A New Constellation
IN TERRI ROLLAND'S PAINTINGS, familiar features are pared back to their essential elements. A pale green shape resembles an adobe wall against a black background, while a blue rectangle cutout becomes…
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Small-Town Spirits in Mountainair
KAREN ARGEANAS WALKS THROUGH the old mission church at Abó, one of three parts of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (along with Quarai and Gran Quivira), outside the town of Mountainair…
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Tips for Cutting A Christmas Tree
Above: Use these tips before heading out into the forest. Photograph by Raychel Sanner/Unspash. Get a permit National Forest Service offices sell permits online to cut Christmas trees for $5–$20. The…
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Bring the Forest Home for the Holidays
Above: Make this festive activity a new holiday tradition. Illustration by Chris Philpot. EACH DECEMBER since their now-teenage girls were three and six years old, Jennifer Lindline and her husband…
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Monumental Effort
"LET'S GO RIDE SOME DITCHES," Matt Mason says. We pedal through downtown Las Cruces and quickly turn off the pavement onto a dirt path alongside a dry irrigation ditch. For a few minutes I wonder if…
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In Search of Bigfoot
Above: Jesus Payan Jr. seeks the notoriously shy beast in a forest near Cloudcroft. FOR YEARS, JESUS PAYAN JR. SPENT LONG NIGHTS in the Tularosa Basin, peering into the darkest corners of the desert…
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Here's How Leaves Get Their Fall Colors
Leaves contain yellow and red pigments all summer, but only as the chlorophyll molecules break down do those colors become visible. Illustration by Chris Philpot. Fall Fade As days shorten in the fall…
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Moved by Nature
Catch a glimpse of "shimmering" Aspen along the Aspen Vista Trail in the Santa Fe National Forest. Photograph by Tira Howard. ASPEN LEAVES ATTACH TO BRANCHES with long stems, called petioles, that…
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See Fall Color Shimmer Across the Jemez Mountains
Pockets of fall color glimmer across the charred ridges of the Jemez Mountains. A FEW SLIM, BLACKENED PINE TREES—some now up to their waists in baby aspens—stand sentry on the ridgetops running off…
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Botanists Strive to Identify Every Plant at Gila Cliff Dwellings
Patrice Mutchnick inspects a leaf of dock (Rumex sp.) , a common riparian plant in Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. AS WILLIAM NORRIS AND RUSS KLEINMAN drive through the pink rhyolite-lined…
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