NEW MEXICO

‘Oppenheimer’ fuels likely record visits to atomic site

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE – Visitors lined up on Oct. 21 to tour the southern New Mexico site, where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated, in what officials believe could be a record turnout amid ongoing fanfare surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film, “Oppenheimer.”

Thousands of visitors were expected at the Trinity Site, a designated National Historic Landmark that’s usually closed to the public because of its proximity to the impact zone for missiles fired at White Sands Missile Range. But twice a year, in April and October, the site opens to spectators. No attendance numbers were immediately available. In a social media post, the missile range said vehicles were lined up for more than 2 miles at the site before the tours started.

White Sands officials warned online that the wait to enter the gates could be as long as two hours.

“Oppenheimer,” the retelling of the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II, was a summer box office smash. Scientists and military officials established a secret city in Los Alamos during the 1940s and tested their work at the Trinity Site some 200 miles away.

Part of the film’s success was due to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon in which filmgoers made a double feature outing of the “Barbie” movie and “Oppenheimer.”

The notoriety from “Oppenheimer” has been embraced in Los Alamos, more than 200 miles north of the Tularosa Basin. About 200 locals, many of them Los Alamos National Laboratory employees, were extras in the film, and the city hosted an Oppenheimer Festival in July.

Researchers study how noise, light harm songbirds in oil fields

SANTA FE – A California research team is conducting a five-year ecological study of six songbird species in northwestern New Mexico oil fields to see how sensory intrusions affect the birds’ survival, reproduction and general health.

The Santa Fe New Mexican says the study by avian researchers from California Polytechnic State University will zero in on the specific impacts of noise and light pollution.

As the human population swells and generates more light and sound, researchers are curious about how those multiplying stressors might compound the challenges of climate change in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, the newspaper reported.

Clint Francis, an ecology professor at California Polytechnic, said early studies that examined whether excessive noise and light decreased bird populations were done in more urban settings, where the birds were threatened by prowling cats, toxic chemicals and speeding cars.

He did such research in this same northwestern New Mexico region in 2005. This time the aim is to observe how the two together affect the birds in a locale where the conditions can be clearly measured in tandem.

The research will focus on six types of songbirds: ash-throated flycatchers, gray flycatchers, mountain bluebirds, Western bluebirds, chipping sparrows and house finches.

The study is being funded by a grant of almost $900,000 from the National Science Foundation.

WYOMING

Committee supports additional funding for K-12 schools

CHEYENNE – The fiscal impacts of a pandemic that struck society over three years ago is still felt by Wyoming K-12 school districts, where schools struggle to afford inflated costs of educational materials and retain teachers.

School district leaders and state organizations, such as the Wyoming Education Association, urged lawmakers to advance a recommended $68 million external cost adjustment on Oct. 25. The adjustment, meant to relieve school districts of the costs of inflation, was moved forward by members of the Joint Appropriations Committee during their meeting that day.

Inflationary costs for educational materials and energy are based off of national indices, said Matt Willmarth, senior school finance analyst for the Legislative Service Office. Personnel costs are reflected off the pay of workers comparable to public education teachers in Wyoming.

Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, pointed out that nearly 22% of the ECA recommendation was for educational materials, which is almost 20 percentage points higher than the ECA recommendation in the 2019-20 school year.

Willmarth said this was a result of the “COVID hangover” from inflated costs during the pandemic, where educational materials still felt the brunt of inflation.

Laramie County School District 1 has seen higher costs for custodial supplies, office and classroom furniture and paper, said Jed Cicarelli, the district’s chief finance officer. The cost of ice melt and other cleaning supplies has gone up by 16% or more over the last two years, he said.

OKLAHOMA

Poultry companies ask judge to toss watershed pollution ruling

A group of poultry producers, including the world’s largest, have asked a federal judge to dismiss his ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed.

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. and the others say in a motion filed Oct. 26 in Tulsa that evidence in the case is now more than 13 years old.

The filing said Oklahoma conservation officials have noted a steady decline in pollution. It credited improved wastewater treatment plants, state laws requiring poultry-litter management plans and fewer poultry farms as a result of growing metropolitan areas in northwest Arkansas.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell ruled in January that the companies were responsible for pollution of the Illinois River Watershed by disposing of chicken litter, or manure, that leached into the river.

The trial in the lawsuit that was filed in 2005 by the state of Oklahoma had ended in 2013 with no ruling for 10 years. In January, Frizzell issued his decision without addressing the reason for the decade-long delay.

Frizzell had ordered the poultry companies and the state to reach an agreement on how to remedy the effects of the pollution.

Attorneys for the companies and the state attorney general each said the new filings that mediation had failed.

The other defendants named in the lawsuit are Cal-Maine Foods Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George’s Inc., George’s Farms Inc., Peterson Farms Inc. and Simmons Foods Inc.

ARIZONA

Hot summer blamed for golf course’s hungry, hungry javelinas

SEDONA – Operators of a northern Arizona golf course think they have finally found the right repellent for javelinas ripping apart their turf – chili oil.

“Even though they’re Southwest animals, they don’t like Southwest seasoning,” Dave Bisbee, general manager at Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona, said on Oct. 24.

This is not the first autumn the golf course has been targeted by foraging javelinas. Bisbee said it’s occurred several times over the years, but the amount of damage he saw is rare.

The hotter than normal summer felt in various regions of Arizona is likely what has driven the pig-like peccary to take big bites out of the golf course.

The club has been working with the Arizona Game & Fish Department to “figure out a way to co-exist with them.” A herd of javelinas, also called a squadron, is typically made up of six to nine, according to the National Park Service.

Bisbee said he was told by wildlife officials the golf course has anywhere from 30 to 50 squadrons.

A similar situation happened five years ago after a particularly hot, dry summer, Bisbee recalled. That time, the club tried granules of coyote urine. That made things worse.

“It was like putting bacon bits in their salad,” he said.

For now, chili oil seems to be the most effective. The golf club, which has a restaurant, has been working with suppliers to get a concentrate to make a spray. They thought it will help until the temperatures cool down in November, which should prompt javelinas to look elsewhere.