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All ecosystems are dynamic, changing due to growth, succession and disturbances. Modeling large landscapes in the United States requires the collective knowledge of experienced and knowledgeable vegetation and fire experts. In collaboration with hundreds of colleagues, LANDFIRE produced more than 1,000 state-and-transitions models and descriptions — one for every ecosystem (called Biophysical Settings or BpS) mapped by the Program. The result is a major contribution to basic and applied vegetation ecology across the country.

An article that explains the assembly and use of a simple piezometer for groundwater and surface water levels, interactions and riparian assesment.

2/28/11 Albuquerque Journal article

Spreadsheet of Collaborative Groups, Partners, and Projects working on forest and watershed management in New Mexico

We're people of northern New Mexico, living in and around the upper Pecos and Canadian River watersheds. A nonprofit organization of young, old and in-between, students and retired people, office workers, engineers and wildlife professionals -- all concerned about the land. Government and private landowners need good information on which to base their decisions for the long-term health of the environment. We do ecological monitoring to help fill that gap. Monitoring is done by community members under the direction of professionals.

Fire suppression in the last century has resulted in forests with excessive amounts of biomass, leading to more severe wildfires, covering greater areas, requiring more resources for suppression and mitigation, and causing increased onsite and offsite damage to forests and watersheds. Forest managers are now attempting to reduce this accumulated biomass by thinning, prescribed fire, and other management activities. These activities will impact watershed health, particularly as larger areas are treated and treatment activities become more widespread in space and in time. Management needs, laws, social pressures, and legal findings have underscored a need to synthesize what we know about the cumulative watershed effects of fuel management activities. In this 2010 synthesis by the Rocky Mountain Research Station, 14 chapters were defined covering fire and forests, machinery, erosion processes, water yield and quality, soil and riparian impacts, aquatic and landscape effects, and predictive tools and procedures. These chapters provide an overview of our current understanding of the cumulative watershed effects of fuel management in the western United States.

The New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (NM WRRI) is pleased to present the latest issue of the Divining Rod. (Vol. XXXV, No. 2, April 2012)

Draft language to be shared and discussed with USEPA during March 21, 2011 meeting in Albuquerque

Starting late this fall, Earth Works Institute will ramp up its watershed planning and restoration activities in the Lower Embudo Valley when it launches a 3-year program to update a watershed plan for the Rio Embudo.

USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. General Technical Report PNW-GTR-870. December 2012. James M. Vose, David L. Peterson, and Toral Patel-Weynand, Editors. This report is a scientific assessment of the current condition and likely future condition of forest resources in the United States relative to climatic variability and change. It includes descriptions of key regional issues and examples of a risk-based framework for assessing climate-change effects.