Santa Fe Watershed Association

Local hydrologist Paige Grant founded the Santa Fe Watershed Association to combat the consequences of gravel mining in the village of Agua Fria and to reintroduce Santa Feans to their river. The bed of the Santa Fe River had been the primary source of gravel for the area since the 1940’s and ongoing mining had stripped away most of the riparian habitat in the area. Once restoration work began on the River at Agua Fria in collaboration with the Agua Fria Village Association and the new County Open Space Program, Paige quickly recognized a lack of a singular voice for the health of the river and the watershed as a whole. Gravel mining in the lower river, garbage and debris in the middle river, a lack of holistic forestry practices in the upper river, erosion and flooding issues throughout the watershed, and a common apathy among many community members all were connected and in urgent need of attention. This realization quickly resulted in a more expanded mission and vision for the Watershed Association.

SFWA completed the Watershed Restoration Action Strategy for the municipal watershed. Even today this document, authored by Paige Grant, provides crucial information and guidelines for ongoing management. This Strategy codified much of the early forest treatments in the watershed that have continued and been updated several times since.

Adopt-the-River program started as a means to increase community involvement in stewardship and trash removal efforts. Each reach along the 10 miles of the urban Santa Fe River is adopted by a volunteer steward team and associated fiscal sponsor. Volunteers remove literal tons of trash from our river each year, as well as support planting, watering, and vegetation management efforts.  

The Santa Fe River was named the “Most Endangered River” in the country by American Rivers after advocacy by SFWA, due to nearly year-round dryness, erosion, trash, and development. This strengthened the motivation of the organization and determined community members to work toward establishing Living River flows.

San Isidro Park was created as the next phase of the earlier river restoration projects in the area. The Santa Fe Watershed Association, Agua Fria Village Association, Santa Fe County, local schools, youth groups, and members of the community worked together to reintroduce the beautiful cottonwood bosque and ephemeral streamflow that Agua Fria elders recall existing as late as the 1960’s.

Santa Fe County purchased 36 acres under its Open Space and Trails program to create the Park, and, in partnership with the Watershed Association, obtained an EPA Wetlands grant to begin the restoration work. The engineering and river course and bank construction work were completed using principles of applied fluvial geomorphology and bioengineering in the restoration work. A gravel footpath above the riparian area was installed and the area was planted with willows, cottonwoods, native shrubs and grasses for bank stabilization.

Large river flows swept the area in 2008. Most of the banks with willows and post vanes withstood the onslaught while there was severe erosion of the banks that had not received these treatments. There was also bank erosion from storm water flowing down the banks. It was clear that to protect the work already done and to create a more stable system, the rest of the area needed to be planted and more structures needed to be installed as soon as possible.

In 2009, The Santa Fe Watershed Association received a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Federation to support the county’s efforts. Planting of more willows and cottonwoods along the river’s edge, grass seeding of the banks and planting of small shrubs started in the spring of 2009.

Santa Fe Watershed Association supported river channel restoration in The Nature Conservancy’s Canyon Preserve. Originally the site of Old Stone Dam and Two Mile Reservoir, as well as the headgates of several Acequias, the Canyon Preserve displays the long history of water and landscape management in our watershed. The SFWA assisted efforts to restore the historic channel of the River and feed the Two Mile Pond habitat resulting from the partial breach of Two Mile Reservoir.

Municipal Watershed Management Plan approved and signed by the City of Santa Fe, the US Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the Santa Fe Watershed Association. This codified two core SFWA programs—My Water, My Watershed, and the adult watershed hikes—as well as updated ongoing forest and fire management activity and community investment in ecosystem services. Closed to the public since 1932, the Upper Santa Fe Watershed has undergone a dramatic transformation to protect our watershed and water supply. Using management tools such as mechanical thinning and prescribed burning, the City of Santa Fe and U.S. Forest Service along with the Santa Fe Watershed Association and others, have been working over the last several decades to restore the forest.

Adult watershed hikes are your opportunity to learn about the restoration efforts and catch a glimpse of the upland landscapes that supply 30-50 percent of the City’s drinking water. During a five-mile roundtrip hike through The Nature Conservancy’s Santa Fe Canyon Preserve and the Upper Santa Fe Watershed, experts from the Santa Fe Watershed Association, the City of Santa Fe, and U.S. Forest Service lead participants on a visit past Nichols Reservoir to Agua Sarca and cover topics such as the history of Santa Fe’s drinking water supply, how the reservoir systems work, forest thinning and healthy forest ecology, the role of beavers in our watershed, and other topics about the ecology of the Santa Fe Watershed.

My Water, My Watershed program was established. My Water, My Watershed is an experiential, inquiry-based program for fifth grade Santa Fe Public School students to study and explore their watershed, learning about the complex relationships between living things and their environment. This program has been aligned with New Mexico STEM Ready! science standards to complement classroom education. Nearly all 5 ^th  graders in the city now get to visit the upper watershed and learn about where their water comes from, conservation, habitat, water quality, and more.

Buckman Direct Diversion was completed and opened the possibility of the Living River Ordinance. The BDD allotments and water rights from the San Juan-Chama Project helped the City of Santa Fe reduce its dependence on mined groundwater and surface water from the Santa Fe watershed.

