner, Jim McClintic, are the “unsung heroes” of the San Juan River projects, providing vital political support and funding to see them through.

“It wouldn’t have happened without them,” Wethington says of the two men.

Perhaps unheralded but as important as any improvement to the river was the construction of a large spilling basin and catchment dam at the base of Rex Smith Wash during the Braids project.

The dam is designed to catch storm runoff carrying silt and sediment and keep it from flowing directly into the river at the Braids area.

The massive catchment dam and spilling basin is designed to direct overflow from the retention pond upstream into a heavily vegetated, marsh area where silt and sediment can settle and the water filter out before making its way to the river, Wethington said.

In previous years heavy flows from the wash were responsible for silting up the popular Kiddie and Texas holes and negatively impacting fish habitat there and further downstream.

At one time runoff from the wash used to flow harmlessly out across what is now the Texas Hole parking lot which was constructed by State Parks to accommodate anglers who pay a $5 a day user’s fee.

But after flooding threatened vault toilets installed there, State Parks elected to construct a dirt berm along the edge of the parking lot to channel the wash’s flow directly into the river.

The catchment dam should now alleviate that problem and end a decade long effort to address it, Wethington said.

The Braids project is the just latest in a series of habitat improvement projects designed to enhance conditions for trout and anglers alike while also serving as a hedge against the possibility of low water flows in the future.

Need for the projects became apparent after flows from Navajo Reservoir which feeds the river were reduced during the 1990s to accommodate the downstream needs of endangered native fish.

The lower flows contributed to a buildup of silt and sediment and reduced prime fish habitat which negatively impacted the fishery and caused alarm and outrage among some anglers.

The department formulated a strategy to address the lower flows and the possibility of more in the future due to an expected increase in water demands.

The department also wanted to reduce crowding on heavily fished sections of the river by improving angling in less frequented areas.

The department, working in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management’s Wildlife Biologist John Hansen, installed their first habitat improvement project during the winter of 2005 with a set of rock structures in a barren stretch of river below Simon Canyon.

The following winter more rock structures were installed in the same area to complete work on that section of the river.

Much of that initial work was done with limited funds and contributions of manpower and equipment from the oil and gas industry.

The boulders were expected to keep the river water churning which helps scour the streambed and keep silt and sediment suspended to be carried further downstream.

And today what was once a long, slow stretch of sandy streambed holding few if any trout has become one of the most popular sections of the river with plenty of trout to be caught.

“We’re really seeing dividends from that project,” Johnson of the guides association says.

Fishing guides love this stretch of river now because it provides their client’s a last chance to catch fish before their trip typically ends just around the corner at the Gravel Pit take out.

The work then continued with habitat improvements being installed at Cottonwood Campground where the waters are heavily stocked with trout and anglers can fish with bait and harvest the bag limit.

“We’ve been seeing great results all over the river from these projects,” says Brian Wagner of the San Juan Flyfishing Federation. “Hopefully there’s more to come.”

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently added some fish habitat improvements of their own at the Trucha Rosilla day use area just below the town of Navajo Dam.

And they’ve had crews out cutting back invasive weeds and shrubs along the river’s edge to help reduce water absorption.

Wethington notes that many have contributed to improvements on the San Juan River including the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corp of Engineers and the New Mexico Environment Department and Navajo Lake State Park.

Many within the local angling industry also participated including Ray Johnston of Float and Fish Fly Shop, the San Juan Fly Fishing Federation, the San Juan River Guides Association and many individual fishing guides and anglers.

And the oil and gas industry also contributed to the effort by providing manpower, funding and equipment including Devon Energy, Williams and ConocoPhillips, Golden Equipment, Volvo International, Aztec Excavation, Adobe Construction of Bloomfield,

San Juan Fishery Biologist, Marc Wethington, discusses rock arrangments with Heavy Equipment Operator, Reggie Davis of Adobe Contractors of Bloomfield, during the third and final phase of fish habitat improvements on the San Juan River in November 2007.

Other recent changes on the river, designed to improve fishing conditions, have included a restriction to the maximum use of two flies per rig while fishing to help reduce trout mortality.

