January 2014 Green Fire Times

News & Views

from the

S u s t ai n ab l e S o u t h w e s t

New Mexico’s Acequias: A ncient S ystems S till V iable in the

21 st C entury

Water: C ommunity R esource or C ommodity ? ¿P ala o pluma ? ¡L os dos !

January 2014

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News & Views

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Sustainable Southwest

Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project

Contents

A Bird’s-Eye View of Northern New Mexico’s Acequias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Brief Acequia History . . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . ..9 Anatomy of an Acequia. . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 10 The New Mexico Acequia Association: 25 Years and Counting . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 13 The Acequia Movement in New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Congreso de las Acequias . . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 16 Acequia Waters: Community Resource or Commodity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 ¿Pala o pluma? ¡Los dos! . . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20 How Do You Put a Dollar Value on Acequia Culture?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Acequias as a Sustainable Model for Hydro–Ecology . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 23 Ancient Systems Still Viable in the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Mayordomo Project Aims to Train a New Generation . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 27 Escuelita de las Acequias . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 29 Somos Gente de la Tierra: The Sembrando Semillas Program . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 29 Food Hubs in New Mexico / Book Profile . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 31 La Cosecha del Norte: A Growing Co-op /San Ysidro Prayer, and Poetry . . .. . .. . 32 Farmer-to-Farmer Training in Mora. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 35 Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . 28, 35, 37 What’s Going On. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 38

Acequias Provide Insight into Sustainability

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cequias are the age-old, hand-dug, gravity-fed irrigation ditches in northern New Mexico that make possible the cultivation of locally grown food. But they represent much more than that. As a social system implanted into the hydrological cycle for community subsistence, acequias constitute a place-based knowledge of watershed, intertwined with food traditions, community and culture. They are an instructive example of democratic selfgovernance, stewardship and sharing of resources. They are also the defining structure of their ecosystem. The unlined ditches allow water to seep into and recharge local aquifers, providing a rich riparian zone for wildlife, shade trees and native plants.

Acequia leaders have maintained that El agua es la vida: water is a life-giving common resource intertwined with the economic viability of local agriculture for families in rural communities. During periods of drought, for generations parciantes (water-rights holders) have collectively withstood water shortages.

Today, in response to climate change, they are sensitively integrating new technologies. Will the acequias of New Mexico survive into the remaining decades of the 21st century and retain local water rights for community needs? Not if water rights are reallocated to the highest bidder for urban development. Fortunately in New Mexico, acequias, as an association of users, do have a say in water transfers because they are legally defined as local institutions of government. They are currently on the front lines, confronting powerful interests whose impacts would sever deeply cherished ties to water and land, our region’s unique legacy.

COVER: n maa acequia photo contest winner “nieve en la presa” by irene córdova la placita northside ditch, vadito, taos county, new mexico

Green Fire Times is not to be confused with the Green Fire Report, an in-house quarterly publication of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center. The NMELC can be accessed online at: www.nmelc.org

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A Bird’s-Eye View of Northern NM’s Acequias

Alejandro López

ew Mexico is fortunate to have any number of cultural and physical phenomena such as sovereign Indian communities, historic Mexicano villages and adobe buildings. These unique legacies set our state apart from other regions of the country, lure tourists and make life interesting. They also challenge the state and its people to ponder new levels of their integration into, coexistence with, or possibly even resistance toward mainstream culture’s reigning paradigm of endless growth and “progress.”

The case of New Mexico’s intricate sy stem of acequias, number ing approximately 800, is a classic example of such a cultural artifact that has met with contradictory attitudes by nearly everyone involved in their use, maintenance, administration and even appreciation, since American culture began to interact with the indigenous cultures. At present, it is not known whether this historic, holistic system of water technology and distribution will survive, thrive or all but disappear.

Urban growth threatens to overtake any other use of water.

© Alejandro López

At one time, these gravity-fed irrigation channels intersected most of the bottomlands of northern New Mexico and made these lands into a virtual paradise, yielding copious amounts of fruit, vegetables and grains. Not surprisingly, they also recharged the aquifers of each of the valleys that they meandered through. According to our elders, the water in the acequias in the early part of the last century was so pristine that most people, unhesitantly, drank from them. For some communities, such as Las Truchas in Río Arriba County, there were no other sources of drinking water.

On yet another level, the village acequia governance system made for a highly democratic form of interaction between the people, as well as for a democratic parcelingout of this precious resource in the context of a mostly cooperative agrarian society in which everyone tended to watch out for everyone else’s good. As might be expected, the mayordomo (ditch-master) was accorded the respect enjoyed today by judges and other arbitrators.

One can onl y imagine the time and energy it took for the villagers of several centuries ago to dig out these channels, at times with wooden implements, as their predecessors had done in other parts of the Southwest, México, Spain, Morocco and the Middle East, beginning with the dawn of the agricultural revolution at least 8,000 years ago. Indeed, so arduous was the task of building earthen dams to hold back the water during times of snowmelt and while digging the acequia channels, that out of this enormous labor there arose a nearly fanatical love of homeland (querencia) and a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the defense of one’s agricultural community. This is a trait that one still finds among many New Mexicans who are tied to the land and to its hard-won, hand-wrought waterways.

Among the first Americans to enter New Mexico, there were many who compared its landscape to that of Egypt, not only because of its general aridness, but also because of the lifegiving presence of the Río Grande, its many tributaries and the myriad oases that thrived as a result of the acequias.

Even though the majority of Pueblo Indian and Mexicano New Mexicans valued and made use of the water that flowed through their acequias for

© Seth Roffman

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A canoa, hollowed-out logs over an intermittent stream, supported by a sawn timber frame, is a once-common structure that is still part of the acequia system that brings water to fields and pastures of the village of Las Trampas.

subsistence agriculture, the incoming Americans had, by and large, other uses in mind for this same water. They were mainly concerned with its application in the development of stock raising, industry (sawmills and mines), and ultimately for urban growth, which, over time, has increased exponentially and at present threatens to overtake any other use.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th, both the Pueblo Indian and Mexicano people of the state continued to raise crops and feed themselves using their age-old systems of irrigation, although their populations were burgeoning and beginning to outstrip the land’s ability to sustain them. When the people of northern New Mexico were deemed to be poor by the government and enrolled in state welfare programs, commodity foods such as bulk cheese, powdered milk and canned meat further undermined people’s sense of self-sufficiency and connection to the land and water.

Coincidentally, other pressures were beginning to be felt that would radically alter the landscape o f p e o p l e ’s re l a t i o n s h i p to acequias.

During the course of the

20th century the Pueblo and Mexicano people were socialized and schooled in institutions that undervalued the regional labor-intensive agriculture as well as the traditional diet of the people, in favor of large-scale, out-ofstate agriculture and the importation of foodstuffs such as sugar, coffee and white flour from other parts of the world. New Mexicans were steered away from agriculture toward wageearning jobs. Many people loyal to the land attempted to do both but in time discovered that such a regimen was deeply exhausting and mostly unsustainable. Much of the water from the acequias was then diverted to producing cash crops requiring little manual labor, such as alfalfa, or was allowed to find its way back to the river, leaving the fields some lands uncultivated. In time the two peoples who had acted as both the creators and stewards of these age-old waterways were forced by the prevailing conditions to ignore, or relegate to a secondary level of importance, their agricultural traditions, and with them, the acequias.

Concurrently, in 1907 the State Water Code redefined the use of the acequias’ water resources in terms of water rights measured in acre-feet of water, as opposed to the duration of water use in irrigation as had been customary during the Spanish and Mexican periods. Furthermore, the state decreed a separation of water use from land use and made it possible for people to lose continued on page 10

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A Brief Acequia History

José A. Rivera

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© Seth Roffman

he acequias of southern Colorado and New Mexico are the oldest water-management institutions in the United States of European origin.

These irrigated agrosystems date to the time of Spanish settlement in the northern borderlands of Nueva España during the late 16th century with the Juan de Oñate colony in 1598 and expanded after the De Vargas resettlement of 1692. Due to the arid region, it was essential to settle

forest timbers, brush and rocks at the diversion point, and the acequia madre defined the landscape and demarked the boundaries for irrigation for several miles downstream, extending the riparian zone beyond the narrow confines of the natural channels. These technologies of construction and irrigation methods were replicated by the successive waves of settlers into the upper watersheds of the Río Grande Basin, fostering the growth of agrarian communities along the Camino Real de Tier ra Adentro from El Paso del Norte to Santa Fe and later to the Taos Basin and parts of southern Colorado, and eventuall y the San Juan Basin to the west and other tributaries of the Canadian River to the east.

During the 15981821 Spanish colonial period, El Rancho de las Golandrinas in La Cienega near Santa Fe water resources were owned and managed by a near water. The irrigation technology community of landowners, “los dueños employed by the waves of pobladores de propiedad regable,” all irrigating from (settlers) was gravity flow of surface a single main canal similar to what was water from rivers diverted to headgates found in medieval Valencia in southern through a system of earthen canals.

Spain (Glick, 1970). In New Mexico, Without the aid of survey instruments or each acequia system was built as a modern tools, early settlers engineered commons where the irrigators formed earthen canals on the desert landscape agreements as a joint labor force. Their by the use of collective human labor. path to self-government was aided by the lack of municipal structures in the immediate vicinity to prescribe their rules, appoint their officials, or to manage their irrigation system. Arreglos, or local agreements, prescribed how to govern their affairs and allocate water resources in a fair and equitable manner and, also, to resolve conflicts and disputes.

The first step, as instructed by the Loose and informal, this cohesion of ordenanzas de descubrimiento (Laws of community members laid the foundation the Indies, 1573), was to locate a bend for the evolution of the acequia associations, in the river or another suitable feature recognized and empowered later in the to build a diversion structure from territorial laws of New Mexico during which to capture water and turn it into the 1890s. Today there are about 800 local ditches. The presas, dams constructed acequias in New Mexico and about 70 in of locally available materials such as the San Luís Valley of Colorado. After

These technologies fostered the growth of agrarian communities along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

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more than four centuries, acequias have maintained and preserved the irrigation customs and mutual help traditions of earlier times. For the annual limpia, a ritual held every spring to clean out the ditch, parciantes everywhere renew their strong attachment to their locality for yet another cycle of irrigation and community antiquity. On the feast day of San Isidro, one of the Taos acequias celebrates the patron saint of farming by holding a novena and evening mass at their chapel followed by a procession along the parish roads and into the irrigated fields to bless the sacred landscape of springs, ditches, corrals, homes, the chapel and other religious shrines (Rodríguez, 2006).

To build capacity and mobilize support, the acequia associations organize educational programs, technical assistance workshops, and an annual meeting of the Congreso de las Acequias convened by the New Mexico Acequia Association. Will the acequias survive into the remaining decades of the 21st century? To the parciantes, water is inextricably linked to the survival of community and is vital to the building of local food systems, healthy ecosystems, and a sustainable future not only for themselves but for other rural and urban water stakeholders in the upper Río Grande. i

REFERENCES

Glick, Thomas F. (1970). Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia. Harvard University Press: Cambridge.

Meyer, Michael C. and Michael M. Brescia (1998). “The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as a Living Document: Water and Land Use Issues in Northern New Mexico.” New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 4 (October, 1998).

Rodríguez, Sylvia (2006). Acequia: Water Sharing, Sanctity, and Place. School of Advanced Research Press: Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Dr. José A. Rivera is a research scholar at UNM’s Center for Regional Studies and professor of planning at the School of Architecture and Planning, UNM. He is author of Acequia Culture: Land, Water, and Community. jrivera@unm.edu

Acequia Culture:

Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest

By José A. Rivera, University of New Mexico Press, 1998 La Cultura de la Acequia, Spanish translation of Acequia Culture Universidad de Valencia, Spain, 2009 This book delineates an acequia culture based on a reciprocal relationship between irrigation and community. The acequia experience grows out of a conservation ethic and a tradition of sharing that should be recognized and preserved in an age of increasing demand for scarce water resources.

Rivera lays out the legal and administrative status of these communal institutions, from their Old World roots to the contemporary period, and recommends a number of public policy actions to sustain the acequia communities into the future.

The Historical Role of Acequias and Agriculture in New Mexico

By José A. Rivera, in Water Policy in New Mexico: Addressing the challenges of an uncertain future, David S. Brookshire, Hoskin V. Gupta and Olen Paul Matthews, editors, Resources for the Future Press, 2012 This book by a group of academics from multiple disciplines addresses water policy and management issues in New Mexico, including specific topics such as water quality, endangered species, and the evolution of new water-management institutions.

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La Sierra: The upper watershed and source of the snowmelt that creates the flow for rivers and streams that are diverted into the acequias through a diversion structure known as a presa. The sierra, often under the management of the US Forest Service, is also the location of livestock grazing permits.

La Acequia: The acequia has both a physical and a social definition. The word acequia refers to the water canal that carries irrigation water from the stream to fields and refers to the irrigation infrastructure along the way. The word acequia also refers to the community of families who use the acequia for irrigation. For example, one would say, “I belong to the Acequia del Monte.”

Presa: The presa is a small impoundment, historically made of rock, brush and logs, to divert water from the river to the acequia madre, or the mother ditch. Modern presas are usually constructed of concrete.

Drawing by Arnie Valdez

Compuerta: Individual farm headgates divert water from the acequia to the fields that are owned by individual parciantes, or irrigators, who own water rights along the acequia.

Parciante: Individual irrigators who own water rights are called parciantes. Each parciante owns a derecho or a water right that is attached to his or her land.

Comisión: The three-member elected commission of each acequia is responsible for certain decisions concerning the maintenance and operation of the acequia.

Mayordomo: The mayordomo is the day-to-day caretaker of the acequia and the person who manages the irrigation system. Acequias differ in their local customs sharing water within the acequia and between neighboring acequias.

