Volunteers help seedlings take root as New Mexico attempts to recover from historic wildfire

A small team of volunteers spent a few hours scrambling across fire-ravaged mountainsides, planting hundreds of seedlings as part of a monumental recovery effort that has been ongoing following the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history.

The Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon blaze was spawned in 2022 by a pair of botched prescribed burns that federal forest managers intended to lessen the threat of catastrophic fire in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Instead, large swaths of northern New Mexico were reduced to ash and rural communities were upended.

It rained overnight, making for perfect conditions for the volunteers in the mountains near the community of Mora. It was just enough to soften the ground for the group's shovels on Saturday.

“The planting was so easy that we got done a little early and ran out of trees to plant that day. So it was a good day,” said David Hernandez, a stewardship ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, which is partnering with the Hermit's Peak Watershed Alliance on the project.

Nearly 400 ponderosa pine seedlings were placed in spots identified by the U.S. Forest Service as high priorities, given the severity of the burn. Those locations are mostly areas where not a single live tree was left standing.

It's here where land managers, researchers and volunteers hope the seedlings will form islands of trees that can help regenerate more trees by producing their own seeds over time.

The Nature Conservancy used donations to purchase a total of 5,000 seedlings. New Mexico Highlands University is contributing another 3,500 seedlings.

The trees will be monitored to gauge success.

Researchers at New Mexico State University's Forestry Research Center in Mora are experimenting with drought-hardening some seedlings to prepare them for the warmer and drier conditions they could face when they put down roots in burn scars. That means the plants are watered less frequently to make them more drought tolerant.

Owen Burney, the center's director, said his team has yet to scale up the number of drought-conditioned seedlings, but more will be ready to plant in the spring.

The Hermit's Peak Watershed Alliance team was on its way up the mountain again Monday to do more work. They will continue daily through early October, with a couple more weekend planting sessions for interested volunteers.

The goal is to get the seedlings in the ground before the first freeze.

There have been days when 20 volunteers have been able to plant around 1,000 trees, said Joseph Casedy, who works with alliance.

“It's strength in numbers,” he said, acknowledging that repeatedly bending down to drop the trees into their holes before compacting the surrounding soil can be fatiguing work.

Burney, Hernandez and others say there's a need to bolster the infrastructure required to develop seed banks, grow seedlings and do post-fire planting as wildfires have decimated large swaths of the U.S.

This year alone, more than 11,460 square miles (29,681 square kilometers) have been charred, outpacing the 10-year average. The National Interagency Fire Center also notes that there have been delays in reporting actual acreage burned given the “very high tempo and scale” of fire activity across the nation over recent months.

In northern New Mexico, reseeding started soon after the flames were dying down in 2022 as crews began working on mitigating erosion and flood damage within a burn scar that spanned more than 534 square miles (1,383 square kilometers) across three counties. In the first phase, federal agencies were able to seed about 36 square miles (93 square kilometers) and spread mulch over thousands of acres more.

In the last two years, tens of thousands of more acres have been seeded and mulched, and sediment catchments, earthen diversions and other flood control structures have been built at countless sites. Still, runoff from heavy storms the last two summers have resulted in damage.

There are certainly patches of ground that aren't taking seed because they were burned so severely, and Casedy said it will take more time and funding to address problems in those areas. But he said other spots are bouncing back, providing some hope.

“Ground cover is looking a lot better this year,” he said. "At the place I'm standing right now, there's 10-foot-tall aspens coming in."

In this photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, volunteer Star Ford takes a break from planting seedlings to admiring birds perched on a tree as volunteers work on a restoration project within the burn scar of the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire near Mora, N.M., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

In this photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, Crystal K. Western Ford prepares to plant a seedling during a restoration project on the burn scar left by the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire near Mora, N.M., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

In this photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, Annie Topal plants a seedling during a restoration project on the burn scar left by the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire near Mora, N.M., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

In this photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, Joseph Casedy with the Hermit's Peak Watershed Alliance takes a break after planting seedlings on the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire burn scar near Mora, N.M., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

In this photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, swaths of trees that were burned by the 2022 Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon wildfire near Mora, N.M., are seen on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

In this photo provided by the The Nature Conservancy, volunteers and members of the Hermit's Peak Watershed Alliance plant seedlings on the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire burn scar near Mora, N.M., Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. Pictured is Estevan Gonzales, left, giving instructions to volunteers Crystal K. Western Ford, center, and Star Ford. (Roberto E. Rosales/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.

Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming.

The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which federal prosecutors argued that Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong” and ordered him to stay behind bars.

The latest details were meant to bolster the Justice Department's contention that the 58-year-old suspect had engaged in a premeditated plan to kill Trump, a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing and then opened fire in Routh's direction.

The note describing Routh's plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday's arrest, prosecutors said.

The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department's detention memo and was described only as a “civilian witness.”

One note Routh left, addressed “Dear World,” appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.

The letter offers “substantial evidence of his intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said in court Monday.

"That's the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident” he said.

In a statement, Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”

Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But Dispoto said in court Monday that prosecutors would pursue additional charges before a grand jury accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.

It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.

Trump also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in prosecuting this case since, under the supervision of a special counsel, it is simultaneously pursuing cases charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He signaled support for a separate state-level criminal investigation announced last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday's hearing for Routh to be permitted to live with his sister in Greensboro, N.C., as the case moves forward. She argued that prosecutors had failed to show that he was a threat to the community and noted his track record of habitually showing up for court appearance throughout decades of legal troubles.

Besides the note, prosecutors also cited cellphone records indicating that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between August 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.

He was arrested on September 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man's face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him.

The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain link fence.

The FBI has previously said Routh had camped outside the golf course for 12 hours before his arrest. The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.

The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.

In addition, the detention memo cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump's approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.

Tucker and Durkin Richer reported from Washington.

Department of Homeland Security officers patrol outside the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump, will be attending a hearing, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Feds: Man accused in apparent assassination attempt wrote note indicating he intended to kill Trump

Feds: Man accused in apparent assassination attempt wrote note indicating he intended to kill Trump

This photo provided by Hédi Aouidj shows Ryan Routh, a suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, in Maidan, Ukraine on April 10, 2024. (Hédi Aouidj via AP)