Santa Fe Watershed Association

Sfwa works with the city of Santa Fe to provide water conservation and Watershed stewardship education for residents of Santa Fe through various programs. "my water, my Watershed" introduces students to their local water supply, water quality, and ecosystem health, and serves nearly all 5th grade students in the greater Santa Fe area. "mi arroyo, mi tierra," is the successive curriculum for middle school students that connects the upper and urban Watershed and introduces concepts of stormwater, erosion, pollution, and stewardship. "nm climate masters" is a ten (10) week adult course designed for members of the public to learn holistically about climate change, its local impacts, and how to get involved in through a variety of sectors and scales. Sfwa also leads educational hikes into the Santa Fe municipal Watershed for adults, and is working with the water conservation office to design a curriculum for rain gardens (bioretention basins), community science monitoring protocols, and other projects.

In 2023 sfwa completed a phase 1 us bureau of reclamation cooperative Watershed management program grant that funded a stakeholder priority assessment which will contribute to ongoing Watershed management planning efforts. Additionally, sfwa receives funding from private foundations and other donors to supplement the programs listed above as well as other programming such as: serving as the new mexico representative for projectwet; participating in the Santa Fe outdoor education collaborative; serving as the 2023 co-chair of the greater Santa Fe fireshed coalition ; serving as the co-chair of the Santa Fe river traditional communities collaborative; serving on the city of Santa Fe land development code citizens' advisory working group; and other collaborative community activities.

Sfwa works with the city of Santa Fe to organize volunteer teams to clean urban Santa Fe river and tributary arroyos for ecological health, safety, and water quality purposes. In 2023 sfwa combined the former programs "adopt-the-river- and "adopt-an-arroyo" to form a cohesive "adopt your Watershed" program. The program currently works with over one hundred volunteers who pick up thousands of pounds of trash annually. In addition to cleanups, sfwa hosts adopt your Watershed workshops and restoration activities such as invasive vegetation management, erosion control, native riparian plantings, and rain garden maintenance. We also partner with the city to host larger community days, to clean up, gather, learn, and celebrate our local Watershed. Additional support comes from donations and smaller grants.