Derecho: Each parciante on the acequia has a derecho or water right attached to his or her land. The derecho may be measured both in terms of approximate acreage and also in terms of time or flow rate for purposes of water allocation by the mayordomo.

Sacar la acequia: Each spring, the mayordomo organizes a work crew of peones (or workers) to clean the acequia. Each parciante is required to participate in the spring cleaning by contributing peones in proportion to the amount of derechos owned by each parciante.

Regadío: Land that is irrigated along the acequia is often referred to as regadío.

Irrigated lands of the acequias support pasture, orchards, crops and livestock.

During the summer, many parciantes take their livestock to grazing allotments in the sierra while allowing hay and pasture to grow on their regadío. i

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their water rights even though they retained their land.

Given the interplay of these many complex forces, it is no surprise that by the late 1960s the subsistence agriculture for which New Mexico was known had shifted away from self-sufficiency to a combination of wage labor and part time agriculture.

Symptomatic of this development is the fact that, at present, of the approximately 9 to 12 original acequias that once crisscrossed Santa Fe, all but three have ceased to flow.

The decisions and actions of two opposing movements will determine the ultimate destiny of New Mexico’s acequias.

However, the late ‘60s was also the period during which the American Indian and Chicano movements stirred the memories and aspirations of both peoples and inspired a new wave of activism in defense of their traditions and homelands. This resulted in a movement to protect New Mexico’s land and water resources. It emerged simultaneously f rom communities such as Tierrra Amarilla, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Mora and Taos in the form of local, regional and even statewide acequia associations. These associations have championed the plight of local acequia communities and of the parciantes (water-rights holders and users) over those who would separate the land and water of a community for more industrial and urban purposes.

They have also advocated for the maintenance and repair of the acequia infrastructures and recently launched mayordomo trainee programs and programs that stimulate the interest of youth in the region’s agricultural traditions. Both the New Mexico State Legislature and national and regional foundations have been responsive to requests for assistance in furthering these goals, and indeed, some progress has been made.

Today we witness two opposing movements whose decisions and actions will determine the ultimate destiny of New Mexico’s acequias. The

first is the progressive desertification of New Mexico, the rapid growth of its urban centers and the extreme commodification of and competition for water resources. The second is a growing movement among Native American and Chicano people to recover the healthy traditions around land, food, water and work that they once had, which may be the only salvation for redeeming a generation of youth mired in drug and alcohol abuse—the symptoms of physical and spiritual dislocation from land, water and the traditional cultures that had once nourished them.

© Alejandro López

© Yasmeen Najmi

Anatomy of an Acequia

A Bird’s-Eye View continued from page 7

Echoing the latter local movement is a mainstream movement known through such terms as bioregionalism, sustainability, permaculture and farmto-table. The sometimes parallel values of these “isms” at times coincide with those of native farmers, while other times they compete with and displace the local historically tied belief systems around land and water. Be that as it may, it is certain that northern New Mexico has become one of the country’s hot spots for organic farming, heirloom seed banking, and now, the veneration of acequias, together with the waters that flow through them.

More and more, local restaurants and stores, once the purveyors of almost exclusively out-of-state foodstuffs, are purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables to meet their customers’ demand. Another aspect of this multifaceted movement to reclaim New Mexico’s potential to grow its own food and use its water wisely is the continued on page 32

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NM Acequia Association: 25 Years and Counting

Paula García

I

n 2014, the New Mexico Acequia Association is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It is humbling to mention such a milestone when acequias have endured in New Mexico for centuries.

Through their long history, acequias have been keepers of tradition, the caretakers of water for growing food, and communities bound together for the common purpose of sharing water.

For many generations, acequias have retained a great degree of autonomy in local water governance and have made possible the cultivation of locally grown food. This legacy of placebased knowledge of our watersheds, intertwined with food traditions, community and culture is very much alive in the 21st century.

Concilio of the NMAA (l-r): Jackie Powell, Don Bustos, Alfredo Montoya, Harold Trujillo, Antonio Médina, Gilbert Sandoval

By the late 1990s, acequia leaders recognized the importance of structural change in New Mexico water law to enact some protections for acequias.

They needed a stronger collective voice in state water policy to have more of a decision-making role in water transfers. The NMAA reinvented the organization in 2000, so that it could serve to collectively advocate for acequias, and created the Congreso de las Acequias, a statewide governing body.

After a two-year statewide organizing effort, the NMAA led the passage of new laws to regulate water transfers and protect water rights from loss for non-use through water banking (both carried by the late Speaker Ben Luján and Sen. Carlos Cisneros). Since then,

© Seth Roffman (2)

The efforts of working toward a common purpose began before NMAA was founded, when acequias in various regions banded together for a united legal defense in waterrights adjudication in the 1960s.

The first version of NMAA was established in 1990 by acequia leaders concerned primarily about the transfer of water rights out of acequias and attempts to change the use of those

water rights away from agriculture to purposes such as subdivisions, resorts and industrial uses. NMAA leaders countered the adage “water flows uphill to money” and reframed the water issue with the statement, “Water is Life.”

NMAA staff at the November 2013 Congreso

NMAA’s Vision for the Future

Acequias flow with clean water, people work together to grow food, and communities celebrate cultural and spiritual traditions. People honor acequias as part of their heritage and express querencia through a strong connection to land and community. Our communities have an abundance of healthy, locally grown food because we recognize agriculture as a respected and dignified livelihood and way of life.

Guided by our core values, the NMAA grows a movement of people of all ages and walks of life to defend and protect our precious water by resisting its commodification and contamination. Through involvement in NMAA, families and youth are inspired to cultivate the land, care for our acequias and heal injustices. Knowledge and experience about growing food, sharing water and saving seed are passed on from generation to generation.

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the NMAA has worked to ensure that acequias have a voice in state water policy. The Acequia Governance Project, dedicated to strengthening acequia governance and implementing new statutory powers of the acequias, was established during this same time frame.

A strong collective voice in state water policy While water was a driving force in uniting acequias for a common purpose, the NMAA also embraced work focused on youth in agriculture through Sembrando Semillas (Cultivating Seeds) and to encourage more people to serve their acequias through the Mayordomo Project. Both of these projects build upon the idea that acequias are not only about water; they are about families, youth, food and people entrusted with responsibilities to care for the acequia. NMAA’s Escuelita de las Acequias (L ittl e S c h o o l o f t h e Acequias) is an approach to experiential learning where youth and adult leaders find support, inspiration and encouragement to fulfill their devotion to their communities and acequias.

We measure our work in centuries and in decades. It is important to honor the generations who came before us, to keep our acequias flowing, our lands under cultivation, and our waters under the care of local elected officials who have been doing this for the past 400 years. Likewise, in this rapidly changing world, we seek to honor the leaders of recent acequia history of the past 50 years who have devoted most of their lives to the continuation of the tradition. And we intend to encourage and support the current and next generation of acequia leaders. NMAA is working so that the intergenerational leadership of New Mexico’s acequias can look back with respect and look forward with hope that our vision of acequias can become more vibrant. i Paula Gar cía, executive director of the NMAA, has worked for many years in areas of land, water and community. She ser ves on the board of her local regional acequia association, La Asociacion de las Acequias del Valle de Mora. She is also president of La Merced de Santa Gertrudis de lo de Mora (Mora Land Grant), a Mora County Commissioner, and president-elect of the NM Association of Counties. Paula is raising a garden and her son Joaquin along an acequia in the Mora Valley.

Ways to Support Acequias and Locally Grown Food

Reduce your water footprint by conserving water and lessening the demand to transfer agricultural water rights. A good resource for water conservation is the New Mexico Water Collaborative (nmwatercollaborative.org).

Buy locally grown food at your local farmers’ market or, increasingly, at local restaurants or grocery stores that purchase from local growers. For a listing of farmers’ markets in New Mexico, visit the website of the New Mexico Farmers’ Marketing Association: www.farmersmarketsnm.org Join the New Mexico Acequia Association and support programs to protect rural, agricultural water rights, support local acequia leaders, and mentor the next generation of acequia farmers and ranchers. www.lasacequias.org

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5. Río de las Gallinas Acequia Association: Established for collective defense in water-rights adjudication, RGAA represents about 16 acequias. Best known for fighting a 50-year legal battle against the City of Las Vegas over the concept of an “expanding water-right.”

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6. Río de Chama Acequias Association: One of the oldest regional associations, the RCAA (about 27 acequias) has been very engaged in adjudication, water management along the Río Chama, and education and outreach to its members. Recently was involved in a basin-wide, watersharing agreement with upstream La Asociación de las Acequias Nortenas del Río Arriba.

7. Las Nueve Acequias del Río Grande: Comprising nine acequias along the Río Grande near Alcalde and Velarde, Las Nueve was first established to resist a plan to build a large dam, which would have flooded acres of farmland. In recent years, Las Nueve has focused on acequia governance and infrastructure improvements. Local acequia leader Alfredo Montoya, chair of the Río Arriba County Commission, led the effort to pass an agricultural land protection ordinance and worked to enact one of the most strict oil and gas county ordinances in New Mexico.

Alcalde is also one of the three sites for a NMSU acequia multidisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation.

8. Embudo Valley Acequia Association: Organized mainly around the activities related to water sharing, the acequias of the Embudo Valley are renowned for their produce. The valley is the site of the annual Celebración de las Acequias in June of each year.

1. Taos Valley Acequia Association: Established in the 1980s when leaders fought gentrification and land subdivisions in acequia villages such as Valdez.

Organized for united defense of acequias in the Abeyta adjudication for 55 community acequias. Reached a negotiated settlement with Taos Pueblo and other parties in 2012. The Taos Valley is also one of the three sites for a NMSU acequia multidisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation.

Acequias are prevalent in other areas of Taos County along the Río Pueblo, Ojo Sarco, Chamisal, and others.

2. Río Pojoaque Acequia and Water Well Association: Also one of the oldest regional acequia associations, the Río Pojoaque acequias have been involved in adjudication for several decades, most recently culminating in the Aamodt settlement with the Pueblos of San Ildefonso, Nambé, Pojoaque, and Tesuque.

Elsewhere in Santa Fe County, acequias are active in the City of Santa Fe, La Ciénega, La Bajada.

9. La Asociación de las Acequias Norteñas del Río Arriba: Comprising nearly two dozen acequias on the upper tributaries to the Río Chama, Acequias Norteñas was also established for united defense in water-rights adjudication. Acequia leaders of the area were vocal in opposing oil and gas drilling in the upper watersheds where their acequia waters originate and advocated for strict controls. The Acequias Norteñas leadership negotiated a historic water sharing agreement with the Río Chama Acequias Association during the dry summer of 2013.

10. Questa/Cerro/Costilla: Although very distinct communities, this area completed the adjudication on the Red River and succeeded in restoring water rights to hundreds of acres that had been omitted in the first survey of water rights.

Recently, Questa acequias and the Village of Questa have protested a water transfer to the Taos Valley. Acequias along the Río Costilla share a border with Colorado and are carefully administered to meet an interstate water compact.

3. Río Quemado, Río en Medio, Río Frijoes, Río Santa Cruz Acequia Association: Established in the 1980s for collective defense of about 40 acequias in water-rights adjudication proceedings. About 30 of those acequias are part of the Santa Cruz Irrigation District created in the 1920s to improve water supply for irrigation.

11. Jémez River Basin Coalition of Acequias: About 16 acequias in the area have developed a water-sharing agreement with the Pueblos of Zía and Jémez. The coalition was the first in the state to work together to prioritize infrastructure needs for Capital Outlay, and they united behind one package each year highlighting the needs of one or two key projects. Additionally, Sandoval County has numerous acequias in the Nacimiento Basin in the communities of Cuba, Ponderosa, and others.

4. La Asociación de las Acequias del Valle de Mora: Representing over 30 acequias in the Mora Valley, AAVM was created about ten years ago to protect acequias from upstream illegal diversions of water. Since then, they have established a Family and Community Gardening Project.

12. South Valley Regional Association of Acequias: Although the Middle Río Grande Conservancy District absorbed much of the operation of irrigation in the Middle Valley, historic acequias persist. Making a comeback to maintain historic farmlands in irrigation, seven acequias have reorganized in recent years.

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Acequia leaders are currently protesting a water transfer from the South Valley to Santa Fe. In addition to the South Valley acequias, Bernalillo County, east of Albuquerque, historic acequias in Carnuel and San Antonio continue to be active.

13. El Rito Acequia Association: About fourteen acequias in El Rito and surrounding areas organized themselves for common defense in adjudication. The association has been active in outreach and community education in the area and is one of the three sites for a NMSU acequia multidisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation 14. La Joya: A single acequia in the Middle Río Grande excluded from the Middle Río Grande Conservancy District has been instrumental in high-profile water transfers including a protest against Intel Corporation and another against the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority.

15. Upper Hondo Water Users Association: A network of acequias in Lincoln County has vigilantly worked to protect local water rights from diversions and transfers by the City of Ruidoso and Ruidoso Downs. Local acequia leader, Jackie Powell, chair of the Lincoln County Commission, worked to enact a moratorium on subdivisions because of the scarcity of water.

16. Mimbres Valley: Water rights in the Mimbres Valley were adjudicated several years ago and are one area where the State Engineer has sought to administer water rights using meters. Local leaders scrutinized metering agreements and are working to retain autonomy over their own diversions while complementing administration of water rights by the State Engineer.

17. Monticello, La Cuchilla, Reserve: Acequias in this area protested a water transfer to Los Lunas and are involved in the protest of an application to appropriate water from St. Augustín Plains to the Middle Río Grande.

18 and 19. Acequia organizations have also organized in Gallina/ Capulín, Ojo Caliente/Río Las Tusas, Truchas areas to provide for a unified defense of water-rights in their respective water rights adjudication suits.

20. Community ditches in the northwest part of the state, the San Juan Water Users Association, are also organized and advocate for the community ditch water rights of the area.

