New Mexico officials announce new AI wildfire monitoring network - Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
Five new wildfire monitoring camera stations that use artificial intelligence to look for smoke have been installed in areas where urban life meets the wilderness near Albuquerque and Santa Fe as part of pilot programs the state is working on with two electric utility companies.
Within two years, more than 40 wildfire detection stations from San Francisco-based company Pano AI should be in operation, with five stations provided by the company, six funded with state dollars and the remaining 32 paid for by Xcel Energy and Public Service Company of New Mexico, according to a state news release.
As New Mexico’s climate is predicted to become more arid with less predictable monsoons in coming decades, wildfire may become a bigger concern in the Land of Enchantment. The five largest documented fires in state history occurred within the last 14 years, and the two largest fires — the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in northern New Mexico and the Black Fire northeast of Silver City — took place in 2022.
For decades, New Mexico has relied on 911 calls and lookout towers to detect wildfire starts, said New Mexico State Forester Laura McCarthy.
“It worked for us because our weather was not so extreme and delays of a few hours in detection were not consequential. But it doesn’t work when it’s a red flag day, super windy, relative humidity less than 10% and it’s 98 degrees.”
The new camera stations will provide 24-hour monitoring of high-risk areas and notify emergency responders with precise GPS locations when there are confirmed wildfire incidents, she said.
The technology should help fire incident commanders make better decisions about how to deploy resources and protect public safety, McCarthy said. Every fire agency within the coverage area of the stations will be able to access the Pano AI platform and get training on the technology at no cost to their department.
Pano AI’s technology is in use in 17 U.S. states, including Washington, Utah and Wyoming.
Each wildfire detection station has two cameras that rotate to provide a 360-degree view of the surrounding area, said Kat Williams, Pano AI’s director of government development. The stations have visibility of at least a 10-mile radius. If two stations spot a potential fire, they can triangulate its location and provide a latitude and longitude. When a fire is detected, staff at Pano AI reviews the footage in an effort to avoid false positives and then send text or email alerts to relevant local emergency services.
Williams pulled up the live feed from one of the cameras near Albuquerque on Wednesday during a news conference at the Bernalillo County Public Safety Training Academy. She demonstrated how different layers could be viewed on maps of the area, giving emergency responders the ability to examine terrain, roads and other conditions before heading to a fire start. In an effort to protect privacy, any homes in view are pixelated from the video before it’s uploaded to Cloud storage.
Pano’s artificial intelligence program was trained on more than 3 billion images, said Peter Ambler, the company’s vice president of global government affairs.
New Mexico has tried using images to detect wildfires before, McCarthy said. In 2020 and 2021, the state participated in a free pilot program with a different company that used satellite imagery to detect fires. That technology was helpful, but it also got things wrong a lot, she said, sometimes misidentifying water vapor clouds as smoke.
Camera cost, locations
Pano AI representatives, state officials and staff from the two utility companies were unable to provide specific overall or annual cost estimates when the network of monitoring stations was announced Wednesday.
State legislators have allocated $300,000 to support the state’s 11-station pilot program, McCarthy said. New Mexico’s Senate Memorial 2 wildfire study group will recommend the Legislature allocate another $2 million during the 30-day session next year to expand the network of monitoring stations, she said.
Annual costs to maintain the system will likely be under $50,000 per station, Ambler said.
The state’s 11 detection stations will be in the East Mountains area, near Albuquerque and in Santa Fe County. The locations prioritize sites where lives and livelihoods would be lost in a wildfire, McCarthy said. Five of those cameras began operating within the last few months and the other six will be brought online through early 2026.
Xcel Energy plans to bring another 15 stations online this year and 15 more by the end of next year. The utility company operates in eastern New Mexico, and the cameras will be located in that region, focused on high-risk areas with homes and around infrastructure like poles, wires and gas pipes, according to Zoë Lees, regional vice president of regulatory planning and policy for Xcel Energy. Infrastructure that provides electricity is critical, Lees said, but it comes with some risk, especially with increasing extreme weather.
“So we feel like it’s prudent of us as a utility to make sure that we are implementing resiliency measures like installing Pano AI stations in the service territory to protect our communities,” Lees said.
PNM is starting a two-camera pilot program with stations located in the Santa Fe Basin. The utility is also exploring other wildfire prevention technology like engineering controls and new infrastructure fuses to reduce the risk of sparks, as well as new patrolling and inspection methods, said Wesley Gray, PNM vice president of operations and engineering.
The cameras aren’t New Mexico’s only tool for addressing wildfires. The state Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department also has $33.5 million for tree thinning and is working to create tree thinning buffers around communities, McCarthy said.
The state’s 11-station pilot program “isn’t an expenditure of state government, state taxpayer dollars. This is an investment right back into the families, communities, land and what makes New Mexico so beautiful,” said Lt. Gov. Howie Morales.
New Mexico wolf relocation prompts outcry from advocates - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
Conservation groups this week criticized New Mexico wildlife officials for the recent capture and relocation of “Taylor,” a wandering male Mexican gray wolf, back to a protected zone in the Gila National Forest.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish caught Taylor on Nov. 7 near Gallina, a small, unincorporated community in Rio Arriba County. He was captured by helicopter and returned to the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, which includes most of the state below I-40.
