CoCoRaHS Station: NM-SF-73
Date Taken: 9/4/16
Photos are at Frenchies Field (city park) that was a dairy owned by a Bosque Frenchman until his death some years ago. The story is that the kids would come around and harrass him and he would fire some rock salt at them from a shotgun. Don't know how much truth lies there. The land was disputed, but ended up in the hands of the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501 (or 87505 for area). The parks dept. held development meetings a number of times and each time the neighborhood people had to go in and argue the guy down from his manacured green park back to leaving it/ letting it return to natural condition. It was kept fairly natural, but the city had a habit of mowing every time the flowers started to bloom so annuals had to depend on old seed, essentially. They put in a plastic tube irrigation system and tried planting trees, but both died. As a result, for most of the spring, most vegetation is Beggars Lice, a low growing, soft, grey burr that will cover your socks, quickly. This year, they didn't mow, but vegetation came in late (July) when we finally got a little moisture. There are a lot of prairie dogs and ant hills. The city put in a couple of hard surface walking trails around the park and the buildings were restored for meeting places and today there was a birthday party going on in the barn and play area.
#CoCoRaHsSep16