21. Acequias in the western part of the state, in the Grants and San Fidel area have been involved in that adjudication for several years.

22. Tularosa Community Ditch: A unique community ditch in the town of Tularosa runs through the residential streets and on the outskirts, irrigating farms and gardens.

23. Guadalupe County is home to acequias in the villages of Tecolitito, La Loma, Anton Chico, Dilia, and Puerto de Luna. i

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14th Annual Congreso de las Acequias Strengthening Communities in Times of Water Scarcity

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he Congreso de las Acequias, the governing body of the New Mexico Acequia Association, was created to strengthen the collective voice of acequias in New Mexico and for the acequias to have a vehicle from which to work toward a common vision. The Congreso is a federation of regions defined mainly by watersheds and a common stream system. Most of these regions have established associations of acequias that work for their interests at the local level, such as adjudication defense or water-sharing agreements. Other regional acequia associations have expanded their role to also include youth mentoring, leadership development and rebuilding local and regional food systems. Some regions have not yet established watershedbased regional associations but may do so in the future.

Acequia supporters from around New Mexico, including US Congressman Ben Ray Luján (2nd from left in front), attended the Congreso in November 2013.

Photos © Seth Roffman

Senators Peter Wirth and Carlos Cisneros gave an update on water policy issues and a preview of the 2014 legislative session.

Once a year, the Congreso de las Acequias meets to approve resolutions that define the policy platform and agenda of the NMAA and to elect leaders to govern the organization. The Congreso is the only statewide gathering of acequias, and it is often attended by various dignitaries and elected officials to show support for New Mexico’s acequias. The annual Congreso usually takes place in November. It keeps NMAA members and supporters informed about current issues affecting acequias, celebrates acequia culture with music, and provides an opportunity for people to greet old and new friends. i

NMAA recognized outstanding farmers of the year Jasper and Orlina Tucker, who operate a winery in the Embudo Valley, and Lorenzo Candelaria and Dora Pacías, who operate a farm in Atrisco, where they are also involved in the Agricultura Network.

L-R: Acequia leaders Harold Trujillo and Don Bustos shared insights about ways that farmers and ranchers are adapting to drought including crop selection, seed saving, irrigation technologies and year-round production.

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

Ignacio Gonzales contributes to the offering of water from acequias around the state.

L-R: Fred Vigil, Río de Chama Acequias Association; Medardo Sánchez, Asociación de las Acequias Norteñas del Río Arriba; and Scott Verhines, New Mexico State Engineer, share their experience in creating a water-sharing agreement along the Río Chama during the severe drought of 2013.

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Acequia Lifetime Achievement Awards

Facundo Valdez (2013) is best known for his pioneering work in community health as the founder of the Social Work Program at New Mexico Highlands University and as the executive director of Sangre de Cristo Community Mental Health Services. His leadership has been appreciated locally and nationally in his service to the Con Alma Foundation and as a founding member of the National Council de la Raza. Valdez has served on the NMAA Concilio for over 15 years and commissioner for Acequia de San José along the Pecos River. Although he is retiring from the Concilio, he has been appointed as the founding member of the Consejo de las Acequias to advise on matters relating to acequia governance.

John Carangelo (2012) is a parciante of the Acequia de la Joya in Socorro County. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his efforts to protect acequias in his region. One of his many accomplishments includes a protest of a water transfer by the Intel Corporation from the Socorro area to Río Rancho. He was also the lead protestant in Carangelo v. City of Albuquerque. Along with a coalition of others, Carangelo challenged State Engineer approval of a permit for Albuquerque to divert 96,000 AFY from the Río Grande, which would impair downstream water users.

Palemón Martínez (2010) is well known as a leader in the Northern New Mexico Stockmens’ Association and the Taos Valley Acequia Association. Prior to that he had a long, distinguished career with the Cooperative Extension Ser vice. Martínez was one of several early founders of the TVAA and has served as president for over 30 years. He was instrumental in achieving legal recognition of historic water-sharing customs in the waterrights adjudication process. He also served as the lead acequia representative in negotiations that resulted in the Abeyta settlement with Taos Pueblo. Understanding that no party achieved all they wanted in the settlement, Palemón and his TVAA colleagues persisted by attending over a hundred meetings per year relating to water-rights adjudication.

Río Chama Water-Sharing Agreement: Mutual Benefit by Cooperating

Rising to the challenges of historic drought and water scarcity, in 2013 the leaders of the Río Chama Acequia Association and the Asociación de Acequias Norteñas averted crisis and a priority call by coming together with the Office of the State Engineer to negotiate a water-sharing agreement. The agreement followed the tradition of repartimiento (or sharing), which guides communities in distributing water during a shortage. Thus, while the Río Chama acequias have senior water rights, the shortfalls did not leave the junior Acequias Norteñas without water. All experienced reduced flows and received less than a full allotment.

During a panel at the 2013 Congreso de las Acequias, Fred Vigil, president of the Río Chama Acequia Association, reminded attendees, “In a drought period pretty much nothing produces water; what a drought period does produce is cooperation, and that’s what we intend to do.” State Engineer Scott Verhines said, “We really did have a great collaborative effort between all of the parties—not only the acequias, but our agencies, to sit down and figure out how to do this.” Medardo Sánchez, president of the Acequias Norteñas, explained the process of working out legal options, bringing it back to his constituents and moving the group to consensus, and then meeting again with other stakeholders. All parties showed a deep respect for one another, as well the water—they have a model for the state of New Mexico that shows how acequia traditions can guide us through challenging times.

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

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Acequia Waters: Community Resource or Commodity?

Paula García

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is fully appropriated, any new use comes at the expense of an existing use through the transfer of a water right through a process regulated by New Mexico water law.

As the population of New Mexico grows, especially in the urban areas, the demand increases to move water f rom irrigation to urban or other uses, and pressures are mounting on acequias and other agricultural uses.

A common assumption is that water for expanding residential, commercial or industrial uses will be transferred from agriculture. A typical example of a water transfer is moving a water right from an agricultural field irrigated with surface water to a groundwater well that provides water for a municipality or industry.

Since the 1907 water code was enacted and codified into state law, water rights have been defined as transferable property rights. Water transfers raise questions about the value of water.

Acequia leaders have maintained that Miguel Santistévan and his students clean water is a life-giving common resource an acequia in Taos. intertwined with community wellIn New Mexico, practically all water being, culture, food traditions and the in the state is appropriated through economic viability of local agriculture a system of water rights administered for families in rural communities. by the State Engineer. Because water Broadly speaking, historic acequia-

based water rights are also vital to long-term water security for possible uses other than agriculture, such as mutual domestic water systems.

Water transfers raise questions about the value of water.

Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, acequia leaders expressed concern about water transfers, arguing that if water transfers tend to go toward the entities with the most money, rural communities could be dispossessed of the essential water that keeps them alive. During this time, there were some important protests to water transfers in Ensenada (near Tierra Amarilla), Mora and Anton Chico. A protest is a legal term used to describe the objection to a water transfer in the administrative proceedings of the State Engineer. These early protests also included a high-profile protest of water rights from San Acacia (near Soccoro) to Intel Corporation in Río Rancho.

The results were mixed, but it was clear that acequias wanted a place at the table with regard to water-transfer decisions.

NMAA was formed in the late 1980s and served as a vital communications

network to resist the growing trend toward the commodification of water in the 1990s. After a multi-year organizing effort, by 2003, NMAA led the passage of new laws that authorized the role of local acequias to determine whether to approve water transfers out of acequias.

Prior to having this authority, only the State Engineer could make such decisions.

The rationale for this new governance power for acequias was that it would result in decisions that could better account for the needs of the acequia at the local level. Now that acequias have a say about water transfers, they also play a vital role in shaping the future of their communities in the hope that irrigated agriculture will thrive and that communities can retain local water rights for local community needs. i

Acequias: Ancient Water Governance

Other than the indigenous nations and peoples of the Americas, acequias are the oldest form of government in present-day New Mexico and southern Colorado. Given the importance of water to survive in a high desert, it comes as no surprise that this region would be the center of water governance or could even be considered the cradle of water civilization.

Acequias are rooted in North African and Iberian water-governance traditions brought by settlers during the Spanish and Mexican eras of colonization, but they are also grounded in the ancient water traditions and foodways of the Americas.

Water governance by acequias is rooted in the fundamental principle that water is so essential to all life that it has to be shared for the common good. Often referred to as the repartimiento or reparto, customary water-sharing practices made survival in a water-scarce landscape possible for many generations. Acequia customs of water sharing endure in a way that is unique to each acequia and collectives of neighboring acequias. Much of the day-to-day and season-to-season work of the acequia is concerned with the sharing of scarce water.

Acequias are also defined as local institutions of government in New Mexico. As such, acequias have two articles of state law dedicated to their governance. As public institutions, acequias also are eligible for state funding for their irrigation infrastructure. As local governments, acequias make important decisions about water management and public funds.

The New Mexico Acequia Association established the Acequia Governance Project in 2003 to strengthen acequias in local water governance by working to update their rules of operation or bylaws and by assisting with planning to make improvements to their irrigation infrastructure. To date, the NMAA has worked with over 400 acequias throughout the state and continues to attend numerous acequia meetings to serve as an information resource to acequia parciantes and their elected officials, mayordomos and commissioners. Any acequia or community ditch can contact NMAA for more information about the Acequia Governance Project. www.lasacequias.org

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© Alejandro López

© Seth Roffman (2)

water transfer is the change of a water right from an existing use to a different use. For the past two generations, acequia leaders have been at the forefront of raising concerns about the impacts of water transfers on agricultural communities.

Somos el Maíz farm, Santa Cruz, NM

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¿Pala o pluma? ¡Los dos!

(Shovel or pen? Both!)

© Sharon Stewart

Patricia Trujillo

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i k e m a ny k i d s w h o h a ve homework, as I approached my tarea de la Escuelita de las Acequias (School of the Acequias homework), all I could think about was playing.

I’d rather be outside with the sun shining on me, digging my fingers into the dirt and concocting new senses of joy for my spirit. For many of us who grew up on an acequia, the work associated with preparing the fields, planting and taking care of the rows, meant that little ones got to play alongside their family. As the youngest in my family, while others were working, I familiarized myself with the acequia, literally from the ground level. I’d jump down from the bridge straight into the acequia to see what wonders I’d find: magical spiders with deity-like powers to walk on water, fuzzy fairy cottonwood seeds floating down from the trees lining the ditch, and if I was lucky, I’d catch a toad that my dad would let me play with until the end of the day.

Despite my relentless entreaties, he would always say, “Deja aquí (leave it here), they are good for the garden.” We learned about hard work through the joy of play.

The starting point to “Treasures o Game Designed by HUM 100.”

Acequia de los Vigiles is one of two acequias that run through the Northern New Mexico College campus. This is the acequia we studied. Mr. Roberto Valdez, a cultural geographer, mapped the acequia using Google Earth to give us a virtual tour.

Close-up of one

Reading and writing are important and necessary, but we also have great and necessary land-based literacies.

Eventually, small tasks like picking and bundling cilantro were entrusted to me.

Then, I was given rows to weed by hand. Finally, gloves and a pala (shovel) of my own, the short pala that dad especially brought for me, Patricia-sized. Playing prepared me for understanding the tools and the practice of work. This is the approach I took while enacting my NMAA tarea for the Escuelitas Project.

At first, my grandiose idea was that I was going to organize a campus- and community-wide limpia (cleanup) at Northern New Mexico College—to my knowledge, the only college in the United States with acequias running through it. In my mind, hundreds—no, thousands—of people would show up to clean the acequias, so many people cleaning that the rocks would shine! Organizations would line the campus celebration with kioskos, where inspired students would instantaneously come to consciousness and dedicate themselves to their current studies and then dedicate themselves to become water- and land-rights attorneys, farmers, conscientious surveyors and community-minded planners. Yes, that was my vision. There would be música Nuevomexicana, puppet theater for the little ones based on Juan de Oso, a circle for elders to tell us community stories, and food—rows and rows of delicious food—like tamales, vino de capulín (chokecherry wine), biscochitos, pastelitos and delicately fried flor de calabaza (squash blossoms).

Everyone would clean and laugh and learn and celebrate! Oh, and also, there would be the perfect amount of cloud cover and wind as to have my imaginary banners of all colors gently sway in unison with the leaves on the cottonwoods.

Instructor Myrria and played along Student taking notes as he plays the game. He said, “I need to look this up!”

Needless to say, this is hard to plan. For two years, I’d mention my idea in meetings and classes, ask for volunteers on campus, and for two years, it didn’t happen.

Many people who played the game said that it was the first time that they had walked the entire length of the acequia on campus.

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Students work tog to move through t

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Education

of the Acequia: An Interactive Tesoros de las Acequias was previewed as part of the NNMC Research and Creativity Symposium on May 2, 2013. In regards to sharing research, the game got people out of their seats inside to learning outside.

My idea was always to create a community celebration of acequias through the critical educational concept of “multiple literacies.” We are trained to think of literacy just in the realm of reading and writing (formal education, book learnin’).

For instance, if we say someone is illiterate, we often think “¡Ay, pobrecito, no puede leer! They can’t read!” This supports the erroneous concept of “pa’ la acequia or pa’ la escuela,” as if the two spaces were mutually exclusive. When we engage with multiple literacies, we can address the plurality of literacies. So, when we hear that someone doesn’t know how to irrigate, we can also say, “¡Ay, pobrecita, no puede regar!” Reading and writing are important and necessary, but we also have great and necessary land-based literacies. Having multiple literacies opens up dominant educational paradigms to connecting our cultural basis of knowledge to formal classroom spaces. It also insists that formal classroom teachers and students learn to “read” and “write” the land with us. We cannot be traditional land-based people and be expected to learn solely in rooms that only give us windows to our culture, our language and our practices. I want more than a view of these things; I want a full sensory perspective—mind, body and spirit.

