Keiko Nishimoto

Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron, New Mexico

This summer I worked for Philmont Scout Ranch, a high adventure base operated by the Boy Scouts of America and located in the southern Rockies of New Mexico. Each summer, the ranch hosts 21,500 scouts who backpack for 5 days to 3 weeks at a time. During their treks in the backcountry, scouts participate in programs designed to stimulate personal growth and to teach them about conservation. Scouts are trained in the Leave No Trace ethic and practice low-impact camping while they are in the backcountry. Each group of scouts is required to participate in a three-hour conservation project at one of six locations on the ranch which is designed to teach them the importance of giving back and taking care of the land they use. In addition to the 137,000 acres that comprise Philmont, the ranch also has three staffed locations in an area of the Valle Vidal Unit of the Carson National Forest which adjoins the ranch. Philmont has been leasing this land since the early 1990’s, when a number of program itineraries were developed by Philmont’s logistical staff to incorporate hiking time within the national forest.
For my internship, I worked with one of the conservation projects. My project was located in the Valle Vidal, at Philmont’s Seally Canyon location. As part of the agreement between Philmont and the Carson National Forest that allows the Boy Scouts to use the land without monetary compensation, the scouts who hike through the Valle are required to complete their three hours of conservation within the national forest. The six Philmont staff located at my camp lived on federal land and worked with members of the Forest Service to designate projects for the scouts to work on. Each of us was also responsible for working with and supervising the scouts during their projects. Most of the groups we worked with spent about four days backpacking through the Valle Vidal.
Initially, I had planned to work with the fire rehabilitation effort that was started on the ranch after the Ponil Complex Fire of 2002 that heavily damaged areas of the Valle Vidal and northern Philmont. However, because we worked within the jurisdiction of the National Forest Service, our projects were chosen and supervised by Forest Service staff. Although the Valle projects in 2003 focused on fire rehabilitation, the Forest Service’s focus shifted this year to watershed management and erosion control, so I wound up working mostly with projects unrelated to the fires. In that sense, my original objective to study the fire rehabilitation methods at Philmont was not met. However, because we were directly responsible to the Forest Service and not to Philmont’s conservation department, I was able to work with Forest Service staff and to learn about the methods of and policies concerning conservation in the national forests. In this sense, I believe my summer was more productive than it might have been if I had worked exclusively with Philmont’s conservation department at a location on the ranch.
I am still uncertain about what aspects of environmental science I am most interested in, but I have a very specific interest in Philmont and the Valle Vidal and how the land there is used and cared for. I believe my internship was a fairly valuable educational experience because it gave me the opportunity to learn more about land management in the Carson National Forest. Working in the Valle, I became necessarily engaged in the politics governing land management there and in the rest of our national forests. Observing first hand how one area of a national forest is used has forced me to consider issues I had effectively ignored until the start of this summer. Because I could see what kinds of environmental impacts policies have had in the Valle, a number of discrepancies in the way the land is managed were brought to my attention, and it is one of these discrepancies that I would like to write about for my senior integrative project. Specifically, one of the focuses of the Valle since the land was given to the Bureau of Land Management by the Pennzoil Corporation in 1982 has been to protect the wildlife that lives there. However, the Valle is a multiple-use area, which means that among other things, the area is used for grazing and recreation and is leased by Philmont for use by the Boy Scouts. Now, proposals have been submitted for drilling in areas of the Valle, and there is no policy that protects wildlife against these plans.
My goal for the summer was to learn more about fire rehabilitation at Philmont and to focus my senior integrative project on the environmental soundness of Philmont’s policies. Since my internship dealt with something other than fire ecology, my idea for a project has changed significantly. My internship was most helpful in preparing me to do a senior integrative project in that it enabled me to focus my environmental interests enough to choose something specific to write about. Also, it provided me with the opportunity to experience first-hand the controversy surrounding the issue of drilling in the Valle, and to better understand why so many people feel it is vital to protect lands there.
For my senior integrative project, I am writing a paper about the policies governing land management in the National Forests. I will be writing about the National Forest system itself and the principle of multiple-use areas, then focus specifically on what policies will influence the proposed drilling in the Valle Vidal. It is a subject that has been surrounded by much controversy since the El Paso Corporation first submitted the proposal to drill for coal bed methane on 40,000 of the 100,000 acres of the Valle Vidal. Although the Valle Vidal is a multiple-use area, drilling could have major impacts on the ecology of the area and has attracted criticism from the public. I would like to produce a paper on not only the policies involved in the issues, but what kind of influence private companies and citizens can have on the decision-making process.