Interior secretary
celebrates land gift
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited her home state Saturday to celebrate what marks the largest wilderness land donation in the agency's history and another addition to the nation's landholdings as the Biden administration aims to conserve nearly one-third of America's lands and waters by 2030.
The 15-square-mile donation from the Trust for Public Land increases the size of the Sabinoso Wilderness Area in northeastern New Mexico by nearly 50%. The property includes rugged canyons, mesas covered by pinon and juniper woodlands, pockets of ponderosa pine trees and savannah-like grasslands, and it supports an array of wildlife -- from elk and deer to mountain lions, turkey and bears.
Haaland, who joined other officials at a remote site in San Miguel County, acknowledged that the area makes up part of the ancestral homelands of the Jicarilla Apache and northern pueblos of New Mexico. She said that, for generations, families have relied on the land for sustenance and that it means a lot to many people who visit the area in search of peace and quiet.
"We're here today because we recognize the importance of preserving this special place," she said. "We know that nature is essential to the health, well-being and prosperity of every family and every community."
The Biden administration issued a report earlier this year titled "America the Beautiful." It called for a decadelong commitment on projects nationwide to make the conservation and restoration of lands and waters an urgent priority. The plan aims to purify drinking water, increase green space, improve access to recreation, restore fisheries, reduce wildfire risks and recognize the contributions of farmers, ranchers, rural communities, indigenous tribes and others.
Haaland said areas like Sabinoso Wilderness are an important piece of the puzzle as the administration looks to meet its goal.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., first visited the area about 15 years ago and has been working ever since to get it opened up to the public. He has described it as "one of New Mexico's most spectacular landscapes."
Astronaut's birth
honored in Ohio
The Associated Press
NEW CONCORD, Ohio -- John Glenn was honored over the weekend with a three-day festival in Ohio marking what would have been the history-making astronaut and U.S. senator's 100th birthday.
Glenn, who died in 2016, was the first American to orbit Earth, making him a national hero in 1962. He served as a military fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War and set a transcontinental air speed record. In 1998, he became the oldest person ever to go into space at 77. He spent 24 years as a Democrat in the Senate.
The John Glenn Centennial Celebration was a collaboration between Cambridge, where Glenn was born July 18, 1921, and nearby New Concord, where he grew up and met his late wife, Annie, who died last year at 100 of complications from covid-19.
Lyn Glenn, the late senator's daughter, watched parade floats go by Saturday from the front porch of her father's boyhood home, a place where she said she, too, felt at home.
"We moved around a lot as a family, and so they always brought us back here for holidays because this is the most consistent place in my life," she told the Zanesville Times Recorder. "Coming back here is so familiar, and it's so personal as well."
The paper reported that one admirer after another approached Lyn Glenn throughout the day to share their memories, and they included Glenn Schuck, a reporter from New York City named for her father a few years after his orbit of the planet.
Edward and Jill Schuck wrote to John Glenn letting him know they'd be naming their son after him, not expecting a response. Instead, they got a letter from NASA with photos signed by Glenn for his namesake in New Jersey and a letter to the boy's parents saying he was honored by their gesture.
The correspondence would continue throughout Schuck's childhood. In 1969, when he was 5, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and Glenn made sure to have signed photos sent to Schuck to commemorate the historic occasion.
"I would get stuff from him like all the time in the mail without even asking," Schuck said.
The weekend's festivities also included a presentation by former shuttle astronaut and fellow Ohioan Don Thomas, rocket car rides, space movies and rides in the type of biplane a young Glenn flew over Cambridge.