So what came of my tarea, you ask? Back to the drawing table! In spring 2013, instead of imagining a project so large and overwhelming that it exists only in my mind, I reframed my own classroom. As part of a grant to support culturally relevant learning at a Hispanic-serving institution, I teach a college skills course called “HUM 100: Northern New Mexico History and Culture.” In this class, students transitioning to college are taught basic study skills and tips for student success by engaging in New Mexico history and culture as the content for the course. Paradoxically, I started the course by keeping my students in the classroom and reading from two textbooks: Nuevomexico: A New Mexico History Anthology and Academic Transformations. As the class took shape, I found myself “wah-wah-wah-ing” in front of the room like the teacher from Charlie Brown cartoons. I’d lament, “Why aren’t these students reading? Don’t they care about their history?!” To engage them in culture, I used PowerPoint, Prezi, YouTube… you name it. Technology a la fregada. But, the enthusiasm in class was as flat as a rolled-out tortilla.

of the riddles

Student Alejandra Duran setting up the game along the acequia.

ah Gómez brought her class out gside her students.

I tossed out my original class schedule and revised it after midterms. This time I practiced what I preach and combined literacies: books and acequias, palas y plumas.

We read Acequias by Dr. Eric Romero, The Acequia Metaphor: Educating Hispano/ Latino Students by Levi Romero. We watched videos from the Acequia Youth Project on YouTube, as well as Land, Water, People, Time, directed by Cynthia Gómez and David Lindblom. We went outside and read by the acequia. We spent time observing the water flow. Then students were asked to interview an elder about water usage in New Mexico. These water interviews were written up as essays that were shared with one another. Throughout it all, we were talking and connecting to these traditional practices. Students with firsthand knowledge shared with others who may have never worked on an acequia. We discussed why we should even care about acequias and how it connects to our identity formation as students at Northern, and people living in the Norte. As the students’ final project, they were charged with working as a community to organize a life-size educational game on the Acequia de los Vigiles. With about five weeks left of class, after discussing the concept of community organizing, I turned the class over to the students and let them run with it as community organizers. The accompanying photos illustrate parts of the process and how the game turned out. i Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D., is assistant professor of English and Chicana/o Studies and director of equity and diversity at Northern New Mexico College in Española, NM. patriciatrujillo@nnmc.edu

Members of NNMc’s Humanities 100

gether to solve the riddles the game.

NNMC President Nancy “Rusty” Barceló and student Nathana Bird at the end of the game with their prizes

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New Mexico History and Culture Course • Tesoros de las Acequias Heather Apodaca • Debra Cata • Kenny Chávez • Daniel Denipah • Alejandra Durán Claire García • Rebecca Gutiérrez • Emma Hardison • Amanda Martínez • Denisa Nastacio • Ana Nava • Jasmine Quintana • Gabriela Rodríguez • Edgar Ronquillo Sierra Trujillo • Amber Tso • Manny Vargas • Mario Valerio • Jessica Valdez

Green Fire Times • January 2014

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How Do You Put a Dollar Value on Acequia Culture?

Jon Goldstein, Juan Estévan Arellano, Najem Raheem ow much is something worth?

If you are looking at an ounce of gold, a pound of rice or a barrel of oil, the answer is easy. Markets exist to set prices between buyers and sellers. But what if you are trying to establish the value of clean air and water, the cohesiveness of your community or your health? What if you wanted to understand how much each of these things was worth in order to knit them together and establish the value of an entire ecosystem?

Economists call this establishing the value of “ecosystem services” and believe it is no less important than setting the right price for a barrel of West Texas crude. By working together, economists, ecologists, local residents and others can help begin to set the values for the pieces that make up the ecosystem. Through study, interviews with locals and research, values of clean water to irrigate crops, or well-functioning wetland habitat for aquatic species begin to come into sharper focus. Understanding these values can help protect these natural landscapes in the face of development pressures and a changing climate.This understanding also helps scientists bolster what is working and transfer lessons learned to other landscapes that may not be functioning as well.

Putting a Dollar Value on Ecosystems

In July 2013, a team of scientists, policy experts and local citizens, led by Dr. Steven Archambault of New Mexico State University and Dr. Najem Raheem of Emerson College in Boston, began such an effort to examine ecosystem service values in acequia communities in northern New Mexico.

By distributing water from the high slopes of the Sangre de Cristos, acequias literally provide the lifeblood of these communities. They are also the defining structure in the ecosystem. Their banks are typically green ribbons in the desert, grown up with willows and grasses that provide habitat for a number of species, while the unlined ditches also allow water to seep into and recharge local aquifers.

Understanding the value of the ecosystem services these acequias provide will help us to protect this unique ecosystem as pressures mount. Ecosystem service values let us compare between different uses of water by using a common measurement: money. The dollar value of acequia water rights or property development is fairly straightforward to figure out; by understanding the dollar values of the ecosystem services these landscapes provide, communities can make better decisions in the face of these pressures.

What’s Clean Water Really Worth?

For example, once values are established for what economists term “non-market resource”—things like clean water or wildlife habitat—these values can be included in policy considerations or cost-benefit analyses. For an acequia, establishing these values could help a community seek full and just payment from a developer seeking to alter the landscape. Or, these values can be used to compensate a community when an ecosystem becomes degraded through an environmental accident. This approach, to more fully and holistically value the worth of an ecosystem after a manmade disaster, is exactly what the National Research Council of the National

Academies of Science has recommended in the wake of BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill.

Climate change has already been diminishing winter snowpack in the region, and projections show this could get much worse. As the Los Angeles Times noted last year, in the drought gripping the entire western US, New Mexico was the driest of the dry, with reservoir storage dipping to a mere 17 percent of normal.

Even after the summer and fall rains and snow, three-quarters of the state continues to experience moderate or extreme drought.

How will the acequia systems and landscapes cope with these pressures? Will an altered climate and less runoff mean the end of these ancient systems and the traditional villages that depend on them?

Or is the acequia half full? Is it possible that this community-built and maintained infrastructure can actually provide greater resiliency and adaptability in the face of a drier climate?

It will take a few years for researchers to start developing answers to these and other questions. But their effort will help protect these communities and the landscapes they inhabit, as well as, potentially, provide us all a lesson in how to better cope with a changed world.

Next Steps

To date, the team has assembled a framework for understanding what

© Alejandro López

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ecosystem services occur in which areas, from the upper slopes of the sierras all the way down through the solares and towns, the acequias and ciénegas to el río.

This is part of several papers they hope to publish in the scientific literature. What the team needs most now is participation from local communities.The work to date needs to be discussed with community members to ensure that it is widely held to be correct and understood. From there, the team needs to start talking about what values people might hold for these services, whether they are cultural or not.

This will involve surveys, interviews, and a variety of other research methods.

Ultimately, the dollar values of these services are what you think they are. We need your help to find out what our water systems—our ecology—are worth and how we can compare those values to the economic values of alternatives. i Jon Goldstein, M.A., former secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and deputy secretary at NM Environment Department, is senior energy policy manager at the Environmental Defense Fund.

© Seth Roffman

Author and community leader Juan Estévan Arellano has devoted most of his life to documenting the traditional knowledge of the Indo-Hispano in northern New Mexico, especially as it relates to land and water.

In the spring, parishioners and farmers gather in Albuquerque’s South Valley to bless an acequia and pray for rain. The San Ysidro y Santa María de la Cabeza celebration honors the patron saint of farming and the Virgin Mary.

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Nejem Raheem, assistant professor of economics at Emerson College in Boston, received his Ph.D. in economics from UNM, writing his dissertation on the acequias of El Río de las Gallinas.

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Acequias as a Sustainable Model for Hydro–Ecology Hamid R. Mansouri Rad, Water Resources Research Institute, New Mexico State University

Quita Ortiz

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ultural landscapes illustrate the links between people and the physical environment in which they live. Throughout the world humans have developed a relationship with their surrounding natural environment, and the acequia system is a great example of a multifaceted social and physical structure that integrates nature, people and place, together achieving a sustainable model that clearly demonstrates resilience.

In recent years we’ve established a greater understanding of this resilience, from a research perspective, about how and why acequias have remained resilient while challenged with changing economic structures, climate change, a flawed food system and other factors. For the past several years, the New Mexico Acequia Association has partnered with researchers at NMSU and UNM for a multidisciplinary project. In November 2013, Dr. Sam Fernald, who has been engaged in acequia hydrology research since 2001, spoke at NMAA’s annual Congreso de las Acequias membership meeting, where he presented years of collected data that essentially supports the claim made by advocates who have long proclaimed the multidimensional benefits of acequias.

The hydrological cycle is a term that most of us are familiar with. But what about the concept of a “hydro-social cycle?” Acequias are at the outlets of snowmelt basins, and as irrigation ditches, they divert water from a river and use gravity-flow to deliver water to agricultural fields. When acequias were being established, the variations in local topography dictated each acequia’s uniqueness. Acequias also make up a social structure in which the irrigation water is locally managed by the community according to its bylaws. When we combine the physical attributes of a ditch with its related social arrangement, we have what researchers are referring to as a hydro-social cycle. It’s a social system that implanted itself into the hydrological cycle for community subsistence. An acequia’s link to its bounding watershed inherently tasks the system to be sustainable. For example, less snowpack results in less runoff, which means there will be less water for irrigation. During drought periods, for generations acequia irrigators have collectively withstood water shortages, which has helped to shape the sustainable nature of acequias. This repartimiento concept of water sharing developed into a collection of customary practices rooted in the knowledge of the land, watershed, and a varying water supply.

consumptively depleted and sent back to the atmosphere. About 33 percent seeps into the groundwater and flows back to the river, while the remaining portion moves through the ditch and goes back to the river as surface water. Additionally, the researchers looked down past the rooting zone of crops and found a response to irrigation seepage—acequia flood irrigation actually recharges the aquifer, as the irrigated valley acts as a sponge, retaining the excess water that’s not utilized by crops. What does this mean? One thing it means is that flood irrigation is not the water-hogging villain that many water-conservation advocates proclaim. Rather, it actually conserves water because it acts as an underground reservoir that holds water upstream for longer periods of time.

© Seth Roffman

Years of data support the multidimensional benefits of acequias.

Dr. Sam Fernald

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In Dr. Fernald’s summary of the research highlights, he asserted that “acequias actually create the conditions for their own self-perpetuation,” referring to their ability to adapt to changes in climate, economic structures and other influences.

Additionally, acequias provide many hydrologic and ecologic benefits. Acequia leaders and advocates throughout the state have long known about these benefits, but now they have objective research to support their claims. In his early studies, Dr. Fernald focused mainly on acequia hydrology using Alcalde as a study site, where he found that only between 7.4 and 15 percent of diverted water is actually

Since the Acequia de Alcalde diverts water from the Río Grande, the ongoing research expanded studies into different sites including El Rito, which is a very dry system, and acequias along the Río Hondo near Taos, with conditions somewhere in between. In addition to hydrologic contributions, acequias are also beneficial to the ecology. Species biodiversity is maintained when acequias distribute water through the valley landscape, supporting the riparian vegetation that provides wildlife habitat.

Drought can have a major impact on acequias. Other than the obvious reduced water for crops, it also results in reduced herds, which negatively impacts acequia systems because of the close connection between the valley and the upland. Dr. Fernald’s research argues that the core of acequia resiliency is in the ability to adapt to change, even when hit with stresses from land use, economics and climate.

From a sociocultural view, the study also found that if you retain ownership of land, you inherently possess certain family values, local knowledge and strong ties to cultural traditions that help mitigate some of the impacts.

Looking ahead, the current research tells us that we’ll face a reduced water supply.

Tree ring data show that in the past acequias faced very dry periods that lasted between 75 and 150 years. It’s probably part wisdom and part geographic luck that acequias were established in their particular physical landscape, but, regardless, the end result is still the same: acequias are a sustainable water management system that is well-suited to adapt to external and internal changes. i Quita Ortiz is the communication and project specialist for the NMAA, where she works on the Mayordomo Project, the NSF-funded Acequia Research Project, and acequia resiliency and restoration planning projects.

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del are llano / From the Arid Land

Ancient Systems Still Viable in the 21st Century

Juan Estévan Arellano

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Scholars from all over the world are starting to notice New Mexico’s acequias.

Another coming clash is the competition for water between commercial growers and what orchardist Fred Martínez calls “hobby farmers.” I saw this inching up since the drought of 2001, when there was a major disagreement between the bigger farmers versus those who plant only for family use.

Then there’s the lack of involvement or apathy on the part of most parciantes (water-rights owners) that is rampant in all acequias, as well as absentee landowners.

In one particular acequia, over 50 percent of the landowners are absentee owners.

This has created problems when it’s time to elect commissioners and mayordomos.

Several acequias last year couldn’t find mayordomos. When this happens, it puts a lot of pressure on the elected commissioners.

Then, added to the mix of problems is the clash between newcomers and traditional acequia users who are mostly Indo-Hispanos. This started to happen in the late ‘60s with the coming of the hippies. As a result, the acequia meetings, instead of being run in Spanish as before—out of respect, the elders told me—started to be conducted in English.

The old bylaws, which were simple and

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In July 2013, acequia leaders met in La Ciénega with foreign dignitaries from a number of Middle Eastern and North African countries. The dignitaries—government officials, academics, educators, industry representatives and technical experts – were there as part of a water resource management project funded by the US Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program.

written in Spanish, all of a sudden had to be translated into English. Most of the old terminology, such as surcos, melgas, linderos, eras, regaderas, cabeceras, has disappeared, as have the old concepts of the landscape: altitos, jollas, vegas, ciénegas, esteros, ancones.

The workers, or peones, have also changed.

Before, the acequias were worker-owned cooperatives where the parciantes were also the workers. Families were big, so there was always a younger sibling coming along to work in the acequia.

Today most of the owners, whether newcomers or from the established old families, are getting older and older. In our acequia, many of the parciantes are in their 80s, 70s, or 60s, with very few between 40 and 50. And those that are still working no longer live here; it has become a “bedroom community.”