According to a statement from the Department of Game and Fish, Taylor first ventured north of the interstate in mid-July and was relocated. Such wandering away from an established pack is known as dispersal. Since late October, Taylor “has made significant movements to the north, showing no signs of returning to the” experimental population area.
“Dispersal events like this often occur when a wolf is in search of a mate,” the department stated. “As there are no other known Mexican wolves in the area, there was a potential risk of mortality as well as a likelihood of a negative interaction or breeding with domestic dogs.”
However, several conservation organizations have condemned the department’s decision to relocate Taylor for a second time to stay within government-set boundaries, which they describe as “arbitrary.” Their statement also notes that conservation groups named the wolf Taylor after Mount Taylor, where he was first encountered in May 2025. The peak is located near Grants, north of I-40. Moreover, a joint news release from several conservation groups notes, Taylor’s movements indicate he might be looking for a mate as the breeding season for the species begins in January.
“It’s ridiculous to keep moving wolves back south of Interstate 40 when wolves have clearly decided there’s great habitat to the north of the highway,” Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement. “We fully expect that, like Asha before him, he’ll head right back to his northern territory. We can’t explain his desire, but we shouldn’t deny his instincts.”
Asha, a female Mexican gray wolf, wandered north of I-40 in New Mexico several times. She was recently released from captivity in August to the Gila National Forest with her mate and pups. Another female gray wolf, known as Ella, was found dead in April this year soon after she was also spotted near Grants. At the time, Sally Paez, staff attorney for New Mexico Wild, told Source New Mexico that it was “exciting” to see these endangered wolves traveling into parts of the state that could offer “suitable wolf habitat” and “good wildlife corridors.”
Conservation organizations added that there have been two other wolves to wander too far north in recent years, making Taylor the fifth wolf in recent years to wander north. They also emphasized that Taylor’s wandering did not lead to any conflict with humans these last several months.
“We’ve long known that the political boundaries imposed on Mexican gray wolf recovery do not match ecological ones, and that this poses a significant hindrance to recovery,” Luke Koenig, Gila grassroots organizer for New Mexico Wild, said in a statement this week. “We have an opportunity here to advance recovery efforts by simply allowing Taylor—and other lobos—to wander north into historic and suitable habitat, and yet we expend significant resources time and time again preventing just that.”
According to the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, a nonprofit organization working to restore wolves and ecological health in the Grand Canyon area, Mexican wolf dispersal and reintroduction into northern New Mexico and southern Colorado would contribute to the animal’s long-term recovery and provide opportunities for interbreeding and genetic diversity.
“Taylor knows where he belongs,” Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, said in a statement. “Wolves like him are showing us what real recovery looks like, not confined by arbitrary lines, but led by instinct, resilience and the search for connection.If we truly care about their survival, we must let lobos lead.”
Texas company eyes Lea County for data center campus - Hannah García, Albuquerque Journal
New Era Energy & Digital Inc. has entered into a land option purchase agreement for around 3,500 acres in Lea County, a move that could see yet another data center campus come to New Mexico.
According to a Nov. 6 news release, Midland, Texas-based New Era Energy plans to develop the seven-gigawatt artificial intelligence hub as the company’s first wholly owned project, independent from its Texas Critical Data Centers joint venture.
The proposed data center campus would be powered by two gigawatts of natural gas generation and at least five gigawatts of nuclear energy, which New Era Energy said would enable reliable power for hyperscale AI operations. The company expects to have the facility powered by 2028.
E. Will Gray II, New Era Energy CEO, told the Journal that the site, located near Caprock, about 45 minutes east of Roswell, is on private land. The company will need project approvals on the federal and state levels for various permits before construction can begin.
New Era Energy’s project would join similar facilities across New Mexico. This includes Meta Platform Inc.’s data center campus in Los Lunas and Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa, which was recently revealed to be one of five sites in the $500 billion Stargate Project.
In August, Chaves County commissioners approved a 300-acre data center project by Wyoming-based Zenith Volts Corp. just 20 miles south of Roswell. New Mexico has nearly two dozen data centers operating or under development, according to the Data Center Map website.
The data center development boom has seen mixed reactions from policymakers and New Mexicans. Where some stakeholders see the campuses as economic drivers for the state — be it job creation or generated revenue — citizens and advocacy groups argue that the build-out of these facilities will exhaust energy and water use.
In a LinkedIn post, the company also added that the campus would provide powered land and shell solutions for AI operators, intentionally designed to reduce tenant infrastructure cost and accelerate deployment timelines.
Engineering work is expected to commence within the next 30 days to conduct a site evaluation and master planning. According to the news release, New Era Energy has confirmed gas availability for its facilities and is finalizing technology selection for its nuclear component. Gray said site design can take up to a year and, once completed, the company will have a “better idea of the overall cost” of the project.
New Era Energy is currently working with New Mexico stakeholders to “align the project with state economic and environmental priorities,” which Gray said includes the Governor’s Office.
