Land And Water

Goal 2: Protect and restore irrigated agricultural lands for livestock and agricultural production purposes and encourage/promote managed development on dry land.

"Dry Land Development" = "Conservation Development.

Conservation Sub-Divisions, Conservation Argicultural Development, "CONSERVATION"

What are the benefits/drawbacks?
More Info!

Task Force Meeting Annonuced.

Comprehensive Plan Task Force Meeting Agenda
August 20, 2008, Rural Events Center, Rio Arriba County
4-6 PM
Topics of Discussion: None Specified at this time.

How Sustainable is Your Community?

Introduction

With the aim of creating and presenting to the world outstanding examples of what it means in live in harmony with nature in a sustainable way, GEN promotes and facilitates communities--whether rural or urban--which develop and implement technologies and practices such that human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.

The Global Ecovillage Network is developing the concept of sustainability auditing to provide measuring rods for individuals and for existing villages and communities to compare their current status with ideal goals for ecological, social, and spiritual sustainability. In addition, these tools are learning instruments - pointing out actions aspiring individuals and communities can take to become more sustainable.

The process of community sustainability assessment is an exploration and cultivation of the qualities needed to bring mankind through the 21st century.

Community Sustainability Assessment (viewable HTML version) - aomprehensive checklist that anyone can complete to get a basic idea of how sustainable their community is. This assessment tool is applicable to any community. While it requires good knowledge of the life-styles, practices and features of the community, it does not require research, calculation and detailed quantification. This assessment takes about three hours for an individual to complete, or a series of sessions if done as a group experience by community members.

Comprehensive Plan Task Force Meeting Agenda

Task Force,
Outlined below are the topics which the Planning and Zoning Department find to be of high priority for discussion for this evenings Task Force Meeting. I wanted to send you this priority list before the meeting to somewhat outline our high priority concerns for the meeting tonight.

I look forward to introducing myself, listening to points of view of all members and interested people for the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan as well as discussing the topics listed below.

I look forward to seeing you tonight from 4 to 6 PM at the Rural Events Center on Hwy. #554.

Sincerely yours,

Christopher Palmer

Comprehensive Plan Task Force Meeting Agenda
July 23, 2008, Rural Events Center, Rio Arriba County
Topics of Discussion

V. Land and Water

Goal 1: Strengthen the connection between the land and water, and protect the water rights within the region.

Strategy.1: Map the acequias with priority dates of water rights and Mutual Domestic Water Associations and delineate the watersheds that serve them. Encourage the acequia and mutual domestic areas with serious water supply or water rights issues to work with the County and OSE in establishing Critical Management Areas and Stream Corridor Areas.

Goal 2: Protect and restore irrigated agricultural lands for livestock and agricultural production purposes and encourage/promote managed development on dry land.

Strategy 7: Identify, map and protect significant agricultural and grazing lands, prioritize lands for conservation, and work with non-profit conservation organizations to utilize conservation easements, grass banks, purchase of development rights (PDR), etc, where appropriate.

Strategy 9: Amend the Irrigated Agricultural Land Protection Ordinance to improve its effectiveness in conserving agricultural lands within subdivisions.

Strategy 10: Create an irrigated agricultural land overlay zone in the Design and Development Regulation ordinance so it applies to all irrigated lands.

Strategy 14: All new subdivisions should have community/shared wells and treated liquid waste systems, demonstrate a 100 year water adequacy plan and assure water rights to meet full demand at build out, including water for fire-fighting and facilities for storage, distribution and delivery for fire flows.

Strategy 17: Place limits on new domestic well uses as a condition of approval of any development through amendments to the Subdivision Regulations and Design and Development Regulation ordinance, such as shared wells, limiting amount of water to 1 ac/yr and metering each service connection.

Strategy 18: Promote and demonstrate domestic water conservation efforts, such as the use of drip irrigation, gray-water, water harvesting, low-flow fixtures, xeriscape landscaping through education programs and in the Subdivision Regulations and Design and Development Regulation ordinance.

Goal 3: Protect and restore the open spaces and natural resources such as the rivers, riparian areas, cienegas, floodplains, wildlife habitats, forests and grasslands.

