New Mexico’s campaign to address the ecological health of its forests and watersheds will be showcased at the Society of American Foresters national convention in Albuquerque, Nov. 15-19. A scientific/technical session and a technical tour (Rio Grande Water Fund/Santa Fe Fireshed) will feature the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition, one of several forest health initiatives statewide.
At 43 pages, the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Health Plan is modest in length compared to the 121,697-square-mile landscape it addresses.
Its authors describe the ecological health of the landscape as being in “an unhealthy state, as demonstrated by overly dense woody vegetation, a degradation of biodiversity, and fragmentation and deterioration of wildlife habitat. As a result, New Mexico faces greater susceptibility to catastrophic wildfire and drought, compromised watersheds and decreased water supply, accelerated erosion and desertification.”
Since its adoption in 2005, the report’s call for an integrative collaborative approach when conducting ecological restoration has served as the foundation for all current (and future) ecological restoration undertaken in New Mexico.
“We are a big state, we have a lot of land, we have a small population and a pretty small community of practitioners who do this work, so we know each other. It just became obvious that we have to be coordinated and do this type of work together in order to really be effective at a larger scale,” explained Susan Rich, the state’s forest and watershed health coordinator.
From Treesource: https://treesource.org/news/management-and-policy/new-mexico-forest-watershed-restoration/#more-1571