A ‘Lek up’ for the Lesser Prairie Chicken in New Mexico!
With their unique sounds and elaborating dance displays, the Lesser Prairie Chicken is one of New Mexico's iconic reminders of our vanishing grasslands and a species losing ground to development. As construction begins this week on its monumental Sagamore Wind Project in eastern New Mexico, wind developer, Xcel Energy, voluntarily buys mitigation credits in New Mexico's first Lesser Prairie Chicken Conservation Bank, the result of a two-year effort by a host of partners including: Common Ground Capital, RiverBank Conservation, Tomahawk CB LLC, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Mack Kizer/Lost Draw Ranch, and the New Mexico Land Conservancy (NMLC).
Legislating for Healthy Soil in New Mexico
New Mexico joined a host of other states this year by enacting the Healthy Soil Act to encourage and help fund education and agricultural practices that enhance the condition of this critical natural resource. Here's how one rancher, Kimberly Barmann, CS Ranch, is helping to get the word out about the importance and benefits of healthy soil on New Mexico's rangelands.
Managing the Forest for the Watershed (and the Trees)
Sounding more like a football cheer than new legislation, the state forestry folks refer to it as “FAWRA”– this year’s new Forest And Watershed Restoration Act (HB 266a) – created to provide funding to the state forestry division of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) for projects out on the landscape to help secure our state’s water future through forest restoration work. Evidently, there’s A LOT of forest that needs attention in New Mexico.
The Wildlife Corridors Act ― A Plan for Safe Passage In New Mexico
With the recent signing of the Wildlife Corridors Act into law, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the 2019 New Mexico State Legislature have recognized the importance of identifying our state’s key wildlife movement corridors. This legislation brings into focus an issue which is paramount to the future of New Mexico’s rural economies and continued natural heritage.
Goodloes: Ranching for the Watershed on the Carrizo Ranch
—Land Management that encompasses the health of the forest, the grasses and the cows
Sid and his wife, Cheryl, own the Carrizo Valley Ranch, a 3,300-acre property, all under a conservation easement held by NMLC. The ranch is located adjacent to the Lincoln National Forest, on the eastern flanks of the Jicarilla Mountains, just north of Capitan, NM. Their son, Floyd Goodloe, owns the ranch next door. The family runs cattle and has a hunting operation as well.
30,000 Acres Conserved When Multiple Interests Converge
The Conservation Fund enlists NMLC to help complete a historic conservation easement project that combines maintaining military readiness with preserving a working agricultural landscape and wildlife.
Happy Earth Day!
(click on photo for our latest e-new bulletin!) In New Mexico, thanks to our glorious, still remaining, unfragmented open space, you can almost see the curve of the earth! And NMLC is working to help keep it that way ─ for water, wildlife and for our important working ranches and farms. Happy Earth Day from the New Mexico Land Conservancy…
NMLC gets Conservation Dollars – on the ground!
NMLC was recently featured in the Land Trust Alliance's magazine, SAVING LAND, in a story about the North America Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant awarded in 2018 for a project to be completed this year. Story reprinted below: The North American Wetlands Conservation Act, or NAWCA, turns 30 this year. "It's all about partnerships," says Wendy Jackson, executive vice president…
Meet Ron Troy in Silver City
Visit us on May 11, 2019 at 'Give Grandly!' in Silver City & Meet Ron Troy, NMLC's Southern New Mexico Project Manager The New Mexico Land Conservancy (NMLC) is honored to participate each year in the 'Give Grandly' fundraising event in Silver City to raise money for, and awareness of, the great work local nonprofits are doing in southwestern…