NM BHA Bootheel Fence Modification Event

In the age of social media, we sometimes loose site of the importance of human connections.  Our time gets used up liking posts and seeing who liked ours.  These connections are important, it’s how we inform large groups of individuals about public lands sales, or when the next stewardship event is.  But the real connections take place when we have human to human interactions.  BHA stewardship events are prime locations to build connections, and not just for the wildlife.  They attract people from a variety of backgrounds, demographics, locations, and interests, all with the shared intention of being public land stewards.  Social interactions are hard-wired into our human behavior, when they are lacking it significantly impacts our well-being.   Connections can be just as important to our mental health as exercise and a good diet.  During a BHA event, you witness this from the moment people arrive to the day they depart.  Old friendships are revived, and new ones sparked.  People are introduced to the power of public lands and how it feels to be a steward.  They gather around the fire to share a beer, walk the fence line removing wire, and share a meal and a story from the hunt.  As they improve connections for wildlife they are strengthening their human bond. It's a win-win situation.  

  

  

The focus of the Bootheel Stewardship events was to improve wildlife connectivity on BLM land around the Lordsburg area.  Cody Howard, a wildlife biologist with the Las Cruces BLM analyzed radio collar data that was collected by Lucas Begeman, a NMSU graduate student.  Lucas was looking at pronghorn movements and fence lines that posed the largest barrier to their movements.  Cody identified two sections of fence that needed modification, though they were inaccessible from the highway.  Ryan Olgilve, and longtime rancher in the area, gave us permission to drive through his ranch to access the BLM land.  Without his willingness to cooperate with us we might not have been able to modify this section of fencing. 

  

  

 

On Saturday February 21, 8 Las Cruces BLM staff, 3 BHA staff, and 15 volunteers crossed Ryan’s private ranch and walked the ¾ mile to the fence line.  Everyone spread out across the fence and started to remove the bottom barbed strand. The goal of the day was to remove this barbed strand and replace it with a smooth strand set at 18” off the ground.  This allows pronghorn to easily pass under the fence without getting caught or losing hair in the process.  The bottom strand was rolled up with the aid of a wire winder and the new strand stretched out every ¼ mile.  The crew broke for lunch and walked back to the truck where Jim Palmer had prepared a lunch of pulled pork BBQ sandwiches.  Fence Line BBQ was born.   In total the crew modified 1.25 miles of fence, improving habitat connectivity on ~7,500 acres of public land. 

  

  

At the end of the day everyone drove back to a private ranch on the Gila river where we were given permission by BHA member to camp.  An amazing wild game potluck of elk chile, mule deer red chili, bison and moose chorizo tacos, bacon wrapped elk nuggets, wild caught salmon, and elk chilindron was washed down with free beer from Santa Fe Brewing Company. 

 

On Sunday a group of 15 went to the Red Rock WMA facility to help mend fencing.  The Red Rock WMA is run by the NM Department of Wildlife, where they have a captive breeding population of desert bighorn sheep. They have the sheep in a 5,000 acre fenced in enclosure and trap and relocate sheep to new areas of NM. The manager needed help repairing fencing where javelina dig under and let mountain lions into the enclosure.  It was a great opportunity to see a unique part of wildlife management and lend a hand to the facility manager.

  

Rocky Talkie was nice enough to donate a pair of radios to giveaway to attendees.  We had a drawing, and the pair was won by a father and son from Holloman Air Force Base.  This was their first BHA event, and we hope to see them in the future. 

If this sounds like your idea of fun, then look at our BHA events page and sign up for a stewardship event in your area. Better yet, become a BHA Member and keep informed of everything we do to help protect and improve public lands,