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Published: January 13th 2012
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Mesa Trail
A one mile trail that starts at the visitors center We have been at Sevilleta for a week now and feel right at home already. Our campsite is about 100 yards from the visitor center where we check in for work. We are officially part of the Fish and Wildlife section of the Department of the Interior. Ron gets to drive a big truck , not just a little golf cart, with an official logo.
Three of our work days have involved touring the refuge. The first tour was with Jeannine as she showed us the area called the wetlands along the Rio Grande River and the small town of Socorro - especially the post office and ACE hardware where we will be sent to pick up stuff. We than went to a different section of the refuge and hiked Lorenzo Canyon. This area was very reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah with hoodoos and red rock. There was still snow in the canyon from the storm that went through before Christmas.
Our second time out on the refuge was with Michael a retired professor who was the Dean of Lake Superior State College until 4 years ago. He is involved in monitoring the watering
Bread Loaf Mesa
On the way to Lorenzo Canyon areas on the refuge with trail cameras. Some of the typical animals to visit the watering areas are bear, mountain lion, elk, prong horn, coyote, oryx, mountain goat, eagles. We saw lots of foot prints but only glimpsed an oryx .
Our third trip out was when Jeannine wanted us to come along on a tour she was leading for the group, Friends of Sevilleta. We went to a whole different part of the refuge and visited the prairie dog village. This is a reintroduction project of this species to the refuge. The whole process of reintroduction was pretty interesting. First a group of prairie dogs are indentified that are at risk for habitat loss. They are captured by filling their burrows with foam and waiting for them to emerge. In the new site on the refuge a burrow has been constructed underground with tubing and a 15 gallon bucket. They are held in this burrow until they are acclimated. the prairie dogs have to be moved in family units so the chances of getting established are better. We may be involved in this if there is another round of reintroduction while we are here. Our tour group then
Ron and Jeannine
Jeannine is the volunteer coordinator and a terrific tour guide. hiked Pino Canyon which is a volcanic area and also has some petro glyphs.
Our other work so far has been to paint the kitchen area of the visitors center and do some seeding of an area by our campsite. We haven't seen the wolf area yet, but we did see the meat locker where their food is stored - road kill, and something called feed logs made from horsemeat.
This is an enormous refuge, 365 square miles, and we've only seen a small part of it so far. We're enjoying ourselves immensely - the getting up early part is not to bad so far. Another positive is that we now look forward to weekends! Remember what that was like, all you retirees?
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paulK
non-member comment
getting up early and weekends
Both of you have gone over to the dark side. If you agree now, I can schedule your exorcism at the best rates available. P