And the trophy trout rule which had allowed anglers to keep a single trout over 20-inches has been revoked, effectively making the river catch and release only for the first four miles below the dam.

And now the department has Wethington working on plans to install habitat improvements in back channels including the one that flows from below Texas Hole to the Lower Flats and the other one that runs from the Lower Flats to just below Baetis Bend.

Wethington expects these improvements would provide anglers seeking solitude a greater opportunity to catch more fish while evading the many other anglers that the popular river attracts.

And while these habitat improvements have been generally been well received, some have questioned the effect they have had on the aesthetics of the river.

Steve Miller, a longtime river rafter and fly fisherman from Embudo, NM, wrote on his blog at http://believesteve.wordpress.com/  in November 2011 that after visiting the river during construction he took exception to the “amusement park” like atmosphere that the improvements had created.

“Despite the fact that they (the projects) indisputably increase the number of fish in the river, I don’t enjoy fishing a river that has been so altered,” Miller wrote.” For me, it largely negates the naturalness of the setting, and makes me feel like I’m fishing in an amusement park.”

Steve Miller of Embudo is a veteran angler of the San Juan. He is shown here fishing on the river's Lower Flats in April 2010.

The San Juan River is New Mexico’s premier trout fishing destination bringing in an estimated $30 to $40 million annually to the state’s economy.

The river boasts an estimated 70,000 trout inhabiting the first four miles of river below Navajo Dam and angler survey results show the river sustains an average of 140 anglers a day who each catch just over a fish an hour averaging 16-inches in length.

About 6 percent of anglers report having caught a trout over 20 inches long, according to angler survey results.

 This story was commissioned by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish for its own publication "New Mexico Wildlife" and has since been published in its Spring/Summer 2012 edition and can be seen in that format, online, at http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/publications/documents/NM_Wildlife/archives/spring_2012.pdf

Stone Fly Hatch Makes for Great Fly Fishing & the Conejos is Where It's Happening

Some of the best  fly fishing in New Mexico is just across the state line in southern Colorado where the Conejos River is crawling with stone flies right now.

A longtime favorite destination for New Mexican anglers the Conejos River hatch has arrived early this year due to lower stream flows and warmer weather brought on by the drought.

During a recent trip to the big river near the tiny town of Antonito we found the air abuzz with fat lumbering stone flies and trout rising to the surface to engulf them.

The best bet for imitating these floating feasts for fish might be the "Foamulator" found at the local Fox Creek Fly Shop nearest to the miles of prime fishing found on this river.

The fly utilizes a traditional stimulator design stacked atop a piece of high floating foam with some rubber legs to give it plenty of movement.

And boy does this sucker work on the Conejos River's resident population of big, bad, brown trout.

Newcomers to this river will find mile after mile of prime water open to fishing with some areas restricted to catch and release fly fishing only.

Those seeking solitude, great mountain scenery and plenty of angling opportunities  need only venture down to the river from any number of obvious access points.

Some tips to keep in mind when venturing out to the Conejos River include carrying a rain poncho as it clouds up and threatens to rain just about every afternoon.

Be careful when wading this river as it is deep, wide and slippery with the nearest professional medical care some 30 miles away at a clinic near of La Jara as our host, Thom Cole, discovered after dislocating a finger during a slip and  fall.

Be respectful of private property owners who generously provide much of the public access to anglers on this river.

Bring plenty of water or carry a purifier as many inviting stretches require a good hike. 

And wear a wide brimmed hat, a proper shirt and perhaps some sunblock to ward off effects of the high elevation sun.

When fishing the Conejos River with imitation stone flies make sure to work the banks as this is where many of the naturals can also be found.

Our best catch of the trip was found lurking in the quiet water at the edge of a deep, turbulent run under an overhanging tree surrounded by willows festooned with the big bugs.

Eagle Nest the Hot Spot for Pike Fishing this Memorial Day Weekend

Shawn Denny, Fisheries Biologist for New Mexico Department of Game and Fish shows off a big pike snared during a spring 2012 fish population survey. 

Anglers looking for some real thrills this Memorial Day weekend need go no further than Eagle Nest Lake where the fishing is on for big bad pike.

