New Mexico Wine by Donna Blake Birchell

Author:Donna Blake Birchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

DROUGHT

New Mexico has some of the most diverse and beautiful landscapes in the country, but it is also subject to intense periods of drought, which lead to dry riverbeds, deep erosion, crop failure, famines and damaging dust storms. It is written that the drought years occur in “swarms” lasting from a couple of years to up to ten years at a time. In the 1500s, history shows that the pueblos farthest away from the Rio Grande, which had to rely totally on rainfall for crop irrigation, suffered greatly as the toll of the vast drought cycle took hold.

The first famine in recorded New Mexico history occurred between the years 1620 and 1629. It was during this time frame that the Apache were so distressed with their inability to find food that they brought their own children and captured slaves to the Pueblos to trade for food. By the summer of 1659, the Pueblos and Spaniards were forced to eat grass seeds, herbs, green barley, spinach and bran to survive.

The native people, who believed that weather was controlled by gods showing their displeasure with the people by forming a bad climate, were losing faith in the Christian religion they were being taught because of the drought. They believed the new God they were told about should be able to stop the drought. Because of this belief, the native people reverted back to their own rituals in hopes of changing the weather. This lack of trust also played a large role in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

One of the most severe droughts of the colonial period occurred between 1772 and 1785. People resorted to eating their shoes, saddles and cowhides—anything to provide protein. It was also during this period that smallpox spread rampantly through the region, killing 5,025 Pueblo Indians.

During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the trademark red dirt blown from the fields of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma could be found on the decks of ships hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast. Even the lowly rabbit, which could customarily survive without water for long periods of time, was dying of thirst and starvation.

Drought still plagues New Mexico. In the year 2011, a staggering 79 percent of New Mexico was affected by moderate to severe drought. According to the archives, 1956 was the only year that saw a worse drought season than 2011. During 2011, the beautiful Bandelier National Forest of northern New Mexico received only five inches of rain, which sadly led to the death of millions of acres of yellow pine, cedar and spruce trees. Other trees in the forest became victims to the invasion of beetles, which thrive in drought conditions.

Lightning storms, spawned by the low humidity of the drought in 2011, sparked wildfires in every wine region that came dangerously close to several of the state’s wineries. According to reports, most of the grape-growing regions of New Mexico receive between six and fifteen inches of rain annually with support from local irrigation aquifers, but with the drought conditions, they received significantly less.

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