Carl Struck and Johanne Riddick

Vadito, N.M.

Taos SWCD

Carl Struck and Johanne Riddick are stewards of Spirit Hill, a small, certified family forest of approximately 40 acres at 8,500-foot elevation, located southeast of Peñasco, N.M. The old growth forest was cut around 1910 when a temporary narrow gauge rail spanned the length of the property to transport large saw logs from the surrounding forest to market. The second growth of Ponderosa pine was harvested sometime in the 1950s. In between and on either side of these two extractive events, the land was overgrazed with sheep and other livestock.

When Struck and Riddick first acquired the land in 1987, the poor collection of the forest soils was evident, but it took years before they understood the historical reasons leading to the depletion and erosion of carbon cycling nutrients and the excessive overstocking of saplings throughout the forest. In 1992, they reached out to the New Mexico Tree Farm System, and a Forest Stewardship Plan was generated with the help of the New Mexico State Forestry Division. This gave them the needed expertise and support to achieve numerous management goals over the years.

Like many new tree farmers, Struck and Riddick started by mechanically thinning the Ponderosa stand and piling the slash in open areas to rot, or in some cases burn, when conditions were favorable. Through observation and studying research data on the inherent interconnection of biological processes in Ponderosa forest habitat, the poor condition of the soil came into focus. They shifted their thinning activities to enhance support of the forest soil microorganisms and general biodiversity. The biggest change occurred when they purchased a small chipper in the spring of 2012, which enabled them to process the slash produced from the ongoing thinning. The resulting chips are scattered on bare mineral soil patches and are utilized for walking trails and mulch for their vegetable gardens and berry patches.

By increasing the contact interface between forest soil, duff and woody debris (chips), they are supporting soil microorganisms, especially mycelium (the plant part of mushrooms), and increasing recycled nutrients that would have otherwise been lost if burned. Through this practice, they now realize that underlying the Tree Farmer Motto of “Wood, Water, Recreation and Wildlife” is soil, which is necessary for the other four elements to thrive.

Another major forest management project was undertaken in 2010. After careful study and planning, Struck and Riddick constructed a one-third-acre wildlife pond utilizing the annual spring snowmelt. In many parts of the country, this would not be remarkable. However, in the arid southwest where “el aqua es la vida” (water is life), a year-round water source is transformative. They stocked the pond with minnows for mosquito control and grass carp for water weed control. Additionally, they installed a solar powered aerator to increase the water oxygen level since there is no constant influx of oxygenated water. When the 11’ – 12’ deep oasis was filled, an unintentional result was the creation of a micro-wetland, downslope of the embankment.

In the past 10 years, the intersection of the various new and old habitats has led to visible increases in “edge effect” biodiversity. Struck and Riddick have observed an increase in nitrogen fixing plants and a noticeable uptick in plant diversity at the pond-meadow interface, which they attribute to the varied wildlife scattering seeds when visiting the pond for water and food (insects, minnows, etc.).

Updated April 2021.