“Now’s the time to have at it,” says Eric Frey, Northeast Area Fisheries Biologist for the state Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF).” They’re spawning up in the shallows, right off the banks, and they’ll take just about anything right now.”

Anglers are free to catch and keep as many pike as they want from Eagle Nest Lake as the department is trying to reduce the predatory fish’s population at the popular trout and Kokanee salmon fishery.

Someone illegally planted pike in the lake several years ago and their population is now growing.

Pike prey upon and compete with other more favorable sport fish for resources and their presence in the lake is having a negative impact on the trout population, Frey says.

Now the NMDGF is asking licensed anglers to put their skills to work at helping get a grip on the situation by visiting the lake and catching as many of the feisty fish as possible.

Eagle Nest Lake

Anglers should arm themselves with a stout rod and reel loaded with at least 10-pound test.

A steel leader should be used to keep the fish’s sharp teeth or gills from cutting the line.

Pike will chase and attack all sorts of lures that imitate smaller fish including large metal spoons especially in silver, white or yellow colors.

Anglers at this time of year need only fish from the shoreline and can cast out at various angles and retrieve at different speeds and depths to initiate a strike.

Anglers can control a captured pike by firmly gripping it by its neck well back behind the gills which are very sharp, as are the teeth.

But with pike at the lake are being found in the lengths exceeding 30 inches, dragging it up on the bank and clubbing it over the head might be the preferred method of subduing them, Frey says.

Pike make for good eating and can be fried, baked, poached or grilled just like any other fish, although they have more bones.

A recent pike fishing contest sponsored by Dos Amigos Fly shop in Eagle Nest drew about 65 anglers who caught over 100 pike and lost a similar amount, says the owner,Wayne Thurber.

Another pike derby is a scheduled for Labor Day weekend at the end of the summer, he says.

Thurber says he’s new to pike fishing as are many anglers at the lake but that fishing for the species is growing, along with its population.

Preliminary results from the NMDGF’s annual survey of fish populations at the lake conducted last week indicate that the pike population is increasing while trout numbers are apparently in decline.

Eric Frey, 37, of Raton is the Northeast Area Fisheries Biologist with New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. He earned his Fishery and Wildlife Sciences degree from Eastern New Mexico  University and is a 13 year veteran of the department. 

The survey last year netted only seven pike, while this year department personnel hauled in 60 with the biggest pike measuring about 34 inches and weighing in at about ten pounds, Frey says.

Samples of stomach contents from captured pike indicate that the fish are primarily consuming white sucker fish and Kokanee salmon and to a lesser degree, trout.

Ironically, perch are the predominant fish in the lake but the pike captured during recent sampling did not contain any of those fish, Frey said.

Frey speculates that pike may be passing up the perch due to the protective, spiny fin along a perch’s back.

The survey last week also revealed that the pike were not yet out in deeper water but were instead up in the shallow water just off the banks with most fish captured at the south end of the lake.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Fisheries Biologists often work long into the night collecting, counting and analyzing fish as part of the their overall management plan for New Mexico's angling areas. 

A large population of 28- to 31-inch, four-year-old pike is now reaching breeding age and is currently spawning, Frey says.

The more of these spawning fish that can be caught now will help reduce pike numbers in the future, Frey says.

“The time’s ripe to get after them,” he says.

Under new regulations instituted this winter by the state game commission, anglers are required to keep any pike they catch from the lake and the bag limit has been lifted.

Anglers venturing to Eagle Nest Lake over the long weekend holiday might find campsites available at the state park on the lake or along the river in the canyon below the dam.

Fishing supplies are available in Eagle Nest at the marina and fly shop in town.

If You Go: Take U.S. 84/285 North to Espanola and through town. Proceed on State Road 68 to Taos and at the intersection of US 64 head east to Eagle Nest. For a scenic return trip take NM 434 through Angel Fire. At Mora turn right on NM 518 and follow to NM 75 to Pensaco. Follow through town to NM 76 and the turn off to Truchas and Espanola.

Erik Ness - He Lived a Life Most Journalists Can Only Dream Of

Two Journalist's who worked with and knew Erik Leroy Ness well pay tribute to the legendary New Mexico Farm and Livestock  Bureau' spokesman who died of pancreatic cancer on May 12th at the age of 57 and was buried and memorialized  today, May 18, 2012, in his hometown of Las Cruces, NM. 