Strategy 22: Protect riparian areas, wetlands, springs and watercourses through conservation easements, and establishing a 300’ wide riparian habitat corridor residential/commercial building setback from watercourses with flows greater than 1,000 cfs in a 100 year event (agricultural buildings are exempt from this setback).

Strategy 24: Protect and enhance riparian areas, springs, wetlands and river and stream corridors by promoting and implementing riparian restoration, re-vegetation, fencing enclosure projects and by minimizing the use of toxic herbicides in critical watershed areas.

Goal 5: Protect the region’s water supply and quality by creating opportunities for water recharge and storage.

Strategy 32: Establish Critical Management Areas and Stream Corridor Areas within the County in collaboration with the Office of the State Engineer and provide for their protection in the Subdivision Regulations and Design and Development Regulation ordinance.

Strategy 35: Pursue funding for water and wastewater maintenance and development projects from state and federal sources such as the State Water Trust Board, State Legislature, and NM Finance Authority.

From Mountaintop to River Bottom Restoring New Mexico's Watersheds

From Mountaintop to River Bottom: Restoring New Mexico's Watersheds

September 30 - October 2
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Marriott Uptown, 2101 Louisiana Boulevard, NE

The first ever New Mexico Watershed Forum provides an opportunity to:

> Learn about other watershed projects and restoration techniques

> Increase Collaboration and communication about watershed restoration

> Network with watershed groups across New Mexico

> Share successes, challenges and innovations

This statewide forum will bring together agencies, organizations, professionals, educators and citizens with an interest in watershed management, restoration and protection. Presentations and workshops will provide tools and information for people doing watershed restoration on the ground. A day of field trips will provide on-site learning about restoration projects. We are also looking for:

Task Force Member - Lucy Collier

Lucy Collier moved from Massachusetts to New Mexico to join her parents in 1972 and has been living in Alcalde and more recently Chimayó since then. She worked as an early interventionist, a diagnostician, and finally a developmental psychologist at UNM. She retired several years ago but keeps her hand in with families at Las Cumbres. She helped to establish the Chimayó History Museum, curated an extensive show of until then undocumented Chimayó and el Valle weavings, and initiated an intergenerational weaving project in the Cordova school. She served as an election monitor in Bosnia-Herzogovinia several times. She produced an oral history video documenting the memories of folks still around who had been photographed by New Deal photographers. She helped organize her community to pressure T-Mobile to move its cell tower out of the Historic District of Chimayó. Resolution with the County and the FCC is still pending. However better standards for cell towers have been adopted by Rio Arriba County as a result. She is a musician, a gardener, and continues to fight for preservation of tradition and culture in her adopted community.

Email:lcpm@valornet.com

What's Working!

During our last meeting a couple of
Task Force Members said.
" Why try to Reinvent the Wheel"?

There are many things that we know work. We know this by our history. Sustainable living was not a BUZZ WORD 60 years ago. Our communities and peoples have lived Sustainable on our lands for centuries in New Mexico.

Invention & Technology Reinventions

Communities all over the world are adapting the old and new practices and technologies in some incredible ways. We in our quest to improve on our community and in developing our Vision and Plan should also look to these communities (global) and integrate what is working now.

Locally in New Mexico we have many such solutions at hand and we should also share our knowledge. Make connections and make us all a better global community.

Here are some more links and information for us.

The Best Link Page on Ecological Links I've found. Comprehensive.
Todd Ecological Inc. Solutions for Water Planning and Management.
Case Studies and Links.
Transportation planning should encompass more than cars. Rethinking Transportation!
Rethinking Housing: CalEarth
Rethinking. Economic Development, Oil; and Gas, Hazard Mitigation, Community Facilities and Infrastructure.... Someone has already thought of these things and has done something about it. Lets learn from each other. Lets get the wheels rolling!

Link to the NRCS: New Mexico Field Office Technical Guides.
Must see. These resources cover many of the topics we will be discussing

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Anyboby up for a challange?

So I said, "call me Trimtab."
click on the above Buckminster Fuller Challange link for an explination of "TrimTab"