Earth Works Institute Newsletter

 

 

These are some of the many initiatives of Earth Works Institute this year that connect thousands of people to nature. Moreover, our work educates youth and grown-ups alike in caring for our environment while also supporting local and personal economic conditions in these trying times. Finally, together we boost the health and productivity of our natural environment!

 

Please read on to learn about some of our EcoWise Initiatives during this 2011 fall season and how to participate in our events! If you can make a donation to further our work, please know that your contribution leverages five to ten times its value in public funds we are pursuing to accomplish our goals. You can now also make monthly donations! Please click on the DONATE NOW tab to go to our donations page on our website. Thank you!

 

Jan-Willem Jansens
Executive Director

 

The new Adopt-an-Arroyo Program in the City of Santa Fe is real! Walmart's Sam's Club stepped up as the first sponsor to adopt the section of Arroyo de los Chamisos behind the Sam's Club store on Rodeo Road! We are very excited and grateful for Sam's Club's commitment to this program. Please acknowledge their support by joining a local arroyo stewardship team, hiking the arroyo trail behind Sam's Club, and/or by visiting their store!

 

 

 

 

The Adopt-an-Arroyo Program will create a community of arroyo stewards  and sponsors to help create attractive, ecologically healthy and safe arroyos in Santa Fe. The Adopt-an-Arroyo program was established in 2008 in order to meet the City of Santa Fe's goals for cleaner stormwater runoff. The City of Santa Fe, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Santa Fe Community Foundation provided funding to Earth Works Institute to plan and implement the program. Our goal is to inspire the community to become good stewards of these valuable water ways so that together we can improve their safety, health and beauty. In order to meet our goals we need help from supporters like you!

 

You can become an Arroyo Steward or an Arroyo Sponsor! We invite local businesses, institutions, service organizations, or individuals to adopt (sponsor) a specific section of an arroyo. In exchange, we offer a sign with an acknowledgement of the sponsor. This fall several other arroyo sections are open for adoption in a pilot project that is expected to expand to more arroyos across Santa Fe in 2012. Please contact John Busemeyer of Earth Works Institute (310-2623 or john@earthworksinstitute.org) for more information.

 

Soon, the Earth Works team will reach out to community members to join local Arroyo Stewardship Teams for seasonal arroyo clean up and restoration. The stewardship teams will learn how to build and maintain water infiltration and erosion control structures, identify wildlife tracks and edible plants,and enjoy a new sense of community in a safer, cleaner, and greener arroyo park in their City backyard area.

 

Benefits to your community and the environment: Your support will help keep our waterways clean, healthy, and safe, while bringing attention to our arroyos, which function as "backyard" areas for people and wildlife. The program will also help area schools to develop outdoor education programs and will help employ culturally and financially disadvantaged youth as they gain experience on a path toward green-collar careers.

 

What should be or could be the future of the Galisteo Basin? Is it destined for more residential development, roads, mining or oil and gas exploration? Or will it become a more widely treasured rural and wildlands area, valued for its unique historical and cultural sites, its rare but precious water resources and wetlands, its function as a wildlife linkage of continental significance, and its rich opportunities for outdoor recreation and tourism?

 

A new report "Galisteo Watershed Conservation Initiative - Quality of Life at a Crossroads" presents a thorough overview of the cultural and natural history and potential of the Galisteo Basin. Santa Fe Conservation Trust, Earth Works Institute, and EarthAnalytic, Inc. worked for more than six years with Santa Fe County and many other public agencies, non-governmental organizations, residents, and UNM to produce the report with core funding from the New Mexico Legislature. The report describes in words, illustrations, and maps the potential for creating a "green infrastructure"--a mosaic and network of natural lands--in the Galisteo Basin and between the Basin and its surrounding ecoregions in New Mexico.

 

The study already played a significant role in averting oil and gas development in the Galisteo Basin in 2008. Since then, the report helped put the Galisteo Basin on the map of national conservation biologists as a critical linkage area for wildlife in a chain of core habitats between Mexico and Alaska. The study also supported Santa Fe County in its efforts to develop the Sustainable Land Management Plan, leveraged hundreds of thousands of dollars of public funds for ecological restoration of the Basin's streams and wetlands, and stimulated a rapid expansion of voluntary land protection agreements and protected County Open Space across thousands of acres of land in the Basin. As residents and Santa Fe County officials continue to explore the most desirable regulatory provisions for a new Santa Fe County Land Use Code, the study may serve as an important source of background data as well as a method for evaluating the conservation potential of our land resources in ways that support local quality of life and livelihoods!

 

For more information about the report or to purchase a CD, please contact Earth Works Institute at 505-982-9806 or info@earthworksinstitute.org or Santa Fe Conservation Trust at 505-989-7019.

 

 

The workshop will include instruction and a hands-on experience opportunity for (1) erosion problems around trails and how to stabilize eroding soil and gullies, (2) trail repair techniques that help drain water off the trail, and (3) trail closure and relocation (trail building!). Your instructors are John Busemeyer, Restoration Ecologist, and Jan-Willem Jansens, Executive Director, both of Earth Works Institute, and John Parker of the ECIA.

 

 

The workshop is free of charge! ECIA will provide snacks and water. Please bring sturdy, all weather work cloths and work shoes, plenty of water, a hat, and a sack lunch. Feel free to bring your own favorite tool as well.

 

Please contact Earth Works Institute for advance registration at info@earthworksinstitute.org. For more information please contact John Busemeyer at john@earthworksinstitute.org.

