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World Wetlands Day Heads SWEC events

World Wetlands Day celebrated at Bosque Park—Saturday, Feb. 6
The Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park in Mesilla is celebrating World Wetlands Day with a full day of tours and talks on Saturday, February 6, 8 am to 5 pm. There will be programs on birds, jaguars, archaeology, and insects, as well as kids activities. Hawks Aloft will give a live raptor presentation. The Southwest Environmental Center’s executive director (yours truly) will give the keynote talk about the origins of the park and the environmental history of the Rio Grande. See schedule <http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/PRD/Media%20Releases/documents/PR-ParksCelebrateWorldWetlandsDayFebruary6atMesillaValleyBosqueStatePark.pdf>  of events. For more information, call 575-523-4398.

Help us collect river stories
We need volunteers to help with the SWEC information table at the World Wetlands Day event. Besides talking to people about the importance of wetlands and SWEC’s efforts to restore habitat along the Rio Grande, we will also be collecting mini oral histories about the river. We’ll be asking visitors who are long-time residents to give us their one minute stories about what they remember about the river, how they used it, what it meant to them, and how they’ve seen it change in their lifetimes. We’ll capture their stories with a video camera for future posting to our website. SWEC did a river Oral History project more than a decade ago, and the stories were fascinating. This is an update and extension of that project.

Bring in 4 new SWEC members and receive a free Prius raffle ticket
The date for giving away a brand new 2010 Toyota Prius is rapidly approaching (April 22). We still have plenty of tickets left. We’re only selling 400 tickets at $100. If the ticket price seems steep, we have a deal for you. If you bring in 4 new members at the regular price of $30 or more before March 15, you will receive a free raffle ticket! This helps us increase our membership, and you might win a new car. What a win-win! New members are defined as individuals (including yourself) and households that have never been members before. (Businesses also count, but the minimum dues are $100.) Call 575-522-5552 for more info.

Heads up!—Field Hearing on Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks Wilderness Bill scheduled for 2/15
Conservationists have worked hard to get permanent wilderness protection for wild areas in Dona Ana County, NM. There is a bill under consideration in Congress. We are close to our goal, but things can still go south. We need large numbers of wilderness and wildlife supporters to show up at a Field Hearing on the bill on Monday, Feb. 15, at the Corbett Center, NMSU campus, 2:30 pm in Las Cruces.
See details at: http://bingaman.senate.gov/policy/organmtns_factsheet.pdf. Testimony from various witnesses will be taken, and committee members (Senators) will be able to ask questions. The hearing will be open to the public. This is an important moment in this campaign. It will draw extensive media coverage, offer a forum for both supporters and opponents to demonstrate their relative strength, and help determine if/when/how fast our wilderness legislation moves toward becoming law. Please try to attend.

Coming soon: Spring 2010 Back by Noon Outings
They’re back! We have been hard at work putting together the Spring 2010 schedule of guided Back by Noon Saturday morning natural history outings, beginning March 6. The new line up includes a mix of old and new, featuring more dates, new outings, and terrific guides. Stay tuned for details.

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