Cimarron Watershed Alliance

The RSP Project is an instream fish habitat and stream restoration project on the Cimarron River funded by a grant from the River Stewardship Program with the NM Environment Department.

Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape Cimmaron Watershed Alliance ProjectThe Cimarron Watershed Alliance (CWA) will provide to the USDA Forest Service and the Carson National Forest services to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of efforts to address wildfire risk in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape. In addition to supporting critical partnerships, the funding under this project will add significant planning and implementation capacity to the Cimarron Watershed Alliance for the collective benefit of all Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape partners. Funding for this collaborative work will support identification and development of forest and watershed restoration projects, increase cross-boundary coordination of wildfire risk reduction efforts, maximize our ability to leverage funding to achieve our collective treatment targets, promote fuels reduction efforts, and reinforce our shared agency and community objectives.

Colfax Collaborative Wildland Urban Interface ProjectThe goal of this project is to reduce fuel loading and improve the defensible space within these nine communities. This project will create defensible space around homes and structures of value, thin forests to reduce hazardous fuel loadings, maintain existing fuel breaks and create new fuel breaks. The project is estimated to take up to 5 years to complete. The goal is to treat an estimated 2606 acres on roughly 532 individual properties. Funding for the Project is USDA Forest Service funds that is being administered by the State of New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Forestry Division.

Collaborative Restoration of Frequent Fire Ecosystems in the Ponil Creek WatershedThe Cimarron Watershed Alliance aimed to complete the CFRP project by conducting site assessments for upland meadow, wet meadow, wetland, and riparian conditions as well as assessment of restoration potential. Additionally, the CWA will work with the Forest Service to conduct two multi-party monitoring meetings and complete the multiparty monitoring report to conduct a forest stand exam and National Environmental Policy Act analysis of 64,528 acres in the Ponil Creek Watershed, Colfax County, New Mexico. The planning area in this multijurisdictional watershed includes the eastern half of the Valle Vidal Unit of Carson National Forest, the entire Elliott Barker Wildlife Area and all the public land.

Turner Foundation grant

Wetland and Stream Restoration in the Moreno ValleyThis project will restore sections of the Cieneguilla, Saladon, and Garcia Creeks in the Moreno Valley. Specific project goals and objectives are: 1) Install In-Stream Stabilization and Restoration Structures; 2) Stabilize Erosional Landscape Features; and 3) Rehydrate and Protect Drying Wetlands, Including One Fen. Approximately 50 restoration structures will be built.

Restoration of Trout Habitat on the Cimarron River, Phase IIThe project is an instream trout habitat restoration project located on the Cimarron River where it travels through the Cimarron Canyon State Park on the Colin Neblett Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) property. The project will improve instream trout habitat, particularly low flow and overwintering habitat, for resident brown trout and create holding areas for stocked rainbow trout on up to 7.0 miles of the Cimarron River through the State Park and the WMA.

North Ponil Restoration Project is an instream channel stabilization and erosion control project on the North Ponil Creek that is funded by a grant from the NM Environment Department.

Taos Community Foundation Impact GrantThis $3,000 core operational support grant from the Taos Community Foundation supported the CWA in writing a large $10.0 million grant application to the CWDG Program for forest thinning work in and around the community of Angel Fire, NM.

Writing Community wildfire protection plan.

Flying Horse Ranch Fuel Break ProjectThe CWA was awarded $1,821,254 under the USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, Fiscal Year 2022 Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) Program (Federal Assistance Listing 10.720) for the Flying Horse Ranch Fuel Break Project to maintain and widen an existing 4.0-mile fuel break and then expand it approximately 10.2 miles. This approximately 14.2-mile, 702-acre fuel break project is a small but critical piece of approximately 75 miles of fuel breaks that are currently being planned and implemented in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape within Taos and Colfax Counties in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northeastern New Mexico. Funding for the Project is USDA Forest Service funds that is being administered by the State of New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) Forestry Division.

Thornberg Foundation grant