Today’s acequia workers all are salaried employees, and as far as they’re concerned, the more days they work, the better for them. And to top it off, many of them are not very good workers. They have no idea of how to handle a shovel, or worse, how to clean the acequia. It used to be called “la saca de la acequia” (digging). Then, in the past 20 years they were mostly “limpiando la acequia” (cleaning), and lately many have told me all they do is “barrer la acequia” (sweep the canal).

We now also have people without water rights who have been allowed to irrigate because they volunteer to be ditchriders. Since they don’t own water rights, they can’t serve as mayordomos. Also,

many people, due to new technology, are pumping water above the acequia, something that wasn’t allowed in the past. The ones to blame are the commissioners and mayordomos who don’t know their duties.

the old irrigation systems and compare them with their own. Events such as Celebrando las Acequias have brought a lot of scholars from different disciplines together to discuss the role of acequias as part of the landscape.

As there are now more and easier ways to communicate, there is less face-toface communicating, as parciantes use the phone, Internet, texting and other types of social media. In the past, the mayordomo would take the water directly to whoever was going to irrigate, and once his time was up, he would come and remind the irrigator that the time was up and then deliver it to the next parciante.

Finally, the acequias and those who work the land are getting noticed and recognized for what they are doing to provide local, organic produce at affordable prices to those who don’t plant.

Farming is being looked at with more respect by the youth, as many of them want to get back to the land. The only obstacle is the price of farmland, which is way too high.

Today the NMAA serves as an advocate for acequias in getting legislation passed in Santa Fe. The Acequia Association’s Governance Project is helping hundreds of acequias update their bylaws, and it offers many other services. Groups such as the Arid Lands Institute of Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif., the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University are also offering their expertise.The state of New Mexico, through the Environment Department, is helping develop watershed plans and is monitoring the Embudo River for turbidity, which helps the acequias deliver clean water to farmers. And farmers’ markets help make it possible for farmers to sell their produce locally.

But if the ancient acequias continue to show that their parciantes are willing to embrace some aspects of new technologies without abandoning their traditional knowledge, they will survive. i

Scholars from all over the world are starting to notice New Mexico’s acequias.

They have come from México, Spain, Argentina, Chile and Morocco to study

© Anna C. Hansen

This past summer, probably due to the drought (which will only be exacerbated by climate change), a lot of problems that nobody thought about suddenly showed up as a prelude to what is ahead in the near future. In the Embudo Valley, the repartimiento, the traditional way of sharing water in times of shortage, simply didn’t work. But that was only one factor. In the past few years, the introduction of new technologies has thrown a monkey wrench into how water was used in the past.

© Seth Roffman

he acequias of the 21st century are going to be very different from those of the past. As new technologies are introduced, a lot of the traditional knowledge that goes back centuries will slowly erode until it is known only to scholars of ancient systems.

Elena and Juan Estévan Arellano Juan Estévan Arellano and his wife Elena raise heirloom fruit and vegetables in the Embudo area of northern New Mexico. Arellano, a 2013 NM Community Foundation Luminaria Award recipient, is the translator-editor of the book Ancient Agriculture. estevan_2002@yahoo.com

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THE MAYORDOMO PROJECT AIMS TO TRAIN A NEW GENERATION

Sylvia Rodríguez

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The Mayordomo Project began in late 2008 as collaboration between the New Mexico Acequia Association and the UNM Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies.

The purpose of the project is to affirm the important role of mayordomos in acequia irrigation, agricultural traditions and water-sharing customs. The project supports the continuation of this tradition by honoring existing mayordomos, documenting their practical local knowledge and developing ways to share this knowledge with people who want to learn the art and skill of mayordomía.

© Seth Roffman

ayordomos historically have been the keepers of tradition and knowledge about their stream source and their community. Through respect, diplomacy and a careful measure of authority, skilled mayordomos have kept acequias flowing and fields irrigated for generations.

Mayordomo Project Team: At NMAA’s 2013 Congreso, founders of the Mayordomo Project were honored for their work on a pilot mentorship project between Gilbert Sandoval (2nd from right) and his daughter Juanita Revak (woman in red) in the Jémez Valley. Other team members were Kenny Salazar (center), Elise Trott, David García and Sylvia Rodríguez (3rd from right).

The final and most critical phase of the Mayordomo Project will involve year-long (or more) internships, during which an experienced mayordomo guides and instructs a promising and committed recruit to take over the job on his or her acequia. For generations, people have learned how to be mayordomos by watching and doing. The Mayordomo Tool Kit is meant to supplement but not replace this all-important, face-to-face process. The NMAA is looking for teams of individuals willing to undertake internships. These internships will be supported and monitored by the NMAA in order to learn from them and continually improve the process. © Donatella Davanzo

Mayordomía should be fostered as an economically viable “green job” for young men and women in the 21st century.

The annual limpia in the spring (shown here near Dixon) is a time when people from the area get together to prepare the acequia for the first flow of irrigation water.

Public policy is needed that fosters the development of mayordomía as an economically viable vocational choice or “green job” for young men and women in the 21st century. In order to survive and adapt to modern conditions, mayordomía de la acequia must ultimately become a socially valued, salaried job with benefits. It must be recognized as a vocation essential to acequia irrigation as a resilient socialecological system and as a successful model for managing water as a commons. i

The methodology of the project is community-based participatory action research (PAR), whereby a community of interest defines a problem it faces and seeks to solve it through a collaborative group process of investigation and action. A team comprised Dr. Sylvia Rodríguez was raised in Taos. She is the author of Acequia: Water-sharing, Sanctity, of Kenny Salazar, Gilbert Sandoval, Sylvia Rodríguez, Juanita Revak, Quita Ortiz and Place. A professor emerita of anthropology at UNM, she has worked with NMAA on the and Elise Trott has carried out the project. The work evolved through several stages, Mayordomo Project since 2008. sylrodri@unm.edu beginning with planning and design, followed by the recording and transcription of pláticas or interviews with mayordomos in a variety Mayordomía Educational of communities, field trips to observe and record video of la limpia Toolkit Available (ditch cleaning) and other acequia work, and review an analysis of the materials collected. Over 40 pláticas were conducted, a number The NMAA has produced an educational toolkit that includes: • The Art of Mayordomía 30-minute film of them by Estévan Arellano. A pilot internship was also carried •M ayordomo Handbook & Field Guide — A practical guide to out, whereby Gilbert Sandoval, mayordomo of the Sandoval ditch seasonal mayordomo duties in Jémez for over 35 years, began to prepare his daughter, Juanita • Movie poster template (to announce a screening) • Guiding questions for community dialogue Revak, to become a mayordoma.

Two project goals include the production of a 30-minute video about the mayordomo crisis and the urgent need to recruit new mayordomos; and a practical handbook or field guide that describes in detail the duties and responsibilities of a mayordomo. David García narrated and composed an original theme song for the video, which is titled, The Art of Mayordomía. The video and handbook have now been compiled into a Mayordomo Tool Kit. The handbook is considered a living document that will be revised periodically, according to feedback provided by those who use and test its practical value.

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The $25 kit provides tools to engage acequia parciantes and community members in a conversation about the challenges facing acequias in continuing the mayordomo tradition. The materials are also appropriate for educators and researchers who want to explore issues of water, acequias, food, agriculture and community as part of their curriculum.

Host a film screening—The NMAA encourages communities to host screenings of The Art of Mayordomía, community dialogues and other cultural or educational events inspired by the toolkit.

For more information, contact Quita Ortiz at the NMAA: 505.995.9644 or quita@lasacequias.org

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NM Recycling Coalition Launches Food Waste Program

The New Mexico Recycling Coalition’s “Reducing Food Waste in NM: Feeding the Hungry, Building Our Soils and Diverting Waste with Food Management Best Practices” program will provide trainings, resources and market development support to implement food-waste reduction, donation and diversion programs. The campaign, which has received a $50,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation, launches this month, targeting food-handling operations in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Río Rancho and Santa Fe. “Food waste is currently the single largest type of material entering our landfills.

Americans throw away up to 40 percent of their food, while nearly 15 percent of US households don’t know where their next meals will come from. It’s time to feed people, not landfills, by working with businesses to properly divert food waste to become food for the hungry or to be composted into soil,” said NMRC’s director, English Bird. To learn more, visit www.recyclenewmexico.com.

reunity resources: Moving Mountains with Commercial Compost

If you care about the environment and where your dollars go to help keep our air clean, our landfills less filled, and think composting is a key way to reduce our use, Reunity Resources has a solution for you. The Santa Fe nonprofit has been awarded a contract with the city for a pilot food-waste collection program that will allow local restaurants, hotels, community centers and nonprofit groups to have their separated food waste collected and composted into valuable nutrient-rich garden dirt, which will be available for purchase.

“Our program is designed to divert up to two million pounds of food scraps from the landfill in its first year of operation. That is enough organic material to create a pile as high as Mount Everest,” says Reunity Resources founder Tejinder Ciano. That amount of waste requires additional funds to purchase the equipment necessary to launch the program, and so Reunity has launched a fundraising campaign to help meet its operational goal of $143,000. For more information and to vote with your dollars for a sustainable food-waste reduction plan, call 505.629.0836 or visit http:// www.indiegogo.com/projects/moving-mountains-with-commercial-composting

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Escuelita de las Acequias: Mutual Support for Intergenerational Acequia Leadership

n creating the Escuelita (little school) de las Acequias, the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) envisioned acequieros and acequieras of all ages learning from one another and cooperating to manifest the vision of acequias flowing with clean water, people working together to grow food, and celebrations of culture and acequia tradition. Embracing the principle that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student, the Escuelita is a space for learning through dialogue and shared work.

Each year, the NMAA works with some 30 adults and 10 youth leaders through a series of encuentros (gatherings). Each participant commits to a tarea or community project and shares experiences with the whole group.

Joseluís Ortiz, originally of Peñasco and now living in Albuquerque, has long had an interest in supporting his community and in social justice. Ortiz was a participant in the Escuelita and has been embraced as an upcoming NMAA young leader.

Asked about his Escuelita experience, he said, “By honoring the elements of life and love, La Escuelita opens a space that strengthens deep understandings… It has fueled my need to fight for our water, land and ways of life. One of my favorite parts of La Escuelita is the ongoing intergenerational exchange of knowledge and the transfer of energy and wisdom.” Ortiz also has an important leadership role with Los Jardines Institute in Atrisco.

Ignacio Gonzales of Chamisal tagged along to his first Esceulita at age 9, accompanying his parents and two older siblings, and became one of the most enthusiastic participants. “Escuelita got me to plant more,” he says. “It has taught me about our acequias, and how we’re supposed to keep our water clean. Don’t sell your water

rights and don’t let anybody take your water rights. My favorite activity has been the singing and the songs. It’s fun.” Ignacio is one o f s e ve r a l yo u t h involved with NMAA’s Sembrando Semillas program in Chamisal.

© Alejandro López

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Martha Trujillo has served as a commissioner for her acequia for several years in the Pojoaque area and has recently taken on a new level of leadership as a result of her participation in the Escuelita. “Escuelita gave me a level of awareness on how big the acequia community really is. My focus has been my local acequia, but the community is statewide! Without the Escuelita I had kind of forgotten the love, that water is life. Without it you won’t exist—without love you won’t exist—without investing something it won’t grow.” Trujillo was recently elected to the NMAA Concilio or board of directors and also serves on the Santa Fe County Water Committee as the acequia representative. i

Somos Gente de la Tierra The Sembrando Semillas Program

Pilar Trujillo

hen we started the Sembrando Semillas Program (“Planting Seeds”) in 2006, the purpose was to create an inter-generational agriculture program to inspire the next generation of parciantes (acequia irrigators) and increase the cultivation of foods that are culturally and spiritually meaningful to our communities.

Many of the youth in the program have an innate knowledge of food traditions and acequia culture by way of being raised in agricultural communities. What we’ve come to experience is that the youth who participate in Sembrando Semillas are often unaware of how much wisdom they already have about food traditions, natural resources and the challenge of growing food in the high desert.

We believe that having a background in acequia agriculture gives these youth a Over the years, some of the youth have created digital storytelling pieces about their food traditions or experiences in the program. You can see some of these stories by visiting www.youtube.com/acequiayouth

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unique platform from which to become community leaders on issues that affect land-based people. We believe that the key to creating positive social change in our communities comes from a deep love and respect for our land, water, air, seeds and community. For that reason, we strive to foster a sense of querencia, or love of place, within our local youth by affirming their identity as land-based people, or gente de la tierra.

Positive social change based on a deep love and respect for our land, water, air, seeds and community In the Sembrando Semillas Program, youth learn about seasonal agriculture activities f rom mentors in their respective communities through handson experiential learning. The main demonstration site is in Chamisal, led by mentors Juliet and Edward Gonzales. Other sites include a project in Alcalde through La Tierra Charter School, in Mora through the Family

and Community Gardening project, and there are a few other sites that are in the planning stages. Each site is unique and creates its own projects.

© Seth Roffman

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The preservation of native, landrace seeds is another focus of the program. Some of the traditional crops grown from seeds that have been passed down for many generations include: alverjón (peas), habas (fava beans), maíz concho (white corn), papas (potatoes), calabaza (squash), chile, pinto beans, as well as various fruits.

While planting activities are the fundamental basis of the program, a sense of querencia comes from more than just planting; it comes from pride in one’s heritage and sense of place. To cultivate this querencia,the youth participate in many other activities.In the past several years they have built an horno (outdoor oven), learned how to make capulín (chokecherry) jam, made chicos (traditional roasted corn) from the corn they grew,learned about traditional uses of herbs, orchard maintenance and beekeeping. Subsequently they have given

numerous presentations on their learning and work. We also include trainings and workshops for the youth on leadership development, policy advocacy and acequia issues in general.

