By Megan Gleason
While people in Mora County continue to recuperate from the state’s largest wildfire and ongoing floods, the General Election looms. Officials’ disaster-recovery efforts are fresh on people’s minds as early voting starts up in October.
After the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire tore through northern New México, candidates’ positions on the environment and how to secure aid for the region are key.
A warming atmosphere
The massive wildfire that burned essentially in Dr. Fiona Sinclair’s backyard is just one example of the urgency and significance of global warming — and the devastation that can happen when officials ignore it.
Sinclair said although the U.S. Forest Service started the two prescribed burns that became the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, climate change is really what caused it. Mora County residents said the feds were ignoring the dire conditions when they started the fires, resulting in disaster.
“Really, at the government level, they should be aware of climate change, and that they lit a fire in the spring during an unprecedented drought is just kind of shocking,” said a group of Mora County residents.
But people aren’t talking about it enough or connecting the northern fire to global warming and its impacts, Sinclair said.
Climate change has contributed to rising temperatures in the southwest for decades, leading to the historic drought that the region is experiencing. And with less water available, wildfires are a bigger risk, likely to burn more often and hotter, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The conversation needs to start happening in relationship to this fire, because it’s not,” Sinclair said. “And the problem is there’s a lot of ignorance in northern New México, a lot of ignorance around climate.”
The globe is getting warmer, and it needs to be addressed by state and federal leaders, said the Mora County residents. In New Mexico, at least Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is talking about climate change, Sinclair added, as opposed to silence from her Republican opponent, former meteorologist Mark Ronchetti.
“The conversation needs to start happening in relationship to this fire, because it’s not. And the problem is there’s a lot of ignorance in northern New México, a lot of ignorance around climate.”
Dr. Fiona Sinclair, New Mexico Resident
Not everyone believes human-caused climate change is actually happening, though, despite scientific evidence backing it up. Collins Lake Ranch owner Steve Smaby said he can understand why people are skeptical.
“It’s the type of thing that you don’t see,” Smaby said. “It’s not like when you go to McDonald’s and you order a hamburger: ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s $11 now versus $10.’ And you see that immediately, versus: ‘Oh, today is one-tenth of a degree hotter than what it would have been otherwise.’”
But it’s something that needs to be taken seriously, Smaby said. He said he thinks more people are starting to believe it’s real, which will affect their votes in the coming election.
But no matter who comes into office, Sinclair said, they won’t do enough. Even Lujan Grisham will keep drilling for oil and gas, said the Mora County residents, in order to make money for the state. The oil and gas industry usually generates over $2 billion annually for New Mexico, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. It makes up around 25% to 30% of the state’s general fund most years.
The industry contributes hugely to New Mexico’s outsized carbon emissions, though. It generated 60 million metric tons of greenhouse emissions in 2018, over half of the state’s total emissions, according to the N.M. Climate Change Task Force. The 2020 report said New Mexico more than doubles the national average of greenhouse gas emissions per capita.
“For me, we’re totally screwed. There’s no hope at this point,” Sinclair said.
Jordan Minkin, a friend of Sinclair and Smaby, said although the Democrats are trying to find solutions to climate issues through green policies and the Republicans are trying to boost oil and gas extraction to get out of an energy crisis, neither party seems to have the answer.
“For me, the problem is none of them protect nature or the wilderness just as it is,” Minkin said. “We have a way of commodifying it.”
How officials handled relief, recovery
Another issue that stands out for many, is how elected officials handled wildfire response and recovery, and whether they did enough to help people — if they did anything at all.
Contractor Jake Lovato criticized the lack of real help for Mora County, one of the poorest in New México. He said the wealthier Los Alamos County that was hit by the Cerro Grande fire in 2000 received much better treatment from the federal government than the people of Mora 22 years later.
“I’m seeing poor people are not getting any help,” Lovato said.
Minkin said a lot of state and federal agencies are coming into the county and holding meetings for aid, but it feels like there’s not enough money coming down or disaster protections for individuals. He pointed to the many driveways that are washed out from flooding and the debris that’s been building up on private land for months in Mora County.
“As far as government goes—on a local, state and federal level—it fell apart,” Minkin said. “I think mostly lip service is given to the community.”
Lovato’s wife Anita is trying to go through all of the different state and federal aid applications to find recovery help for their charred land, and voiced frustration at how muddled the whole process is. She said state and federal government organizations and officials need to make getting help less difficult.
“I’d express to them: help the people, and make it easy for them,” she said.
On a local level, a few officials stood out positively. Minkin said he thought Mora County Undersheriff Americk Padilla had good communication and evacuation protocols during the disaster, and Sinclair said Mora County Commissioner Veronica Serna was the only commissioner that stuck around to do disaster recovery work.
But overall, many said there aren’t enough officials to cover all of Mora County, and the officials they do have, don’t wield enough power to make a difference. A lot of the residents are still looking to the state or feds for more substantial help, even if they’re not feeling hopeful about it.
Finding the time to vote
Veronica Serna is running for reelection as Mora County Commissioner. But she doesn’t know if people will even have the time to vote. Many are so busy trying to recover, she said, they may be less likely to head to the polls.
“We’re hoping they do,” Serna said. “But you know what? Their life comes first, their livelihood. So it’s understandable.”
Megan Gleason is a Reporting Fellow with Source New Mexico. This article is republished from Source New Mexico under a Creative Commons license.
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