A spokesperson for the Governor’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We believe this development will not only drive economic growth and high-tech job creation but also leverage New Mexico’s natural resources to power the future of AI innovation,” Gray said in a statement.
The Lea County site was selected due to the area’s “exceptional strategic advantages,” including proximity to major gas lines, existing infrastructure, an abundant water supply, fiber connectivity and a skilled local workforce, New Era Energy officials said.
“Lea County’s deep energy heritage provides a foundation of skilled talent that directly supports our next-generation digital infrastructure vision,” Gray said.
Lea County Manager Corey Needham told the Journal that he has not been in contact with New Era Energy regarding the data center campus. Commissioners wouldn’t be involved until “much later stages,” Needham added.
With Upper, Lower basin states still snagged, feds give them more time to craft Colorado River plan Jeniffer Solis, Nevada Current via Source New Mexico
Nevada and six other Colorado River states failed to reach a broad agreement Tuesday on how to share the river’s dwindling water supply, missing a federally-imposed deadline after days of intense closed-door negotiations.
Despite missing the deadline, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Reclamation indicated states would be given additional time to continue negotiations after making “collective progress.”
“While more work needs to be done, collective progress has been made that warrants continued efforts to define and approve details for a finalized agreement,” said a joint statement from the seven states, the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Bureau of Reclamation – which manages water in the West under the Interior Department – initially gave states until Nov. 11 to submit a preliminary agreement for a plan that could replace the river’s operating guidelines set to expire at the end of 2026.
The initial timeline also called for states to share a final consensus-based plan by mid-February 2026 in order to reach a final agreement in the summer of 2026 with implementation of the new guidelines beginning in October 2026.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum previously indicated that the federal government would intervene in the Colorado River water negotiations if the seven basin states couldn’t reach their own agreement.
The Department of the Interior did not respond to questions about a new deadline after states missed Tuesday’s or whether the agency would intervene.
Representatives from the Lower Basin states — Nevada, Arizona, and California — and Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — attempted to hammer out an agreement over a two-day meeting in Phoenix but could not reach a deal to manage the drought-stricken river.
In a joint statement the seven states and federal water managers said they “recognize the serious and ongoing challenges facing the Colorado River.”
Prolonged drought driven by climate change has put immense pressure on the overtapped Colorado River which sustains agriculture in the West and provides water for 40 million people across seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and parts of northern Mexico.
“Through continued cooperation and coordinated action, there is a shared commitment to ensuring the long-term sustainability and resilience of the Colorado River system,” the joint statement said.
State negotiators for both the Upper and Lower Basin have said they would prefer a seven-state agreement than the alternative river management options proposed by the federal government last year.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he believes there is still a path to a seven-state consensus, despite states failure to meet the federal deadline Tuesday.
“While the Basin States did not finalize an agreement today on post-2026 Colorado River operations, our commitment to a state-led path remains,” Cox said Tuesday afternoon on the social media site X.
One of the biggest disagreements between the Upper and Lower Basin states is over which faction should have to cut back on their water use, and by how much.
The Lower Basin – Nevada, Arizona, and California – want all seven Colorado River states to share mandatory water cuts during dry years under the new guidelines. The Upper Basin, which is not subject to mandatory cuts under the current guidelines, say they already use much less water than downstream states and should not face additional cuts during shortages.
That disagreement prompted lawmakers in Arizona on Tuesday to call for stronger federal intervention in shaping post-2026 Colorado River operating guidelines.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Burgum on Tuesday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and legislative leaders asked the federal government to include water supply reductions for Upper Basin states in any new guidelines they consider.
“This extreme negotiating posture – four of the seven Basin States refusing to participate in any sharing of water shortages – has led to a fundamental impasse that is preventing the successful development of a 7-State consensus plan for management of the Colorado River,” wrote Hobbs in the letter.
Lower Basin states have offered to conserve 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water each year under post-2026 operating guidelines on the condition that Upper Basin states share cuts if further reductions are needed during dry years. Arizona would bear the brunt of those reductions.
“The existing Colorado River operating guidelines are near expiration, and a meager runoff season has left the reservoirs depleted once again and one bad winter away from reaching critical lows,” reads the Arizona letter.
‘Rip off the Band Aid’
The Bureau of Reclamation will still need to go through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process so they can assess the environmental impact of the plan before issuing a final decision on new guidelines for the river’s management.
The agency plans to release draft post-2026 operating guidelines in December detailing options for how to manage the Colorado River, followed by an open public comment period.
After two years of state negotiations, some conservation groups also urged the Bureau of Reclamation to move on to the public NEPA process without a state consensus plan.
“Rip off the Band Aid, and let the public get to work. The states don’t deserve the kid-glove treatment any longer,” said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network.
John Weisheit, the conservation director of Living Rivers, echoed calls for the federal government to step up.
“It is clear that negotiators cannot hash out a meaningful management regime to deal with the dwindling reservoir levels that we will likely see in the coming years,” Weisheit said. “The federal government’s deference to the states has got to stop.”
This story was originally produced by Nevada Current, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Source New Mexico, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.