ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Most people don't think of bathing bears, prowling cougars or burrowing owl counts when they think of Kirtland Air Force Base, but Carol Finley certainly does.

Finley, natural resources manager at the 51,558-acre base, spends her days making sure those bears, cougars and owls — and all the other critters, trees and other plants that populated the Manzano Mountains long before there was a Kirtland — will be there for future generations.

Back in the 1940s, the U.S. Forest Service withdrew 22,000 acres of land on the eastern edge of the Manzanos for what would eventually become Kirtland Air Force Base.

"We are in charge of the wildlife in those areas," Finley said.

Finley's Natural Resources Office also ensures the sprawling base is in compliance with all state and federal environmental regulations.

Maintaining a healthy ecosystem in those parts of the Manzanos for which Kirtland is responsible is largely about water.

Because the area is prone to drought, Finley's office has installed nine wildlife "drinkers" throughout the Manzanos and their foothills. The drinkers are cylindrical fiberglass tanks topped with large funnels that capture snow and rainwater in roughly 1,000-gallon tanks. The tanks feed small artificial ponds used by area wildlife.

But even during a drought, the area is not entirely devoid of water.

Coyote Springs, a handful of small natural springs tucked away in a canyon, has remained active for more than a century. In the late 1800s, one enterprising family of homesteaders built a small hotel — named Greystone Manor — at the site, where guests could bathe in the mineral-rich spring.

For a time, the water was bottled and sold by an Albuquerque company and was, some locals say, a favorite whiskey chaser at local saloons.

After Coyote Springs became a part of Kirtland, the springs were largely ignored. For years, water from the main spring ran down a small arroyo and onto a gravel road used to access sites used by Sandia National Laboratories.

"We thought we'd catch that water instead of letting it wash down the main road," Finley said.

In 2005, Kirtland started a wetland restoration project at Coyote Springs, which today features a large lined pond that attracts a variety of wildlife and native plants.

To get an idea of the types, numbers and health of wildlife in the area, motion-activated digital cameras were installed near the drinking ponds several years ago.

The photographs, which are downloaded every two weeks, not only provide biologists with a good inventory of the area's wildlife, they can be downright entertaining.

There's the photo of a black bear relaxing in a spring-fed trough, velvet-antlered mule deer bucks who seem to be wondering what that "click" was, and a magnificent cougar padding through the snow.

The cameras also allow biologists to identify individual animals, some of which are tracked by radio collars.

"So far, we've put collars on three cougars, but one of them was killed by a car on I-40 about two months ago," Finley said. "There's probably five or six that we've seen on our cameras. For sure, there are two males and three females."

"We thought it would be good to try to identify how many cougars we have, whether they're breeding on base and what their effects are on our deer population," she said.

Any hunters thinking about entering base property in pursuit of a nice buck or fat turkey should reconsider: Trespassing on base is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and six months in jail.

The camouflaged wildlife cameras have recorded a few two-legged creatures as well.

Such careful observation and record-keeping has allowed Finley's office to uncover and begin addressing a disturbing decline in the base's population of burrowing owls.

"In 1999, we had 52 breeding pairs" of burrowing owls, Finley said. "We went down to 14 breeding pairs, and now we're down this year to seven. So, since 1999, the population has crashed, and we're trying to identify what's causing all these pairs to abandon their nests. We've been monitoring these birds for 12 years now."

While some species may be declining, others appear to be expanding.

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Kirtland's biologists have recently seen signs of the presence of javelina or wild pigs in the Manzanos, neither of which have been seen in the area before, Finley said.

Finley said javelina have been spotted in the Bosque del Apache south of Belen, and could be migrating toward Kirtland.

Kirtland's wildlife cameras could well provide the first hard evidence of their encroachment, she said.

Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com

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