Submitted by the Las Placitas Association.
NEW MEXICO’S DROUGHT WATCH: “For nearly 100 years, from 1927 to 2025, the average daily flow on May 17 along this reach of the Rio Grande was about 3,385 cfs. We all thought last year’s NM mountain snow drought was an anomaly, yet the river maintained about 600 cfs on this day a year ago. Today’s approximate 200 cfs is an unprecedented second gut punch. Can the Rio Grande ecosystem, as we know it today, survive another punch?” (From the Pueblo of Santa Ana Natural Resources Department on May 17.) We follow Santa Ana’s Facebook posts and suggest you check it out; worth it for the wildlife updates alone. Although long range-predictions call for an above-normal monsoon, it may come too late to save our gardens, orchards and vineyards – and the threat of wildfire is all too real.
KUPR 99.9 LPFM: The station’s first live music event of the 2026 season was a huge success. Le Chat Lunatique charmed a full house as they blended Western swing, classical, reggae and more, navigating through a wide range of genres in their own gypsy inspired style. July’s offering will be Felix Gato Peralta, Lara Manzaneras and Justin Bransford at a Placitas house concert complete with a traditional New Mexican meal. Tickets go on sale soon. KUPR is also expanding its Native American programming with storytelling on Fridays (Life of Dog on the Rez) and will soon bring three hours of traditional music to Sunday evenings – from the Plaza to the Powwow. Each week’s schedule is posted at kupr.org. We strive to reach all of our broadcast area which is roughly evenly divided between Hispanic, Native American and “other” – connecting communities through the universal language of music.
DID YOU KNOW? The official state reptile of New Mexico is the New Mexico whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis neomexicanus). Nicknamed the Lesbian Lizard, this lizard is entirely female and reproduces through parthenogenesis (a process where females lay eggs that develop into exact clones of the mother, without needing a male). What’s even more interesting is that they still engage in mating behavior with each other, even though there are no males. They are highly active foragers that feed primarily on insects like termites, beetles, grasshoppers, and ants. These fascinating lizards can sprint up to 15 miles per hour (as fast as a roadrunner). They can escape capture by sacrificing their tails (when grasped, their tail breaks easily along a fracture plane in the vertebrae). Learning about New Mexico whiptails gives one yet another example of how the natural world can challenge human prejudices.