Williams Lake Basin collects snow on the high Sangre De Cristo Mountains
Our partnerships have continued to grow since our first meeting held three years ago. We are grateful to Dekker/Perich/Sabatini for furnishing space for our Water Fund meetings. We are appreciative of their hospitality and beautiful space they provide.
With the number of Rio Grande Water Fund Charter signatories pushing 50, we will be holding the semi-annual meeting at the Bow and Arrow Brewery, which is co-owned by UNM professor and Water Fund partner, Dr. Mark Stone. We hope you will be able to join us for the first meeting on April 29.
It has been a busy year planning for “on-the-ground” work for this summer field season. It is exciting to see projects submitted through the Statement of Interest process and moving to the implementation phase. Contracts and agreements are in place, and specific activities will include:
- Tree thinning to complete the Isleta Project in the northern Manzano Mountains, Cibola National
- Forest Restoration of the San Antonio wetland meadow in the Jemez Mountains, Santa Fe
- National Forest Tree thinning in Taos on the El Salto Land Association property
- Tree thinning and prescribed burning on ranch properties in the San Juan-Chama headwaters
- Forest inventory on Taos Pueblo lands
- Archeology surveys to complete the NEPA process for:
- Tres Piedras landscape restoration project, Carson National Forest
- Golondrino controlled burn in an area near Abiquiu Reservoir, Santa Fe National Forest
- American Park adjacent to the Southwest Jemez project area, Santa Fe National Forest
- Pueblo Ridge on the north side of Taos Canyon, Carson National Forest
With all this activity, it is time to get the monitoring crews out on the ground. Rob Strahan with the NM Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute is hiring four students from NM Highlands University to be the roving monitoring crew. They will visit all of the sites to collect baseline information before treatment starts, create a database to store information, and return during and after the project to collect the final data. Community members will also have opportunities for planned monitoring field trips throughout the summer with Krista Bonfantine, Arid Land Innovations.
As last year’s projects begin implementation, new projects are being planned. Two landscape restoration strategies are in development; these are in the San Juan-Chama headwaters, and the other in the Santa Fe Fireshed. Both involve diverse partnerships and are on the cutting edge of collaborative, science-based planning for targeted conservation action.
The Rio Grande Water Fund partners are doing incredible work to support watershed resiliency and improve water security for future generations. Read on for details of some of the partners work, and think about submitting an article about your project for the next newsletter! All are welcome to contribute to the Rio Grande Water Fund partnership. Together we are having an impact that is greater than any of us could achieve alone.
By: Laura McCarthy (Rio Grande Water Fund: A Wildfire and Water Source Protection Project)
Click here to view source article.
