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'Our Land' host Laura Paskus to leave NMPBS

Journalist and author Laura Paskus stands in the Gila River.
Courtesy, New Mexico PBS
Journalist and author Laura Paskus stands in the Gila River.

A journalist who's spent more than two decades telling the stories of New Mexico's changing climate and landscape is stepping back – for now.

Laura Paskus, the host of Our Land: New Mexico's Environmental Past, Present and Future, will leave New Mexico PBS at the end of January. KUNM sat down with Paskus to reflect on the time she’s spent covering climate change here in the Southwest.

LAURA PASKUS: There are so many issues that I've covered over the years that I've come back to again and again. I would say Rio Grande coverage and silvery minnow coverage... Coverage of Chaco over so many years, and stories and media outlets covering oil and gas development and pressures around the Chacoan landscape. In recent years, I'm really, really proud of the work we did at New Mexico PBS around the Pueblo of Santa Ana's reacquisition of some of their lands. I've done a couple of pieces about that, but in particular, a documentary that aired this year called Ancestral Connections. And yeah, there have been so many stories, and I'm so thankful that so many people, like hundreds of people, have been willing to talk to me about things that are important to them.

KUNM: For folks who may want to maybe start delving into the complicated intricacies of the climate, what advice do you have for people like that? 

PASKUS: I would say love your place, because if you are not completely and madly in love with your landscapes and your waters and your communities, it's really hard to sustain energy, uncovering the environment so cultivating that love and that joy is really important. And then I would just say, don't give up. I cannot even tell you how many times, especially in my early years, when I was first covering the Rio Grande, silvery minnow and river drying and nobody else was covering it. This was back in 2002 editors were just like: “Stop with the minnow stories. Stop with the Rio Grande. Like, write about something else.” And, I just… I couldn't.

KUNM: I'm wondering why you stayed so long here in New Mexico? What's the draw? Is it the culture? Is it the beauty? What speaks to you?

PASKUS: So, when I first moved out here in 1996, I came out here with plans to do contract archeology and I did tribal consultation for many years before I was a journalist -- but I initially planned to come here for one year. I was going to do field work for one year, and then I was going to leave. Although I had a lot of issues with contract archeology and the tribal consultation process, which I've gone on to report on as a journalist, I completely became addicted to the landscape and the culture and the friends I made here in the community I became a part of here and I would try to leave. I left for a few years for western Colorado to work at High Country News. I lived in Tucson briefly. I would try to leave and I just always had a longing to come home to New Mexico. And I acknowledge that I am an outsider, but this is my home, and I love it.

KUNM: Recently, you've been on a kick of personal projects. You've been writing books or helping edit them. Could you possibly throw a bone to us on some things that could be in the works as you wrap up at New Mexico PBS?

PASKUS: I'm really excited. I have a couple freelance projects. I have some personal projects that I'm really excited about. I have worked in print, online, radio, TV, and I'm constantly exploring different ways of communicating about New Mexico's environmental issues and community, and so I'm just going to keep doing that in different ways.

Bryce Dix is our local host for NPR's Morning Edition.
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