The youth are our future. It is our hope that the Sembrando Semillas Program can help support our local youth to become the generation that maintains a part of our culture that is essential: that we are inextricably tied to the land and water.

Somos gente de la tierra. i Pilar Trujillo is a project specialist for the NMAA. She works in the areas of food, agriculture and leadership development through projects including the Escuelita de las Acequias, the Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance, and Sembrando Semillas.

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Ask us about Zirconium Implants for people with metal allergies!

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Food Hubs in New Mexico

Sayrah Namaste

“F

ood hubs are not new in New Mexico; there have always been sustainable food systems,” says Patrick Jaramillo, of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

“But way back, it was just called ‘the community.’ Traditional agricultural communities throughout New Mexico have produced the food they needed to sustain themselves for more generations than can be remembered,” Jaramillo says.

“Now food hubs are being rebuilt by farmers and land-based advocacy groups like the AFSC and the New Mexico Acequia Association.”

AFSC has been helping develop food hubs in New Mexico through three farmer networks: Agri-Cultura Network in Albuquerque; La Cosecha del Norte: A Growing Co-op in the Española Valley; and Sol y Tierra Growers in southern New Mexico. The nonprofit AFSC has linked the farmers they’ve trained and the networks they’ve developed to move food throughout the state, collaborating to meet the demand for local food and to support local farmers.

“Traditionally, all land-based people grew food and used a bartering economy in New Mexico, sharing communal lands and acequias,” explained AFSCNM Co-director Don Bustos, who farms his ancestral land. “In the rise of

agribusinesses and federal subsidies, we’ve seen a shift to a more aggressive and competitive model of agriculture.”

Small-scale agriculture appropriate for our environment, as a matter of policy, has been actively discouraged.

Over the years, many of the components of New Mexico’s food system have been dismantled and destroyed by a long series of policies that, whether by design or because of unintentional consequences, made it very difficult for the state’s long tradition of sustaining its people to continue.

“New Mexican farmers have to operate within a system that operates on a set of policies designed to remove people from the land and push them into a wage economy in the name of progress,” says Bustos. “The practice of smallscale agriculture appropriate for our environment, as a matter of policy, has been actively discouraged, while largescale factory farming has been promoted and subsidized.” This has created a situation where New Mexican farmers must compete with wealthy industry, developers and municipalities for the precious little land and water available in this high-desert oasis.

Acequia: Water Sharing, Sanctity, and Place

By Sylvia Rodríguez, School for Advanced Research Press, 2006

Yet with the recent rebuilding of food hubs in New Mexico, the communal values of land-based people are evident.

Last summer AFSC brought 30 farmers from across the state together to build relationships and collaborate on ways to feed New Mexico communities. Ranging in age from 18 to 70 years old, the farmers shared stories of why they farm and their connections to the land. At the conclusion of the meetings, they agreed to work collaboratively to increase the capacity for NM growers to meet market demand.

Due to the range of climates in New Mexico, farmers can support each other’s markets. For example, when heavy rains flooded farms in Anthony last fall, setting back production, Española farmers sent their produce to help fill existing orders for customers in Las Cruces. Since Anthony has a longer growing season than northern New Mexico, those farmers are able to send produce north in the winter to help Española farmers fulfill demand for local produce as production slows in the coldest months. AFSC has also built 19 cold frames in New Mexico, so that farmers can grow in the winter.

Farmers trained by AFSC have been taught the same methods for crop selection, planting, harvesting and postharvest handling, which has helped with

quality control and consistency of product, especially when farmers work together to fill large orders for institutional buyers such as public schools. The AFSCaffiliated farmers are selling to grocery stores and co-ops in Española, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces; three public school districts; the Mora senior citizen center, and a daycare in El Paso, as well as numerous restaurants and farmers’markets throughout the state.

AFSC provides logistical support to the co-ops and networks by helping with sales, invoicing and delivery, as well as technical assistance to incubate the farmer networks in their infancy. AFSC’s farmer-to-farmer training program is community-based, hands-on education that honors the ancestral knowledge of New Mexican farmers like Don Bustos to mentor beginning farmers and connect them to farmer networks for marketing their produce collaboratively. i To learn more about this initiative, visit: www.afsc.org/newmexico Sayrah Namaste is co-director of the A mer ican Fr iends Service CommitteeNM. She raises her daughter and a family garden year-round in Albuquerque.

Native American FooD Hub Being Developed

This book, winner of the 2007 Association of Latino and Latina Anthropologists Book Award, is a fascinating account of the interaction of water, faith and landscape in northern New Mexico, detailing the historic management of water and its impact on daily life in the Taos Valley.

Last month at the Southern Pueblos Council monthly meeting, US Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner presented a certificate of obligation to the Acoma Business Enterprise, LLC, to develop a business plan and marketing study to expand the marketing of produce grown

by Native American farmers through a food hub. Brunner said, “This strategic investment will help Native farmers find new markets for their products and offers a path to sustainable farming in the 21st century.” The $75,000 grant, made through the Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) program, promotes development of small and emerging businesses in rural areas.

Every society must have a system for capturing, storing and distributing water, a system encompassing both technology and a rationale for the division of this finite resource. Today, people around the world face severe and growing water scarcity, and everywhere this vital resource is ceasing to be a right and becoming a commodity. Rodríguez places her acequia study in this global arena. Many northern New Mexicans still gather to clean the ditches each spring and irrigate fields and gardens with the water that runs through them. Increasingly, acequia associations go to court to defend their water rights against the competing claims brought by population growth, urbanization, and industrial or resort development. Their insistence on the traditional “sharing of waters” offers a solution to the current worldwide water crisis.

The Native Food Hub will be the first of its kind in the nation. Some pueblo farmers, at the end of the growing season, have found that they usually have an abundance of produce not being sold or utilized. A food hub will offer a location where producers can deliver their goods for processing and distribution to market.

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La Cosecha del Norte: A Growing Co-op

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osecha del Norte (harvest of the north) is a co-op comprising 10 Española Valley area farmers seeking to make chemical-free, healthy local fruits and vegetables available to community members. The co-op sells to schools and businesses. Cosecha del Norte stands apart from the other two growing co-ops in New Mexico sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in that most of our members come from an historically long line of farmers and ranchers. As descendants of the first European colonists who came to north-central New Mexico, we have been guided, desde chiquitos (since we were children), to manage seeds and acequia water wisely.

Extending the paradigm from the village into the greater community When we were invited to get together and form a grower’s co-op, the tricky part was not necessarily the actual growing of food, but more about creating time to meet regularly and invest ourselves as farmers in becoming better producers. What did that mean to a bunch of busy people whose families were, for the most part, already producing enough corn, beans, squash, fruit and meat to satisfy the needs of their families? Mostly it meant extending that paradigm from the village into the greater community. It also meant being willing to share farm plans, seed and know-how to increase yields and fill orders.

Our approach to meeting our goals was to get to know each other better and familiarize ourselves with each other’s farms and families. So, for the first year our monthly meeting was held at members’ homes. From Santa Cruz to Velarde to Chamisal and Chimayó, we would break bread and discuss the logistics of successfully filling an order to, for example, Cid’s Food Market in Taos. That was something most of us had never even considered doing, but something a few of our members had accomplished.

We began to discuss the possibility of supplying our produce to the public schools.

With the assistance of AFSC, our members found themselves becoming more in tune with the concept of growing together to supply a larger amount of greens for sale. At the end of our first year, we received our letter of incorporation from the state of New Mexico. We were now one body represented by several farming families. At that time, AFSC began showing us how to broker our produce: Mondays, all available produce is taken into account and calls are made to interested buyers. By Wednesday, the washed and prepped produce is picked up and delivered to the stores. Within a couple of weeks, invoices and payments are recorded and checks sent out to the member/producers of La Cosecha del Norte. A percentage of each sale is invested back into the co-op. The last quarter of 2013 has been encouraging, with sales approaching $4,000. We even got the first contract with Española Valley Schools: 150 pounds of local red chile for the children’s Frito pies!

As we take a small breather for the holidays, Cosecha del Norte is thankful. We have hung in there and are beginning to savor the fruits of our mutual labor. In 2014 we hope to continue our relationship with Sostenga, the farming program at Northern New Mexico College, where our monthly meetings are now held. We hope to increase our production and get even more local food into our schools and grocery stores, thus strengthening our ancestral food traditions and water rights. Our first meeting of the new year has been scheduled for farm planning and seed ordering. Our grandparents would be pleased. i Camilla Trujillo is a grower/member and treasurer of La Cosecha del Norte. She teaches pottery at La Tierra Charter School in Española.

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

Prayer by Ted Trujillo

A Mi Glorioso Padre Eterno, humildemente te doy gracias por la vida de tu servidor, San Ysidro Labrador, Patrón de los labradores.

El cual que por los siglos nos ha mantenido, vuestro sembrado libre de langostas y temblores. Pidemos a tu servidor, San Ysidro Labrador, que por tu sudor y trabajo con que fuites fatigado, liberta vuestro sembrado del ladrón acostumbrado de no tener temor al Criador de esta Tierra. Liberta vuestro sembrado de la tempestad, de la sequía y del granizo que daña vuestro labor, le pedimos por el amor del Gran Señor. San Ysidro Labrador, Cortesano del Señor, Hasta el año venidero, nos despedimos de ti. Adíos mi querido Santo, San Ysidro Labrador, te dejamos en la compañía del Gran Señor.

Artwork by Ron García, santero from El Carmen, NM

Camilla Trujillo

San Ysidro Labrador

Yo Soy part IV by David Martínez I am Tlaloc, He who makes things sprout.

Carrier of water and words to mythical lands of green and acequia.

I wear belts of clouds and fists of rattle thunder walking on foam, like equinox aguas y retoño I carry you on my back, brown como soquete y sangre, en sacos de guangoche and cleaned out Clorox jugs.

I submerge these palabritas de mata en tierra y sudor letting them come to fruition in this time and space of chorritos and calloused markers.

Escribo en arboles que dan vida y fruta to ancient children, that learn cosecha y regar.

I am you, before las venas del Español came and harnessed you, your mind and force both powers to be tamed and reckoned with, taking Christian name and pila de bautismo as your own.

I am Río Grande and acequia Madre, queer and fluid, damning and sustaining mi terreno the entrance to birthright and homeland mis hijos sin frontera o puente. mis ojos I drink of myself, mis antepasados mis palabras.

Madre Tonantzín y tierra.

Yo soy agua.

De estas aguas viven mi gente

A Bird’s Eye View

continued from page 10

presence of large numbers of immigrants who are willing to roll up their sleeves and throw themselves wholeheartedly into the work required to make northern New Mexican plots productive again. They deserve respect for keeping many a small farm alive.

Will New Mexico’s youth, in spite of the rigor involved, join in to truly make this a sustainable movement, and in the process, create for themselves a life vibrant with all that the Earth and its water resources has to offer? Certainly in 50 years’ time we will know which of the two opposing paradigms will prevail: that of nearly indiscriminate water consumption in the service of maintaining a Midwestern-like urban and suburban lifestyle, or one oriented toward the affirmation of indigenous cultures and local food production. i Alejandro López is a photographer and writer in Spanish and English.

He lives on an acequia and uses its water to raise crops. In 2012-2013, he served as coordinator of La Escuelita de las Acequias program of the New Mexico Acequia Association.

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Supporting Local Business in Southern New Mexico 221 N. Main Street, Las Cruces. 575-­‐323-­‐1575

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

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* Foreclosure defense

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

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Farmer-to-Farmer Training in Mora

Acequias Get Support in Farm Bill

Serafina Lombardi

G

eniva “Peggy” Boney has been farming in the Mora Valley for 31 years. She now teaches beginning farmers her successful farm model through a

Peggy Boney

farmer-to-farmer training program created with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) and La Asociación de las Acequias del Valle de Mora. “I’ve never had the opportunity to train anyone besides my children, so this has been an adventure. It’s great to have trainees by my side that are as passionate about farming as I am,” she says.

produce. As part of AFSC’s work to build more farm infrastructure, the Boneys were given a 30x70-ft. passive solar cold frame for season extension.

AFSC farm trainers Don Bustos and Patrick Jaramillo helped the Boneys build it, and the NMAA recruited interested community members who also learned how to do it. Students from Highlands University, NMAA’s Sembrando Semillas youth program and the Mora Family Garden Project, as well as local residents, have attended farming workshops at the Boneys’ farm.

The Boneys, along with their trainee, Mabel Medina, participated in the AFSC statewide farmer meeting with 30 other AFSC-affiliated farmers.

They shared tips on how to prevent wind damage to cold frames and ideas on sustainable farming. Boney’s farm accepts farmers’ market WIC (Women

Boney’s farm is well known in the area, and her farm stand at the local growers’ market sells out quickly.

People drop by her farm regularly to purchase from her directly, and ever y AFSC trainer Patrick Jaramillo teaches cold-frame spring she has a waiting list construction. of people who want to buy her sweet peas. Boney is one of the only Infant Children) checks, which enable local farmers in the state who sells to a low-income mothers to buy her organic senior citizen center, providing freshly food. In just four months, she collected harvested salad, tomatoes and green 1,100 WIC checks. beans in the summer and fall.

By irrigating with acequia water and experimenting with drip irrigation, the Boneys’ farm provides inspiration for the realization of community food sovereignty: creating access to nutrientrich produce for the most vulnerable and demonstrating collaboration Boney and her husband agreed to across organizations use their family farm as an AFSC and generations. i demonstration site for the training Seraf ina Lombardi is a program, which runs from May through farmer/rancher specialist November. Trainees learn to plant, for the NMAA. She also harvest and irrigate with both the serves on the board of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. acequia and the drip system; and they clean, package, can, dry and sell the

Inspiration for the realization of community food sovereignty

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The farm bill is under consideration by a conference committee of members of the US House and Senate. The New Mexico Acequia Association joined with several other state and national organizations in calling for a full and fair farm bill that will support local and regional food systems, beginning farmers and historically underserved farmers and ranchers. One of the provisions included in the House version of the bill was a measure introduced by Congressman Ben Ray Luján, which would make acequias and community ditches eligible for a conservation program of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). This would streamline the application process for acequias in the hope that acequias will have greater access to federal costshare funds for water efficiency and conservation projects. The measure received bipartisan support from the New Mexico congressional delegation. The provision would benefit acequias in New Mexico and southern Colorado.

