Ex-cop on armed patrol: Piñon pickers drive him nuts

Owner of posted property says trespassers trashing tress and cutting fences

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

10/21/2008 - 10/22/08

Retired Santa Fe Police Capt. Greg Boynton was used to carrying a gun on the job. But he didn't think he would have to carry it every September on his own land off Old Las Vegas Highway.

But invariably, excited piñon pickers wander onto Boynton's 230-plus acres near Bobcat Bite restaurant right past the no-trespassing signs. He has the metal signs posted every 24 feet. "I caught one climbing right over one of the signs one day," Boynton said.

He said piñon pickers have cut his fence, ruined a gate and broken branches on trees while trying to reach the nuts. After 25 years on the city's force and various health problems that have left him disabled, fixing fences and gates isn't as easy as it used to be for Boynton. He said many of his neighbors along Old Las Vegas Highway have the same problem with piñon pickers coming onto private property to collect the little seeds. What makes him angriest, though, is the trash piñon pickers leave behind and the damage they've done to some of his trees.

"I don't think that's right," he said. "They show no respect for the landowners."

Boynton could shoot them, but he prefers to ask them politely, if firmly, to leave. He said over the last two decades, he's had to draw his weapon only a couple of times to convince stubborn pickers they should leave. He's never called sheriff's deputies.

"I wouldn't mind if the piñon pickers came up and asked me permission," Boynton said. "I would probably give them written permission and tell them which areas they can go pick in."

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said residents have been calling his office the last few weeks asking what they should do about trespassing piñon pickers. It happens every year there's a good crop, Solano said. Most of the calls about trespassing pickers are from Old Las Vegas Highway, the Hyde Park area and Old Pecos Trail. "I've personally fielded a few calls about piñon pickers in the last couple of weeks," he said.

"I'm not aware of any confrontations yet. But over the years, there have been confrontations, and we've been called (to go)," Solano said. Pickers usually leave when deputies arrive.

"We're telling people that their property needs to be posted with no-trespassing signs or fenced in order for us to file charges of trespassing," Solano said.

People don't need a permit to pick piñons in the Santa Fe National Forest but are urged by staff to make sure they are picking on public land. Last year, when fences cut on Rowe Mesa were blamed on people riding all-terrain vehicles, a Forest Service law-enforcement officer said he had followed tracks to piñon pickers.

Boynton said the piñon crop on his property wasn't good, so he's had fewer problems with pickers this year than last. He figures it will be two more years before there's a lot of piñon nuts, and he'll have to figure out again how to discourage trespassers.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.