By Bill Diven

Erik Ness stomped the firmament of Aggieland in 1974 when he joined a cabal of media rebels who stormed the student union at New Mexico State University and launched Ozone Ranger Radio. 

The timing proved perfect for the collision of cowboy and hippie music flavored with rhythm and blues. 

Rock 'n' rollers needed more energy, some campus cowboys learned to roll left-handed cigarettes and a smoke-filled saloon featured the Mesilla Valley Lowboys' blues one weekend and the Desperados' two-stepping the next.

It couldn't last, of course.  

Saner heads at the cow college prevailed the next year, or maybe the hammer just dropped from above as happens in student media, so the Rangers scattered establishing outposts of creative subversion along many trails.

For his part as an Ozone Ranger Erik took the title of operations manager establishing himself early as an operator maneuvering the thickets of his beloved state until his too-early demise last weekend. 

Calling Erik an operator, though, does no justice to the media wizardry he conjured as press aide to liberal Attorney General Toney Anaya and then three decades positioning the conservative New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau as the go-to voice of agriculture and its families.

Behind the scene he advised scores of political candidates, but good luck finding his fingerprints especially on anything fun that gigged the opposition.

He sometimes went by Buck Truck with a good-ol'-boy growl and wry smile mistaken at your peril for a case of dumbass.

 All the time he was writing and speaking, sometimes to national audiences, sometimes letting other folks run with his words making them sound the better for it.

When he wasn't writing under his own name or one that covered his tracks, he wrote music and hung out at Emmett Brooks' Goldust Studios in Las Cruces or with balladeer Michael Martin Murphey. 

"Murph," as Ness introduced him to me, has a ranch in northern New Mexico and became a spokesman for the American Farm Bureau Federation.  He came by his ranching skills early and honestly, but Erik was just offstage as Murphey became a new national hero for the farm-and-ranch folks.

Occasionally over drinks Erik sort of sang his latest lyrics revealing more than just a talent for poetry. 

His keen eye and ear made the people and places of New Mexico as special as a full moon riding over the crags of the Organ Mountains. 

T'would be nice if someone compiled his music and shared it.

Ness passed over invitations to write his own ticket to self-important places. 

Washington, D.C., was out, he famously noted, because he couldn't hunt antelope there. 

That's just another way of saying his heart and roots were here, and Las Cruces was big enough, thank you.

Not too many public-relations specialists throw produce at journalists, and I can't say Erik made a practice of it. 

But one evening while waiting for my steak at the Buckhorn Saloon in Pinos Altos, lettuce was in the air. 

When the third piece zinged past my ear, I turned around ready for a brawl, but there in the corner were Erik and a fishing buddy convulsing from suppressed laughter.

Maybe that was just his way of promoting one of the Mesilla Valley's prominent crops. 

I won't say we closed the place down, just that the fish in the Gila were safe the next morning.

So now he's gone at 57, and we're poorer for it. 

His family saw him more after he retired from the Farm Bureau although that time proved all too short. 

New Mexico music lost out, too, as did friends accustomed to tales delivered with a wry smile and rumbling chuckle.

Not to get too preachy, but you can read Erik's life as a book on how to fight for your causes and have a good time doing it without needing to leave your opponent gut-shot by the side of the road. 

Yeah, news and politics always made rough sport here, but then you salved your sprains and repaired to the bar to discuss events in detail, with respect and off the record.

These days power brokers keep their spin specialists on short leashes, and woe be to he or she seen chatting with a reporter after hours in some dark roadhouse with Murph on the jukebox.  

If Erik were just starting out, he'd be a tough fit for the way the game is now played.

No telling where the Ozone Ranger would go, but there would be music and probably lettuce in the air.

By Karl Moffatt

I was just a wise ass, city boy, enrolled at New Mexico State University’s School of Journalism when I first met Erik Ness back in the late 1980s.

The Albuquerque Journal had a bureau then in Las Cruces manned by longtime, longhaired, southern New Mexican newsman, Bill Diven, and his hapless photographer called “Feckless.”

