El VALLE DE ARROYO SECO — Jack Paule spent more than 35 years coaxing to life the Bradford ornamental pear trees that line his property.

He talked to them, watered them, protected them from pests. And despite the harsh climate of Northern New Mexico, the trees inched upward, defying droughts and storms alike.

But the trees and their cream-colored blossoms could soon meet their end if the state Department of Transportation has its way.

The department wants to put a frontage road where the trees are, as part of the planned expansion of U.S. 84/285.

And it's not just the trees that the department wants from Paule and his wife, June. The state says it needs 9,200 square feet of their property for the frontage road — a road that will be laid 65 feet from the retired couple's front door.

The upcoming work is part of a massive $68 million reconstruction project, part of which is already under way, and which is expected to last until the summer of 2011.

The state has offered $3 a square foot for the land, an offer the couple is turning down.

"They are really going to make life miserable for us and take our land," Jack Paule said.

The Paules aren't the only ones who will be affected by the project: 44 property owners between Pojoaque and Española are involved. The state has made 42 offers for land, and 31 landowners have agreed to the price the state offered. The state is in negotiations with six landowners, including House Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé, while six have entered the condemnation process.

The project will mean disruption and delays for drivers, the relocation of residents' fences and the uprooting of utility lines.

Also in the bulldozers' path, on the Paules' property, at least: 24 quail who live in the trees and bushes the retired couple planted, families of rabbits, and the couple's dream of living life away from the big-city buzz.

"What kind of a life are we going to have? We're going to have all that noise coming up here," Jack Paule said last week, standing in his front yard.

Paule also is upset the department won't be putting a wall along the frontage road, like it did on a stretch of U.S. 84/285 south of his house, between Santa Fe and Pojoaque.

Department of Transportation spokesman S.U. Mahesh said many residents during the more than 15 public meetings on the project said they didn't want the walls, which would block mountain views. Paule says it's the least the state could do to abate the traffic noise.

Along with his land, Paule, a retired veterinarian, also fears losing another key part of his life: the ability to communicate with his ham radio. Paule at times has spent eight to 10 hours day with his communications equipment, helping in emergency situations such as the Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos. All of that happens through a towering antenna on his property — a supporting pole of which also is slated to be torn down by the state. Relocating the pole would be very difficult for him. But without it, Paule — the only ham radio operator north of Albuquerque licensed to operate on Navy-Marine Corps and Military Affiliated Radio System frequencies by the Department of Defense and the National Federal High Frequency System — says he'll lose about two-thirds of his lower, most-used frequencies.

Inside his small office behind his house, Paule is a master at the controls of transceivers and microphones, and different-era gadgets with knobs and numbers and dials.

He feels out of control, however, about the idea of the state using eminent domain and condemning his property.

"I'm getting very angry because the people out here don't need it," he said. "I think the only reason they are doing it is to justify their jobs."

The state says the improvements are needed for safety, and driveways like the Paules' that connect to the highway will instead meet up with a frontage road. Using those roads from houses and businesses will allow drivers to merge into slower-moving traffic before getting on the highway.

As part of the project, crews also will install concrete barriers in the median, preventing drivers from crossing oncoming traffic to get home or visit businesses on the other side of the highway.

While many have accepted the state's offers and embraced the highway improvements, others like the Paules don't want the state to take their land.

Luján also has said he doesn't want to sell. The state has made him an offer on six parcels of land it says it needs for the project.

The state won't release figures for any of the offers it has made, but the Rio Grande Sun reported last week that the state offered Luján $60,000.

Mahesh said he couldn't comment on that figure.

"The number they are citing is not accurate, is all I can say."

With so many projects involved in the 11-mile stretch, the cost of obtaining the rights of way and construction and maintenance easements from owners could easily run into the millions.

As part of the project, the state has told Luján it will be tearing down a billboard he owns along the highway, which it says doesn't have proper permits. Because it is illegal, Luján isn't eligible to be compensated for the sign. Luján has said he didn't know he needed a permit.

Others have hired lawyers to help them as the state files condemnation proceedings for their land.

Wilma Gene Watson, who owns three-quarters of an acre of commercially zoned land along the highway near the La Puebla turnoff, had planned to sell the property and use it for her retirement.

"That's not looking so good now," she said.

Her vacant land is the minimum size required under the building code for new buildings. The state wants to take 20 feet of her property, which could limit her options for selling.

"It's pretty sad when they can just come in and take your land and say, 'This is what we're going to give you,' " she said. Watson has hired a lawyer, something the Paules are reluctant to do because they are dealing with health care costs.

Back on the Paules' property with a sweeping view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Jack Paule, a one-time employee of the federal Department of Agriculture, remembers the time he spent nurturing his trees.

"I'm sick over it because they want to take them," he says.

While he used to say words of encouragement to his trees, those messages, like his hopes of a simple retirement, have changed.

Now, he said, he tells his trees, "This might be the last year I see you."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog at www.greenchilechatter.com.