We're happy to welcome Edwin Lemus-Bojorquez to our team as the new Crew Supervisor for our 4C/Climate Change Conservation Corps. Edwin brings to us his experience of more than 27 years in construction work coupled with thorough expertise in organizing and coaching people who want to make a new start in life. A native from Guatemala, he has lived several decades in California before moving to Santa Fe 3 years ago. After his flying start with the crew in the last 3 weeks,we are confident that Edwin will serve as a great mentor to our 4C cohort of this fall.

 

In early October, Dana Richards moved on to take up his past career as a school teacher-and undoubtedly as a local leader in environmental education-after more than 4 years with our organization. Dana leaves behind a broad trail of accomplishments as the founder and coordinator of our 4C/Climate Change Conservation Corps and of our education programs in area schools. He has been a mentor and counselor to more than 100 young adults that graduated from the 4C program in the past 3 years. He was at the drawing board, in the classrooms, and on the ground for the development and realization of outdoor classrooms and edible school yards at Eldorado Community School, Monte del Sol Charter School, Turquoise Trail Charter School, Santa Fe High School, Salazar Elementary School, Amy Biehl Community School, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. With our 4C crews he also spearheaded many weatherization and energy efficiency on-the-job-training projects in homes and schools throughout Santa Fe County. We wish him best of luck in his further career!

 

After serving one 3-year term on our Board of Directors, Kimberly Kiel recently decided to step down. Kim has brought a broad spectrum of insights regarding business and financing acumen, personnel management, and youth programming to our organization. We are grateful for her past support and energy with which she advised our team during a period of expansion and change. As the owner of Horizon's Sustainable Financial Services she will undoubted continue to play an important role in socially and environmentally responsible initiatives in our City and region. Thank you Kim for all your great work!

 

 

Topic: "The Status of Wildlife in New Mexico. The conference will feature experts from around the state who will discuss the status of wildlife habitat and connectivity. Also, Jan-Willem Jansens of Earth Works Institute, among others, will give an update about wildlife habitat protection in the Galisteo Basin during the Special, Concurrent Session of NM Wildways.

Where: University of NM, Science & Technology Park-801 University Blvd, SE #101, Albuquerque
For more info visit: http://joomla.wildlife.org/nm
Register at: http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?476375 

7:15-8:00 Registration
8:00-8:10 Welcome
8:10-9:20 Panel Session
9:20-9:50 Break
9:50-10:10 Paper Presentations
11:30-12:50 Lunch
12:50-1:10 Paper Presentations
2:35-3:00 Break
3:00-3:20 Paper Presentations
5:00 Close of Meeting

Habitat Connectivity Workshop

9:50-10:05 Pete David, SWCA Environmental Consultants - Session Introduction
10:05-10:25 Kurt Menke, Birds Eye View - "Introduction to the New Mexico Wildways"
10:25-10:45 Commissioner Ray Powell, State Land Office - "State Trust Land and Wildlife Corridors"
10:45-11:05 Jan-Willem Jansens, Earth Works Institute - "The Galisteo Basin: From Gap Area to Wildlife Linkage"
11:05-11:25 Mark Watson, NM Dept. of Game and Fish - BNFS's Abo Canyon Double Track and Wildlife Fencing Project"
11:25-11:30 Questions/Discussion regarding format for afternoon workgroup session

11:30-12:50 Lunch - on your own
12:50-2:35 Workgroup Session
2:35-3:00 Break
3:00-5:00 Workgroup Session

 

October 22, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
Trail Stewardship Workshop
John Busemeyer and Jan-Willem Jansens of Earth Works Institute, together with John Parker of the Eldorado Community Improvement Association (ECIA) and Eldorado Boy Scouts will lead a workshop in trail restoration in the Eldorado Greenbelt.

Where: Gather at 8:30 am at the Eldorado Community Center (Hacienda Loop 1, Eldorado) to carpool to the work site.
For more information: contact John Busemeyer at john@earthworksinstitute.org.
Register at: info@earthworksinstitute.org.
Bring: Sturdy, all weather work cloths and work shoes, plenty of water, a hat, and a sack lunch. Feel free to bring your own favorite tool as well.

 

October 29, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm
Adopt-an-Arroyo Stewardship Workshop
Please join us in creating a local stewardship team to provide care for the Arroyo de los Chamisos! You will learn about the Adopt-an-Arroyo Program, learn about storm water management and soil conservation, and have a chance to help clean up the arroyo behind Sam's Club as we acknowledge Sam's Club for its support as the first /Sponsor of an arroyo section! We will bring snacks, beverages, and trash bags.

Where: Park at the Sam's Club parking lot and gather just west of Sam's Club on the Arroyo de los Chamisos Urban Trail. We will go from there to work along the arroyo around Sam's Club up to Richard's Avenue. We will gather at 11:30 am for a short community meeting with refreshments. For more information: contact John Busemeyer at john@earthworksinstitute.org.
Register at: info@earthworksinstitute.org. Bring: Sturdy, all weather work cloths and work shoes, gloves, water, and a hat.

 

November 8-10
Quivira Coalition Tenth Anniversary Conference
Where: Embassy Suites Hotel, Albuquerque.
For more information: visit www.quiviracoalition.org
Registration: Please note that the cheaper hotel deals end on October 25th! http://quiviracoalition.org/10th_Anniversary_Conference/Online_Registration/index.html

This fall Santa Fe County continues to collect public input for the County Sustainable Land Development Code process. You can offer comments, participate in or communicate with working groups on special topics, learn about special meeting dates, and find more information on line at http://www.santafecounty.org/growth_management/sldc.