For some reason which is only now fully apparent, Diven had thought it might be entertaining to hire away the industrious cop reporter from the university’s student newspaper to fill his editorial intern position that summer.

Up until then the J-School had fed him a steady diet of great looking but uninspired co-eds to fill the position and he was looking for a little more news production to ease his worried mind.

Back then the Journal was a respected, statewide paper that had guys like Fritz Thompson and Richard Pipes roaming the state looking for news and photos from the back roads of New Mexico.

Now the Journal doesn’t even deliver to most of those places.

But I’d been hired then for $10 an hour at 20-hours a week to do Diven’s bidding which included writing stories for, of all things, the Farm and Ranch page that ran in the Journal’s Sunday edition.

The page was dedicated to coverage of the state’s agriculture industry and was appropriately assigned to the Las Cruces bureau as NMSU was home to the agriculture college and the state department of agriculture too.

So Diven promptly dispatched me to the Farm and Livestock Bureau’s nearby, downtown, office to touch bases with the state agricultural industry’s chief spokesman, Erik Ness.

I walked over under the glaring summer sun and blistering heat and found the town’s most passionate and highly vocal animal rights activist carrying a protest sign and parading up and down the sidewalk in front of the Farm Bureau’s office.

As I stood talking to him and scribbling in my new reporters’ notebook, Ness emerged from the building carrying a couple of cans of cold Coke.

He came up and jovially introduced himself while offering a can to each of us.

Naturally it wouldn’t have been polite to turn down such a generous and refreshing offer so we both grabbed a Coke and knocked them back as Ness stood and grinned.

Ness then draped an arm across my shoulder and steered me towards his air conditioned office while the protester yelled in my wake to “beware” of the Farm Bureau’s “Minister of Propaganda.”

And with that I was introduced to one of the most interesting, influential and memorable characters of my journalism career.

Ness offered me all the background I needed to effectively cover the industry, made introductions to all the best sources and rarely asked to go off the record when speaking to me.

Ness was a pro at explaining the ag industry’s position and then telling you what the opposition’s was and who to talk to get it.

And then he always made sure to suggest a crucial question to ask them.

The media is always being manipulated in this way as they search for the truth but what I respected about Ness was that while he might have steered me in the right direction he never tried to take over the wheel.

Many times it was Ness who provided me the lead that led to an unflattering story about the industry.

Ness was a news man who put out his own highly informative newspaper under the Farm Bureau banner.

It was chock full of good stuff and frequently featured cover illustrations by his father, Carl, who was a wonderful artist whose work truly captured the spirit of the state.

Ness was also an avid radio and film man who cranked out one piece after another from his basement studio at the Farm Bureau.

And his stuff earned him one ward after another from his peers.

Here's an example of his work that shows why he earned so much respect from other journalists. Click on the play button in the video box to hear  Ness's smooth delivery of the facts of this court case http://www.krqe.com/dpp/search/commentary-helena-chemical-lawsuit.

But it seemed one of his favorites of all time was the tongue in cheek short film he did called the “Adventures of Broke Truck Mountain” that was shown at the 2007 White Sands Film Festival in Alamogordo.

It was hilarious according to him and I’m sad to say I never got to see it.

Hopefully someone will resurrect it and post it to YouTube for all of us to enjoy.

Ness was an all around pro who could do it all and the state and national agricultural industry lost an incredibly talented, tireless advocate for their cause with his retirement and premature passing.

I was told Ness wrote his own obit. It highlights many of the accomplishments he was most proud of having achieved in his career and can be seen at http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lcsun-news/obituary.aspx?n=erick-ness&pid=157650090.

But what it doesn’t mention is what only those who knew him can, that he was a wickedly funny man with a deep, dark talent for political shenanigans.

When I graduated from NMSU and had moved up to Santa Fe to further my journalism career I looked forward to each year’s legislative session because I knew Ness would be in town for the annual Ag Fest.

I would slip into the crowded event and there among throngs of legislators and agricultural industry members I’d find Ness and we’d get together after the show to spend some time getting caught up.