The Santa Fe Watershed Association and the community of Santa Fe won a significant victory with the passage of the Target Flow for a Living River Ordinance on February 29th, 2012. After more than a decade, and five years of intense advocacy by SFWA, a standing-room only audience witnessed a “watershed moment” when the City Council unanimously voted to allocate 1,000 acre feet of water into the Santa Fe River in wet or normal years, and establishing a “River Fund” from voluntary contributions. The River now supports a diversity of wildlife and flora, as well as nearly continuous green-space for people to enjoy. While this has been a major achievement and has transformed the Santa Fe River Corridor, the challenge of justly dividing water is ever present as droughts become more common and human population grows. We continue to promote holistic management of the Watershed through our various programs and invaluable collaboration with local nonprofits and city, county, state, and federal government branches.

Adopt-an-Arroyo program was established to include arroyos in trash removal and stewardship efforts. Twenty-five reaches along our 80 miles of urban arroyos have been adopted by volunteer steward teams and fiscal sponsors.

First rain garden was installed by La Farge library. Rain gardens are an easy and effective method that can be used to help reduce the impacts of stormwater runoff. These gardens are strategically placed to intercept pollutant-laden stormwater until it can be fully absorbed into the ground. Stormwater is rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation water that runs off hard surfaces and across land or into pipes and flows into streams and local waterways. This runoff essentially “rinses off” the landscapes where it falls and can carry pollution that impacts stream quality. Since there is minimal infiltration, the runoff can also increase local flooding.

The specific rain garden design serves as a collection point for water as it flows overland, typically down a street or parking lot. Once collected the water is then able to slowly infiltrate into the underlying soil. Rain gardens come in all different shapes and sizes and work well with native plants that are indigenous to the southwest. These plants require little maintenance once established and their deep roots soak up lots of water. The area provides food and habitat for wildlife and can be impressively beautiful.

Rain gardens are an attractive green solution to reduce storm water pollution and improve overall water quality. These aspects are an important step in addressing the health of the Santa Fe River. Simple solutions through stewardship add to the river’s standing and value in our community.

Santa Fe Watershed Association began facilitating the New Mexico Climate Masters course, providing approximately 30 hours of programming over a 7-week time frame annually. The curriculum focuses primarily on climate change in New Mexico and the locally relevant interrelated connections between water, soil, food production, consumption/waste, forest management, transportation, energy and the way we live our lives. Weekly, expert guest speakers provide in-depth presentations in each of the topic areas and participants go on a field trip into the Upper Santa Fe Watershed to witness first-hand the efforts already underway to protect our forest and water supply. Upon completion of the program, participants create and implement a 30 hour service project in the community.

This project has two objectives for the participants: 1) Serve as a positive messenger of how we as individuals and a community can reduce our carbon footprint. 2) Incorporate the learned material into a small-scale, community service effort.

The Santa Fe River Traditional Communities Collaborative (SFRTCC), began as a community group responding to a Santa Fe River restoration proposal, and has evolved into a sustained knowledgeable, thoughtful, and respected group of individuals all of whom share concerns about the Santa Fe River Watershed, the health of its riparian environment and the rich cultural traditions of its agricultural history.

The Collaborative has been a true collaboration comprising of a wide range of individuals, organizations and government entities including area ranchers and farmers, the Presidents of the La Bajada Village Association, the Agua Fria Village Association and the La Cienega Valley Association, the Executive Director of the Santa Fe Watershed Association, the Director of the Water-Culture Institute and representatives from the New Mexico Acequia Association, the Santa Fe–Pojoaque Soil and Water Conservation District,  the Pueblo de Cochiti and Rivers Run Through Us. We are also joined by representatives from state and federal agencies and active participation from city and county staff.

SFWA began collaboration with Rio Grande Return to support the next phase of riparian restoration in the river corridor between Frenchy’s Field and Siler Road. This multi-year project has been supported by the Office of Outdoor Recreation, the Sierra Club Foundation, and the Nusenda Foundation, and is pole-planting thousands more willows and cottonwoods in the river to improve habitat, hydrology, and community greenspace.

SFWA completed its largest rain garden to date, the Brother’s Lane rain garden, with support from a New Mexico Environment Department River Steward grant and the City of Santa Fe. It was constructed by The RainCatcher, Inc., with engineering support from Watershed West.

The Mi Arroyo, Mi Tierra middle school curriculum was developed to support place-based outdoor education using local arroyos that are readily accessible to most schools. Each mini unit begins with a walk to observe different phenomena taking place in the arroyo. Through the lens of stormwater, students explore erosion, infiltration, and pollution while using hands-on activities that are aligned with 6th grade and middle school NM STEM Ready! Science Standards. Students make connections between the history of the local arroyo system, how water moving through impacts the system, best management practices, and the role arroyos have played in local cultures over time.

Adopt-the-River and Adopt-an-Arroyo programs were unified and rebranded as Adopt Your Watershed in recognition of the dynamism, communal responsibility, and nested interdependency of our watershed as a whole.

SFWA Looks to the Future. None of us would be here without the River; it holds physically and metaphorically all that we are, all that we have been, and all that we strive to be. As we reflect on the legacy of our organization and accomplishments large and small in celebration of over 25 years of service, we remain as committed and motivated as ever to deepening and expanding the ethics of connectedness and community in our watershed.  

You can see a map of all rain gardens, river and arroyo reaches, and other SFWA work here:  SFWA Projects - Google My Maps 

Santa Fe Watershed Association 1413 2 ^nd  St., Suite 3 Santa Fe, NM 87505  www.santafewatershed.org  505-820-1696  info@santafewatershed.org 

Special thanks to Santa Fe City Historian Valerie Rangel for putting together this Story Map!