Despite the cold and the shortened days here in New Mexico, I’ve managed to get out to the field a couple times to do some scouting for next field season. I ventured out with a range tech and a wildlife biologist to the far eastern part of the district to a solitary 40 acre parcel of BLM in a sea of private land, called Turkey Canyon. The entire parcel was nearly pristine, and we saw signs of cougar, bear, elk and mule deer. The entire area showed great promise for seed collection next fall with Bouteloua gracilis, Bouteloua hirsuta, and Lycurus phleoides to name a few.There’s a lot of history on the land.It was once a pre-historic sea, and then three-toed dinosaurs traversed the land, as evidenced in Clayton Lake State Park. We made a side trip to see the dinosaur tracks at the park. The town of Clayton (30 miles south of Turkey Canyon) is home to the New Mexico’s only lynching in the Clayton’s history (for good reason), which was a debacle apparently. I won’t go into detail, but I recommend reading about it. Let’s just say, that the waitress from our lunch in town told us to never rob a train in Clayton.