There was always talk about this political campaign he’d worked on or that political issue he taken an interest in and I remember how he proud he was at helping deliver the state to Republican President George W. Bush for his second term in 2004.

It was mud in the face of Democratic Governor Bill Richardson face and Ness particularly relished that.

But it was back in Las Cruces when I first got to know Ness that I gained some real sense of his political cunning.

We both lived in the same neighborhood and I would stop by his apartment every now and then to share a few beers and talk shop.

I recall how during one visit he tossed me a copy of the Las Cruces Sun News and pointed out a particular letter to the editor signed by Ramirez Sanchez.

Then he’d laughed slyly and make fun of the newspaper for not catching on that those letters were penned by him using the real name of the infamous terrorist “Carlos the Jackal.”

He even once told me during one of our happy hours that he had just turned down a job with the CIA.

They had way too many rules and regulations for his style.

I couldn’t get a confirmation or denial on that story but many times I would leave his apartment thinking he had been blowing smoke up my pantalones about one thing or another.

Only later I would discover on my own that he wasn’t.

Ness turned me on to rural New Mexico, always suggesting the best back roads to take and the better places to eat in various towns across the state.

And it was from Ness that I developed an ear for country music and my bizarre knack for making up my own lyrics to sing along to while tooling down some lonely, country road.

Now I know why they listen to so much country music in rural New Mexico.

It’s because that’s all you can find on the radio.

And it was Ness who gave me the insight about how a good flack operates. And that has served me well in my career and as a citizen of this great state.

So when I learned of his illness, I was shocked, he never let on.

I searched my memory for details from the last time we met.

It must have been at the 2010 AG Fest where he sadly lamented how the good old days where gone under the bureau’s new leadership and perhaps it was time for him to go.

He retired a short time later and we talked off and on after that.

Ness always made sure I got his latest press release that he’d done for the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.

You could tell he was figuring out what to do next and you just knew whatever it was that it would be great.

But he was taken from us way too soon and by the time I learned of his illness it was too late to personally say goodbye.

But on a windswept plain recently, under threatening clouds with a herd of cows milling about, I found myself talking to a rancher by the side of a rural dirt road.

And when Ness’ name came up I pulled a couple of cans of Coors from my cooler and we toasted and spoke fondly of him.

And in the end I figure that’s exactly what he would have wanted from me.

                   

Star Gazing Best at Clayton Lake State Park

The road to Clayton Lake State park.

If you’re looking to see stars, then forget Santa Fe’s Plaza and get out to Clayton Lake State Park where they throw parties for them all the time.

Boasting some of the best star-gazing conditions in the country the park is only one of four worldwide that is officially recognized for its incredibly dark skies.

“The conditions there are top notch,” says Scott Kardel, Director of Public Affairs for the International Dark Sky Association. “That puts them in a very exclusive club”

The Association bestowed its top honor upon the park in June 2010 for its efforts to preserve the dark skies, reduce surrounding light pollution and provide educational programs.

Photo courtesy of  Bosela & MorgueFile.

And that recognition couldn't have come without the support and assistance of the local community, says Peter Lipscomb, former Director of the New Mexico Heritage Alliance’s Dark Sky Program and now a Regional Interpretive Ranger for NM State Parks.

“It’s a real feather in their cap,” Lipscomb says of the 3,000 residents of Clayton and those of surrounding Union County who passed light pollution ordinances to help preserve the area’s dark skies.”That shows you just how supportive they are of that observatory.”

The state park is located about 12 miles outside of the neat, little town of Clayton where cattle ranching on the surrounding plains remains king and the cowboys are for real.

On the eastern plains of New Mexico cattle ranches dot the endless landscape.  

Charles Jordan, 51, has been manager of the park out on the plains for the last 19 years and he says the observatory is a great asset made all that much greater because of the volunteers from the local astronomy club.

“They’re a great group of people and we just couldn’t do it without them,” Jordan says.

Clayton State park Manager, Charles Jordan, shows off the park observatory's 12-inch Meade computer operated telescope. 

The club hosts regularly scheduled star parties each month on the first Friday of the new moon cycle while also providing impromptu parties for visitors when the park has plenty of overnight visitors.

Hundreds of local school children of all grades have also visited the observatory under a “No Child Left Inside” initiative between the park and local school district.

