A lodge's last days: Recession hits Bear Mountain Lodge hard

Bear Mountain Lodge, a local guest lodge owned by the Nature Conservancy, is the latest victim of a struggling economy. After being willed to the conservancy 10 years ago, the lodge will close and the conservancy plans to put the property on the market. The last guests of the lodge will check out today, said Esther Scherf, kitchen manager at the lodge for the past four years. Until mid-June, Scherf said, the lodge served dinner and was popular with locals, as well as guests. But because of budget cuts within the organization, the lodge had to cut back, and the dinners were one of the things to go, along with two other cooks who helped with the operation. The lodge also phased out its staff naturalist position and relied on volunteers to fill in. At its peak, the lodge had about 12 employees during her tenure, Scherf said. Now there are eight, and pretty soon there will just be one to stay on and take care of the place while the property is readied for the market. Terry Sullivan, state director for the Nature Conservancy, which is based in Santa Fe, said the property, which he said encompasses 190 acres, will not be subdivided...read more