The NM Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance The future of New Mexico’s rural communities is connected to the agricultural traditions that have sustained them for countless generations. An integral part of this is the practice of saving and sharing native seeds. Each seed contains a wealth of information carried forward by the farmer who plants it, unique knowledge of the landscape and the growing conditions. The seeds also bring communities together through the practice of sharing seed with neighbors, friends and colleagues, then ultimately through the bounty of sharing meals.

The New Mexico Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance was established to play a role in helping rural communities continue this tradition, to promote the cultural practices of seed saving and sharing, and to protect heirloom seeds from genetic contamination. Founding members include the New Mexico Acequia Association, Native American Farmers’ Association, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, and Tewa Women United.

Some of the Alliance’s accomplishments: • Declaration for Seed Sovereignty (2006) • Women’s Declaration for New Mexico (2007) • NM Senate Joint Memorial recognizing the significance of indigenous agricultural practice and native seeds to NM’s cultural heritage and food security • Memorial for Protection of Native Chile The Alliance also hosts an annual heirloom seed exchange in which native and traditional farmers from acequia and pueblo/tribal communities come together to share seeds and stories. This event has attracted as many as 300 attendees and over 100 heirloom seed-savers.

For more information, contact Pilar Trujillo: pilar@lasacequias.org or visit http://www.lasacequias.org/food-and-agriculture/seed-alliance/

The Native American Seeds Protection Act of 2013 Tribes are increasingly concerned with the threats of environmental and genetically engineered contamination of Native seed. Two members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, Reps. Michelle Luján Grisham and Ben Ray Luján, have recently introduced legislation that supports the preservation of Native seeds; seeds that are used for cultural, religious, medicinal, ceremonial and agricultural purposes. Under the legislation, which has been referred to the House Agriculture Committee, tribes could get grants from the US Department of Agriculture for research, education and training programs that protect the purity of Native seed, and for construction of seed-storage facilities.

Green Fire Times • January 2014

35

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

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NEWSBITEs

PRC Reverses Decision on Renewable Energy

After a backlash from renewable-energy advocates, last month the NM Public Regulation Commission reversed its November 2013 decision, advocated by the NM Industrial Energy Consumers Group (NMIEC), on how to value solar energy in the renewable portfolios of the state’s power companies. Critics charged that the decision had been made without public input and without any discussion about what the overall impact and tradeoffs would have on the state’s economy at a time when the solar industry has been booming.

The commission’s abrupt about-face makes the value of solar energy equal to wind energy. The commission also lowered from three to two the number of credits utilities earn for other types of renewables, such as geothermal and biomass. Prior to November, the credits were one-to-one. Investor-owned utilities are mandated to provide 15 percent of customer electricity from renewable sources by 2015, and 20 percent by 2020, and must acquire 30 percent of renewable generation from wind, 20 percent from solar and 5 percent from other sources.

NMIEC, which represents some of New Mexico’s largest electricity consumers, includes the University of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque and Intel Corp. among its members. The industry group has also been pushing the PRC to reject a PNM plan to add 23 megawatts of solar to its electricity system. Despite this, the PRC approved the plan, which calls for three new solar generating plants in Valencia and Sandoval counties. Under a 20-year contract, the utility will also purchase 102 megawatts of wind-generated electricity from the Red Mesa Wind Energy Center, 50 miles west of Albuquerque, slated to open in 2015. To cover its additional renewable energy costs, PNM will add about 83 cents per month to the average residential bill.

Local and national opinion polls confirm that large majorities want, and are willing to pay for, cleaner electricity, especially solar.

New Mexico’s Energy Profile

The US Energy Information Administration, in an updated state energy profile, says that New Mexico is currently the third-largest net energy supplier of petroleum and natural gas to the nation. The agency also highlighted the state’s substantial potential for solar, wind and geothermal energy. There are nearly a dozen commercial wind farms in operation, with more on the way. The USEIA profile says that with New Mexico’s statewide electricity demand relatively small, more transmission capacity is needed to reach markets in Arizona and California. New Mexico is also second to Wyoming when it comes to producing mineral leases on federal lands.

New Mexico’s Green Jobs

New Mexico’s unemployment rate of 6.9 percent (2012), while comparable to Texas and better than that of neighbors Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, and better than the US average, is still considered dismal. The real problem with New Mexico’s economy is that it is not creating jobs fast enough; in fact, the state’s job creation rate is the worst in the nation.

The one area where New Mexico and Colorado have been beating the competition in job creation in the Southwest is in green jobs. In both states, about 3 percent of all jobs are in green jobs industries—higher even than in green-focused California. New Mexico has been growing green jobs at a rate of over 6 percent per year, compared to an overall job growth rate of .06 percent. Many in the state Legislature recognize that the state’s abundant renewable-energy potential is a viable avenue of statewide economic growth. The potential economic development benefits of renewable energy are spread across the state and across industries.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center Awards

The New Mexico Environmental Law Center has awarded its Karl Souder Award for Water Protection to William C. Olson. Olson, former chief of the groundwater quality bureau of the NM Environment Department, retired in 2011 after holding that position for seven years. Previously, he worked for the Oil Conservation Commission’s environmental bureau for nearly 13 years. After his retirement, he continued to work to protect groundwater resources, working for the department as a consultant and, most recently, testifying as a private individual against the adoption of the current copper rule. Marcy Leavitt, who received William C. Olson the award in 2012, presented the award to Olson at an event in Santa Fe last month. “Bill was seen as a knowledgeable scientist and a regulator who was fair to those with whom he worked,” said Leavitt. “He remains one of the strongest advocates for clean water.”

The Law Center gave its Toxic Turkey Award to Ryan Flynn, secretary-designate of the NM Environment Department . The Law Center gives that award to “a person or group that has shown extraordinary disregard for New Mexico’s environment.”

According to the Law Center, Flynn “has made every effort to offer up New Mexico’s public health and natural resources to irresponsible polluting industries, including copper mining and industrial dairies.” For more information, visit http://nmelc.org

Renewable Energy Day at the Roundhouse Saturday, Jan. 25, 10 am-2 pm; Press Conference, 11 am

With 300 days of sunshine, New Mexico has the potential to lead the nation in renewable-energy development, creating jobs, improving the economy and reducing water use. The economic, environmental and social benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency will be celebrated at the state capitol on Jan. 25. The event will provide opportunities for people to learn about the latest developments in the RE field and to network with people who are working to improve New Mexico’s energy future. A diverse array of advocates, including community groups, business associations, public institutions, workforce development associations and homeowners will have information tables at the event.

The press conference will feature mayoral and gubernatorial candidates, legislators, youth, and industry specialists who will share their policies and plans to help grow the RE industry in New Mexico. Free parking will be available in the facility at 420 Galisteo St. Information: 505.310.4425 or essh@gotsol.org

The Clean Economy Conference: ABQ: Feb. 1-2

New Mexico Environment Dept. Considering ‘Cradle-to-Grave’ Rules for Products

The New Mexico Environment Department is studying “Cradle-to-Grave” programs in states such as Oregon, where there is a product stewardship program that provides a way to avoid having hazardous products end in a landfill or dump site. Under Memorial 56, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Doña Ana, the NMED was charged with forming a group to study product stewardship, looking at a product’s entire life cycle—how it’s made, used and disposed of—and to find a way to share responsibility among those involved in the product’s life cycle.

Regulations are increasingly being instituted across the country, in which manufacturers and retailers pay a fee to institute recycling programs for difficultto-handle or toxic products. Such programs could slightly raise prices consumers pay for things such as paint and electronics. The fees may actually be beneficial for retailers, however, because this system brings consumers back to the stores to return things for recycling.

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Joel Salatin

The Carbon Economy Series, a New Mexico nonprofit dedicated to teaching sustainable principles and practices, is presenting the Clean Economy Conference, Feb. 1-2 at the Albuquerque Embassy Suites. Can we feed New Mexico (and beyond) with locally produced food? The potential of backyard gardens and multi-speciation are among the topics keynote speaker Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm will address. Salatin will also be part of two pre-conference events: a Celebrity Chef Gourmet Farm-to-Table Dinner fundraiser, 7-9 pm on Jan. 30, and Ballet in the Pasture, a workshop on Jan. 31 from 9 am-5 pm on the nuts and bolts of how 20 people generate $2 million by providing over 10,000 people a month with healthy, organic food while maintaining a happy and healthy lifestyle.

Some of the other conference topics: zero-waste; the triple bottom line (manufacturing products that are good for people/society and the environment, as well as economically viable); building an agricultural production center; sustainable education based on natural systems; aquaponics; water harvesting; beekeeping, and urban permaculture. For more information, call 505.819.3828 or visit www. carboneconomyseries.com

Green Fire Times • January 2014

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What's Going On! Events / Announcements

ALBUQUERQUE

Jan. 8, 9 am-12 pm Agricultural Collaborative Meeting Mid-Region Council of Governments, 809 Copper NW

Don Bustos, Sayrah Namaste and several farmers will facilitate a discussion on Farmer-to-Farmer Training and the network of food hubs the American Friends Service Committee-NM is developing in Doña Ana, Bernalillo, Mora and Río Arriba counties (See story, pg 31). https://afsc.org/story/ afsc-new-mexico-creating-food-hubsacross-state

Jan. 8, 5:30-7:30 pm Green Drinks Hotel Andaluz, 125 2nd St. NW

Network and mingle with people interested in local business, clean energy and other green issues.

Guest speaker: Lydia Ashanin, NM Health Connections.

Free.

505.244.3700, Lindsay@ nmgreenchamber.com, http://nmgreenchamber.com/events/

Jan. 11 Winter Bird and Bat Festival Río Grande Nature Center State Park

Explore wildlife habitats and migration patterns, enjoy nature walks and view birds and bats. 505.344.7240, www.rgnc.org/

Jan. 24-25: First Course 4 Photovoltaics Courses CNM Workforce Training Center

PV courses offered toward North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners exam through CNM’s Advanced PV Academy, a follow-up to courses offered in 2012-13 through a Solar Center of Excellence grant.

All four modules: $699. Info: cnm.augusoft. net/index.cfm?method=CourseSeries.Cour seSeriesRegistration&CourseSeriesGroup Id=61

Jan. 27-Feb. 1 Holistic Management in Practice Course Location TBA

Understand and manage stressed ecosystems, learn about financial, land, agricultural and people resources with certified Holistic Management International educator Kirk Gadzia. 505.867.4685, kirk@rmsgad zia.com, www.rmsgadzia.com

Jan. 30-Feb. 2 Clean Economy Conference ABQ Embassy Suites 1000 Woodward Place

Building Resiliency through Sustainable Practices. Keynote speaker: Joel Salatin of

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Polyface Farms. 1/30: Gourmet Steward’s Dinner; 1/31: Pre-conference full-day workshop on Local Food Production; 2/1-2 (9 am-5 pm): Conference with plenary sessions on wise water use, regenerative agriculture, zero-waste, organic food production, compost tea, strategies to shrink our carbon footprint, seed saving, creating an agricultural production center, community gardens, urban farming, sustainability tradeshow and more. $125/day or 3 days/$275. www. carboneconomyseries.com

Feb. 1 Off-Grid Solar Electricity Design and Installation CNM Workforce Training Center 5600 Eagle Rock Avenue NE

8-hour class (ID: 25589) for PV professionals. Learn core principles of off-grid living, differences between grid-tied and off-grid PV systems, principal components used, resources available, etc. Info: 505.224.5200, workforce@cnm.edu, www.cnm.edu/depts/ wtc/index.html/index.html

Feb. 5-6 Fossil-Free Film Festival The Guild Cinema 3405 Central Ave. NE

The best new films about climate change and what you can do about it. 505.350.3839, tstark1960@gmail.com

Feb. 13, 7 pm Thinking Like a Watershed Kimo Theater, 423 Central NW

The first of five monthly panel discussions featuring 3 different humanities scholars, who will be introduced by Jack Loeffler. The intent is to contribute to a new Land Ethic for the preservation of our endangered ecosystems in the Southwest. Panelists William deBuys, Patty Limerick and John Nichols will provide an historic overview of human habitation and water use. Funded by the NM Humanities Council. Free admission.

505.768.3522

Feb. 14-15 New Mexico Organic Farming Conference Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid North, 5151 San Francisco Road NE

The Southwest’s premier conference for organic agriculture. Producers and researchers share their experience and expertise to help agri-producers make decisions in running their farm and ranch operations or in starting a new one. Workshops and exhibitors.

Presented by Farm to Table, NM Department of Agriculture, NMSU Cooperative Extension Service. Registration: $100/$60.

Discounts for student groups if approved ahead of time. Info: 505.473.1004, ext. 10 (Santa Fe) or 505.889.9921 (ABQ).

Feb. 25 Crawford Symposium: Green Trails for the Next Generation Conference Bosque School Info: 505.898.6388, bosqueschool.org

Rebecca.belletto@

March 5-7, 8 am-5 pm 3rd International Meeting on Indigenous Women’s Health Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town

Healthy Generations: Integrating Tradi-

Green Fire Times • January 2014

tions and Science to promote well-being.