And numerous scouting groups, astronomy clubs and campers have all enjoyed the benefits of the observatory, says Art Grine, 49, president of the Clayton Astronomy Club and the town barber.

“We’ve got people coming from all over the country to do astronomy here now,” he says. “And we’ve all come to appreciate just how special our night skies really are.”

Pronghorn can frequently be seen roaming the plains of eastern New Mexico. 

Grine notes how great it is to see a young kid gush upon seeing the rings of Saturn through a telescope for the first time.

“It’s totally awesome to see,” he says.

It was the same for him when he first went out to the park on a field trip with his son and his junior high school class many years ago and saw Saturn through a telescope for the first time.

And now he’s the astronomy club’s president.

The park’s $75,000 Star Point Observatory opened in June 2006 and features a 12x16-foot building with a retractable roof that houses a 12-inch, computer operated telescope and remote television monitor which allows for group viewing.

The telescope and monitor is powered by a solar charged battery system.

The club also has several additional 8-inch telescopes that its volunteers set up on concrete pads outside the building which allows other guests to observe selected targets in the night sky too.

The Clayton Lake State Park observatory.

The observatory is NM State Park’s second to be constructed with the first having gone up several years earlier at City of the Rocks State Park in the southwestern corner of the state, according to Dave Gatterman, Bureau Chief of Design and Development for the state agency.

The agency would like to construct two more when finances become available, one in the northwest corner of the state at Heron Lake State Park and another at a yet to be determined location in the southeast quadrant of the state, Gatterman says.

Clayton Lake State Park and the local astronomy club will also entertain private groups. Anyone interested in making use of the observatory, camp sites or group shelters at the park can contact them by phone at 575-374-8808 or by email at charles.jordan@state.nm.us.

In addition to the observatory, the park is well known among anglers for producing record sized walleye as well as good sized bass, trout and bluefish.

The lake currently holds the state record for a walleye caught in 1989 by G.L. Peppers that weighed in at 16-lbs and 9-oz and measured over 32-inches in length.

Former NM Dept. of Game and Fish Conservation Officer, Kelly Dobbs, shows off a record breaking walleye discovered in Clayton lake State Park in 2010.

The park also enjoys a good reputation among bird and wildlife watchers and those interested in paleontology as a large set of dinosaur tracks were found and are now preserved in the earth that forms the dam’s spillway.

The park also features a new visitors’ center constructed of straw bale and recycled steel beams and while utilizing the latest in green energy techniques.

The visitor center also features an interpretive display inside which highlights the park and surrounding area’s history and other interesting information.

Clayton Lake State Park's state of the art, environmentally friendly, visitors center.

The park boasts over 30 campsites equipped with shelters, picnic table and fire rings.

There are seven sites with electric and water hookups and two large group shelters.

Showers are available inside the main restroom while numerous vault toilets are located throughout the park.

The park’s boat ramp is currently closed due to low water levels because of the ongoing drought but fishing from the bank is easy and good.

A ranger lives on site to help maintain the park’s family friendly atmosphere and camping this time of year is especially enjoyable with warm days, cool nights and only light breezes.

Clayton Lake State Park features great fishing and camping, fabulous scenery and spectacular night skies.

The park will also host its 12th annual Trout Derby the weekend of June 9 and 10th featuring a grand prize of a fully equipped fishing boat in addition to cash prizes for top catches.

Door prizes will be given away all weekend long too and there will be a hotdog eating contest, childrens’ sand dig and a horseshoe pitching contest.

The annual event attracts about 5,000 visitors and is fast becoming one of New Mexico’s best homegrown attractions.

For more information about the fishing derby contact the park or the Clayton Chamber of Commerce at 575-374-9253 or on their website at http://www.claytonnewmexico.org

If You Go: Take I-25 through Las Vegas and turnoff at Wagon Mound onto NM 120. Follow through Roy and continue on this remote and lonely stretch of two lane blacktop to the intersection of US 56. Head east on US 56 to Clayton. Take NM 370 north out of town to the turnoff to Clayton Lake State Park. About 250 miles one way.

NM 120 between Roy and the intersection of US 56.