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WildEarth Guardians aim for federal money

Date
December 21, 2007
Contact
Staci Matlock, Santa Fe New Mexican
In This Release
Public Lands  
A chunk of money in the newly approved federal omnibus appropriations bill will be devoted to watershed restoration, and Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians is hoping to attract some of the money to New Mexico.

The conservation group already has a $360,000 Forest Service three-year grant to decommission some Santa Fe National Forest roads, which is one step in restoring watersheds, according to WildEarth Guardians program director Bryan Bird.

The federal appropriations bill included $39.4 million for a “Legacy Road and Trail Remediation Program” – funds that can be used to reclaim or repair Forest Service roads that are contributing to water quality problems.

Santa Fe National Forest is criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of roads that shed water and sediment into streams. Restoring some of them to a more natural state will take money and time, Bird said, but could create much-needed jobs in the rural communities near national forests.

“Roads change hydrology, create erosion and unnatural run-off,” he said. “When you don’t have roads on a forest landscape, you get more saturation of water into soil covered by vegetation.”

Bird likened high road densities to a “parking lot effect. Water hits this compacted dirt and just runs off quickly into streams.”

WildEarth Guardians received a Forest Service collaborative forest restoration grant two years ago to dig up, cover over and reseed some old logging roads in the Jemez Mountains, Bird said. Most of the time has been spent waiting for archaeologists to make sure the road work won’t disturb archaeological sites.

He said the organization plans to hire heavy equipment operators from Chama and other local communities to begin decommissioning the roads in the spring. When they cease to be official Forest Service roads, they are closed to public vehicle access.

“They literally rip the road out and recontour the road so the hydrology is restored. That’s a lot of work,” Bird said. “Then we’ll revegetate with native seeds.”

Science classes from Jemez High School are helping document what the land looks like before and after the roads are covered over.

Watershed restoration has gained increasing interest and funding in the past few years from local communities, environmental groups and land managers. Several communities in New Mexico have formed watershed restoration groups and received funding through the state Environment Department to assess, restore and monitor watershed health.

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

Copyright 2007 Santa Fe New Mexican – Reprinted with permission