Each spring, homeowners in Calaveras County, Calif., can be seen outside their mountain cabins engaging in a familiar ritual: raking up masses of pine needles and stuffing them into yard-clipping disposal bins.

On a late June afternoon, 18 mile-per-hour winds whistle across an open meadow on a small piece of private land in the Jemez Mountains. In the saddle between two pine-covered ridges at the edge of the property, an aspen tree teeters over onto the bare wire of an electrical pole, causing a spark. Over the next 14 hours, the resulting fire burns 43,000 acres, or one acre every 1.17 seconds. It devours areas the size of a football field in (literally) two seconds. In a little over a month, it has spread through 156,000 acres and incinerated 63 homes.

Don’t believe in climate change? Congratulations. But this isn’t the Rapture. Whether you believe or not, you’re coming along for the ride. This means that, if you live in New Mexico, you’re going to experience higher temperatures, worsening drought conditions, conifer forest die-offs and variable precipitation.

  

As Los Alamos National Laboratory waits for a final Congressional budget to give it the go-ahead to construct a controversial plutonium pit manufacturing facility, developments last week gave a rare window into the notoriously secretive lab.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is doubling down on a project that helps create a controversial, highly reactive new fuel used in nuclear power plants.

Northern New Mexico suffered many losses after the Las Conchas fire engulfed 150,000 acres this summer.

SFR's Weekly Matrix

Santa Fe contractor Debbie Shapiro recently helped clients insulate an attic and install water catchment gutters to increase their home’s energy efficiency.