An opportunity for physicians, midwives, nurses, community providers and others who work with indigenous women to share, support, network, learn and build partnerships to improve the health of indigenous women and their families. 505.272.3942, kbreck enridge@salud.unm.edu, http://som.unm. edu/cme

April 7-9 10th International Conference on Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

An opportunity for suppliers of components and services to the PV and CPV industry to connect with experts and potential customers from all over the world. 400 people from more than 25 countries, including many corporate executives from global companies are expected to participate. Host committee: CFV Solar Test Laboratory, Fraunhofer USA, Sandia National Laboratories. www.cpv-10.org

May 3 Opening Acequia Research Project Exhibit Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, UNM

Based on NSF-funded research by scientists and scholars across several disciplines and institutions, including UNM, NMSU, NM Tech and the NM Acequia Association, this exhibit will tell the story of how acequias operate as part of whole watershed systems, how and why they persist, as well as the challenges they face today. 505.995.9644, quita@ lasacequias.org

May 4, 1-4 pm Opening SW Herbalism & Curanderismo: Healing and Ritual Exhibition Maxwell Museum of Anthropology UNM

Traditional and contemporary Southwest herbalism will be explored at the 5th annual Food and Life series, featuring herbalist Dr. Tomás Enos, permaculturalist/chef Trish Cyman, Sophia Rose of La Abeja Herbs and curandera Tonita Gonzales. 505.277.1400, mhermans@unm.edu

Daily Degrees of Change: NM’s Climate Forecast

NM Museum of Natural History & Science, 1801 Mountain Rd. NW With a focus on NM and the SW, this exhibit reveals current and predicted impacts on humans, landscapes and ecosystems. Tickets: $7, $6, $4. Info: 505.841.2800, www.nmnaturalhistory.org

SANTA FE

Through Jan. 5, 2014 New World Cuisine: Histories of Chocolate, Mate y Más Museum of International Folk Art

Exhibit focuses on the mixing of food cultures in the Americas. 505.476.1200, inter nationalfolkart.org

Through March 16, 2014 Cowboys Real and Imagined NM History Museum

This exhibit explores NM’s contribution to the cowboys of both myth and reality from the 1600s to the present day.

Through April 1, 10 am-5 pm

Heartbeat – Music of the Southwest Museum of Indian Arts and Culture

A celebration of sight, sound and activity for visitors of all ages. Over 100 objects relating to Southwestern Native music and dance are featured. 505.476.1250, http://indianart sandculture.org/

Jan. 4-10, 6 pm IAIA Writers Festival Institute of American Indian Arts campus, 83 Avan Nu Po Road

Graduate students and instructors, including Santa Fe Poet Laureate Jon Davis, author Sherman Alexie (RSVP required), screenwriter and poet Ken White, author Sherman Bitsui and novelist Ramona Ausubel read from and sign copies of their works. Free. jdavis@iaia.edu, www.iaia.edu/iaia-news/ events/iaia-writers-festival/

Jan. 8, 6-7:30 pm Artspace Survey Results Release and Community Discussion NM History Museum Auditorium, 113 Lincoln Avenue

Public presentation on results of Artspace market survey of artists, arts organizations and Creative Sector businesses. Free.

505.989.9934, info@creativesantafe.org

Jan. 8, 7:30 pm A Wild Solution for Climate Change James A. Little Theater 1060 Cerrillos Road

SF Institute Community Lecture by Tom Lovejoy, senior fellow, United Nations Foundation and University professor of environmental science and policy, George Mason University. Free. www.santafe.edu

Jan. 8-9, 9 am-5 pm Advanced Green Building: Building Science Class SF Area Home Builders Association 1409 Luisa Street

Advanced green building is available to anyone who is ready to take the next steps in green building education. The course is not limited to Certified Green Professionals. The instructor is green building scientist Armando Cobo.

Presented by the SFAHBA. $375/$295. Info: 505.982.1774, kim@sfhba.com, www.sfahba. com/index.php/green/events/

Jan. 9-Feb. 13, Thursdays 6-8 pm Craig Barnes Lecture Series Collected Works Bookstore 202 Galisteo St. Author, poet, playwright and host of the weekly KSFR radio program Our Times, on “An Enquiry into Empire, Capitalism and the Engines of Inequality”

Jan. 14 Application Deadline Food Justice Thematic Residency Santa Fe Art Institute

From July 2014-May 2015, the SFAI will address pertinent food justice questions facing diverse regional and global communities. How can we use creative practices to confront social, cultural and economic problems in our food system? How can we

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bring together insights from creative fields, environmental sciences, sustainable agriculture, critical theory and food studies to have a local, national and international impact? 505.424.5050, nelder@sfai.org, http:// sfaiblog.org/residency/application/

Jan. 17-19 Salt and Pepper Teatro Paraguas Studio 3205 Calle Marie

A play by Los Alamos playwright Robert Benjamin set in SF. Upbeat tales about maturing with grace, courage and humor. $18/$15. Reservations/info: 505.424.1601, www.teatoparaguas.org

Jan. 22, 12 pm Firefighters Rally at the Roundhouse NM State Capitol

Rally in support of Capital Outlay bill to solarize all fire stations in SF County.

505.989.7262, www.newenergyeconomy.org

Jan. 25, 10 am-2 pm Renewable Energy Day NM State Capitol

Celebrate the economic, environmental and social benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency. This family-friendly event will include an ecological art table, electric cars, solar ovens and hands-on electricity generation demonstrations. 11 am press conference will feature mayoral and gubernatorial candidates, legislators, youth and industry specialists who will share their policies and plans to help grow the renewable-energy industry in our state. Info: 505.310.4425, esha@gotsol.org

Jan. 29, 9 am-12 pm Food and Farm Day NM State Capitol

Speakers, exhibits, demonstrations. Press conference starts at 9 am

Jan. 29, 4 pm Southside Quality of Life Listening Session SF Community College Board Room Feb. 1, 7 pm; Feb. 2, 3 pm Canticum Novum Chorus & Orchestra St. Francis Auditorium, NM Museum of Art

Music by Mozart, Schubert, Cimarosa, Hovhaness & Holst. Pre-concert lecture by Oliver Prezant one hour before each performance. $35/$25/$15. Info: www.sfcanticum novum.com, tickets: 505.988.1234, ticketssantafe.org

Feb. 4 Registration Deadline City of Santa Fe March 4th Election Santa Fe County Clerk, 103 Grant Ave., 505.986.6280, co.santa-fe.nm.us Feb. 8, 12 pm Southside Quality of Life Listening Session Southside Public Library Community Room Feb. 11, 6:30-8:30 pm Lifesongs Community Conversations Academy for the Love of Learning, Seton Village

An evening with Molly Sturges, Acushla Bastible, Denys Cope and Christine Sandoval. Lifesongs is an intergenerational arts program that promotes social inclusion

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and dignity for elders and people in hospice care. Free. Registration: 505.995.1860, www. aloveoflearning.org/programs/lifesongs

Feb. 21, 5-8 pm Edible Art Tour (EAT)

Members of the SF Gallery Association team with local restaurants; stroll from doorway to doorway or take shuttle busses between downtown and Canyon Road; EAT: $35; EAT and Fashion Feast dance party $70.

505.603.4643, artfeast.com

March 27-28, 8 am-5 pm SW Jemez Mountain Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project Santa Fe Community College Jemez Rooms

3/27: All-Hands Monitoring Presentations will showcase results from 2013 activities.

3/28: Implementation Workshop will use information from monitoring to develop implementation strategies in the project area for 2015. Info: 505.438.5431, pashmead@ fs.fed.us

First Saturday of Each Month, 10 am-12 pm SF Citizens’ Climate Lobby Natural Grocers, Community Room, 3328 Cerrillos Road

“Creating political will for a livable world.” maria@myearthprints.com

Tuesdays and Saturdays 8 am-12 pm Santa Fe Farmers’ Market 1607 Paseo de Peralta (& Guadalupe)

Northern NM farmers & ranchers bring you fresh greenhouse tomatoes, greens, root veggies, cheese, teas, herbs, spices, honey, baked goods, Southwestern body care and much more. www.santafefarmersmarket.com

Sundays, 10 am-4 pm New Mexico Artisan Market Farmers’ Market Pavillion www.artmarketsantafe.com

Santa Fe Creative Tourism Workshops, Classes and Experiences http://santafecreativetourism.org/

7th Edition of “Day Hikes in the Santa Fe Area”

Features 56 destinations, new reconfigured hikes with maps and photos, safety tips, resource guide. Available in local bookstores.

Unwanted Mail and Phone Books

Opt out of unwanted phone books, catalogs, credit card solicitations. Free service will help SF shed thousands of pounds of waste and dollars in costs. http://santafe/ catalogchoice.org

Santa Fe Recycling

Make 2014 the year to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as you can. City residential curbside customers can recycle at no additional cost and drop by 1142 Siler Road, Building A to pick up free recycling bins. At least 50 percent of curbside residential customers recycle now. Let’s take that number to 100 percent. For more information, visit http:// www.santafenm.gov/trash_and_recycling or call 505.955.2200 (city); 505.992.3010 (county); 505.424.1850 (SF Solid Waste Management Agency).

HERE & THERE Jan 2-24 Ghost Ranch Workshops Abiquiú, NM

Indigenous Pottery & Southwest Culture; An Inner Journey: Still the Mind, Open the Heart; Outdoor Adventure; Photography in the Desert; Southwest Weaving & Culture; Sustainability Practices in Action: Agriculture and the Earth. 505.685.4333, ext. 4196, caler@ ghostranch.org, www.GhostRanch.org

January 10 Submission Deadline Aldo Leopold Writing Contest

Eligibility: Students grades 6-12 in public, private and home schools in NM. Describe what “wilderness” means to you and your community. $500 prizes (total of $2,000 will be awarded). Info: 505.898.6388, Rebecca. belletto@bosqueschool.org

Jan. 13-May 11 Adobe in Action Online Classes

An approved Continuing Education Systems provider through the American Institute of Architects. 1/13-3/9: Passive Solar Adobe Design; 1/13-3/9: NM Adobe Building Permit Process; 3/17-5/11: History and Basics of Adobe Construction; 3/17-5-11: Foundations for Adobe Structures. Each class: $250. Instructor: Kurt Gardella. Also, on-site classes in northern New Mexico. Info: kurt@adobeinaction.org, www.adobeinaction.org/education

Jan. 30, 7 pm Backcountry Film Festival Reel Deal Theater 2551 Central Ave., Los Alamos

13th biennial conference and trade fair on business and sustainability. Speakers include Amory Lovins, chief scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute; Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the board, Nestle; Hans Engel, CFO, BASF. 400 exhibitors from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. 604.637.6649, www.

GLOBESeries.com

March 26-28 2014 National Food Hub Conference Raleigh, North Carolina

“Building capacity for healthy regional food systems” www.ngfn.org/

April 15-18 7th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference Austin, Texas

“Powering Up” Three days of inspiring field trips, workshops, speakers and networking.

Farmtocafetereiaconference.org

Tuesday-Friday, 10 am-1 pm and Saturday Pajarito Environmental Education Center 3540 Orange St., Los Alamos, NM

Exhibits of flora and fauna of the Pajarito Plateau; herbarium, live amphibians, butterfly and xeric gardens. Free. Pajaritoeec.org

Tree Seedlings Available

Ten unique films will inspire you to embrace your spirit for outdoor adventure. The only showing in NM. $12 adv, $15 at the door.

505.662.0460, Programs@PajaritoEEC.org, www.PajaritoEEC.org

Feb. 10-11 Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference Washington, D.C.

“Where Jobs and the Environment Meet” Informative workshops led by issue experts, state and local government officials, agency officials, business and industry representatives. Workshops include: Climate Resiliency and Adaptation; Creating Good, Green Jobs: Repairing Our Economy; Repairing and Transforming Our Energy Systems; Repairing Our Workplaces, Communities and the Environment; Repairing and Transforming Our Manufacturing Base; Repairing Our Democracy; Repairing Our Schools and Communities to Be Healthy and Safe; Water and Pipes: Repairing the Infrastructure Under Us. $225/$125. www. greenjobsconference.org/

Feb. 14 Application Deadline Northern NM Conservation Opportunity

Rocky Mountain Youth Corps is hiring young women and men 18-25 for seasonal, full-time conservation programs. Applications and program descriptions: 575.751.1420, www.youthcorps.org

March 26-27 Sustainability Summit and Exhibition Wisconsin Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

March 26-28 GLOBE 2014 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Implementing sustainable business models, supply chain innovation, freshwater challenges – global and local, sustainability opportunities in global markets, sustainable food supply, the efficiency and nutrition revolution, sustainable energy, climate: the global challenge. www.sustainabilitysummit.us

The NM State Forestry Division is selling 60 species of tree and shrub seedlings as part of the division’s Spring Conservation Seedling Program to promote healthy forests and watersheds around the state. The seedlings are available to landowners who own at least one acre in NM and agree to use the seedlings for conservation purposes such as erosion control or riparian restoration. 505.476.3325, www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/treepublic/ ConservationSeedlings.html

Río Grande Return Gifts from the River

Locally produced salsas, jams, honey, chocolates, soaps, lotions, incense and more. Supports local farmers, producers and the conservation of the Río Grande. 505.466.1767, toll free: 866.466.1767, www.riograndereturn.com

Veterans Green Jobs Academy Northern NM College, Española

Workforce training and specific degree programs to support military veterans in fully accredited academic certificate and degree programs in areas of environmental science related to renewable energy, hazardous materials response, forestry, sustainable agriculture, wildland fire science, construction trades and others. A partnership with the NM Dept. of Veterans Services. For more info, call Dr. Biggs at 505.747.5453 or visit www.nnmc.edu/ vetacademy.htm.

New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce

The NM Green Chamber of Commerce, with chapters around the state, has a business directory that is a great resource for conscious consumers looking for locally owned and environmentally friendly businesses in their area. Contribute to a sustainable future by supporting businesses in your city/town that are striving to be leaders in green business practices. Info: 505.859.3433, info@nmgre enchamber.com, http://nmgreenchamber. com/members?page=2

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Green Fire Times • January 2014

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