Green Caucus of the Episcopal Church

As the time neared for the 81st General Convention, a new organization arose – the Green Deputies Caucus. This community of concern and action began to organize its members to track and influence emerging creation care legislation and activity at General Convention. They wrote resolutions, attended committee meetings, and planned activity for convention itself. At convention, they met daily, attended sessions, and gathered with committee members, church staff, and bishops on behalf of their issues of concern.

Now that convention is over, the work of this caucus is just beginning. No longer focused solely upon deputies and convention, the mission of the group is expanding to include the ongoing work of The Episcopal Church as it follows up on the creation care actions of convention. The group changed its name from The Episcopal Green Deputies to The Green Caucus of the Episcopal Church. Their expanded mission includes publicity, networking, lobbying, communications, and participation in the various creation care initiatives around the church.

The membership of this new caucus is open to any Episcopalian with a heart for creation care. The caucus meets monthly, second Wednesdays at 1 PM Pacific Time on Zoom. You can learn more about the activity of the caucus at their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556013429896. You may also email your questions to: episcopalgreencaucus@gmail.com

Wildfire Mitigation

In our diocese, we are in the part of the country that is experiencing periodic droughts, shifts in monsoon patterns, rising temperatures, strong winds, and shifts in the jet stream. Streams have disappeared leading to dried out vegetation. Some scientists predict that at some point in the future all New Mexico forests will deteriorate turning into scrublands. Since 2020, there have been 4280 fires in New Mexico which have burned 1,388,119 acres of land. These fires were caused by predominantly by lightning, arson, campfires, and prescribed burns. The largest fire since 2020 was the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire that has left burn scars on swaths of land once covered by trees. Texas wildfire risks include the abundance of dried grass fuel and the changes in temperature due most recently to La Niña weather patterns. 

Impact of fire in the DRG

There are 33 counties in New Mexico. 26 of those counties have had fires that have burned more than 1000 acres over the period of 2020 to 2024. Smaller impact fires have occurred in most of the remaining 7 counties. Burn scars from forest fires create additional hazards. Burn scars make the land very susceptible to flash flooding after intense rains. This type of flooding carries debris as well as rain water. Disastrous flooding has happened in our diocese in the aftermath of fires particularly in the cities of Ruidoso and Roswell from the Southfork and Salt burn scars. Wildfires also impact many areas across Texas, most recent fires have come close to Alpine and Fort Stockton which lie within the DRG.