Today's News

Are you fascinated by the history of Los Alamos? On July 15 at 9 a.m., join Craig Martin for a one-mile hike along one of the original roads used during the Manhattan Project. Once traversed by Dr. Oppenheimer and General Groves, Anniversary Trail features remnants of Project Y and the Los Alamos Ranch School. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to walk the path of history.

Anniversary Trail encompasses the origins of Los Alamos. Retrace the steps of scientists, learn about the transportation of atomic materials, and identify the Los Alamos Ranch School’s Breakneck Trail.

The outing is expected to last an hour and a half, and space is limited to 20 participants. Register now to save a spot on this unforgettable historic journey.

 Craig Martin is the former Open Space Specialist for the County of Los Alamos.
He is a writer, musiciand and an avid hiker. His books include Los Alamos Place Names, Valle Grande, A History of the Baca Location No. 1 and 100 Hikes in New Mexico, all of which have helped preserve the history of the area and acquaint us with the importance of the landscape.
The Los Alamos Trails app is a result of his many years of exploring.

Want to learn more about the Hubble Telescope? On July 15 at 10 a.m., come to the Los Alamos Nature Center Planetarium for a presentation on one of NASA’s most ambitious experiments.

After watching NOVA: Invisible Universe Revealed, Dr. Rick Wallace will discuss the astronomical significance of the Hubble’s findings, including cosmic expansion and supermassive black holes.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to uncover the invisible mysteries of our Universe.

 Rick Wallace has a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of California at Santa Cruz (Lick Observatory), with concentration in numerical calculations of stellar explosions, nuclear fusion, and formation of the elements.

He has also served as a staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory for over 30 years.
 A reservation is required for this event, so please RSVP to Rose Poston at (505) 277-2396 or rposton@newmexicopbs.org.

Admission is free. For more information about this and other PEEC programs, visit peecnature.org, email programs@peecnature.org or call (505) 662-0460. This program runs from 10 a.m. to noon.
 

By Bob Hagan

Along the road from Reserve into the Gila National Forest, you drive for miles through a dismal landscape of blackened stumps, thousands of dead trees standing like a surreal forest of telephone poles.

Five years ago this summer, the Whitewater-Baldy Fire swept through more than 465 square miles of the Gila. Ignited by lightning strikes, fanned by high winds and fueled by a tinder-dry mixture of ponderosa, piñon and juniper, the conflagration defied the efforts of more than 1,200 firefighters for more than a month before it was finally brought under control.

It was New Mexico’s worst wildfire, so far. Counting the loss of timber, damage to watersheds and ongoing stabilization and burned area rehabilitation work, the final bill was around $100 million.

The good news is that nature is stubbornly resilient. While there are still ugly drifts of black ash in the gullies, there is green on the slopes. Fire, we are constantly reminded, is a necessary part of the forest ecosystem. But looking over the thousands of acres of charred logs littering the landscape, it’s worth asking whether we would not have been better off cutting those trees ourselves rather than waiting for nature to take its course.

As a couple of major developments in Los Alamos County’s power supply looms,  Department of Public Utilities officials will have a discussion with the public this week on the future of the county’s power supply.

DPU officials will be presenting details of a plan of what that future may look like during a townhall-style meeting at the White Rock Public Library on Wednesday.

“I want to stress that this is a plan, that these are just recommendations. This is not something that the Board (of Public Utilities) and County Council actually adopt,” Utilities Manager Tim Glasco said. “This is just advice from experts to help us use that information for making decisions in the future on what resources we’re going to buy and and how we’re going to run things.”

The pending retirement of power plants in DPU’s supply chain that no longer keep up with the market, the uncertain viability of new nuclear technology and the uncertain future of an energy agreement between the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the DPU are driving factors behind the report.