Rio Grande Valley Broadband • Entered by Susan Ostlie on June 30, 2019
Little Water Canyon field trip
May 24, 2019
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 4 |
| Post Admin hours | 2 |
| Activity Hours | 11 |
| Participants | 12 |
| Total Hours | 138 |
Key Issue: Water-related Conservation
Activity Type: Stewardship (monitoring, sampling, planting, etc.)
Key Partners: Native Plant Society, Friends of Little Water Canyon, Nathan Small, NM state legislator; Alex Eubanks, Senator Martin Heinrich’s field rep. and Mike Sullivan, also affiliated with Senator Heinrich’s office.
Landscape/area: Cibola National Forest (1616435 acres)
Short Description of Activity
The group assembled from all corners of the area – California to all over NM, ar the top nd either drove and hiked or mostly hiked over the top of 9,000 ft Oso Ridge down to the canyon on a very rough 4wd road. The purpose was to educate legislators about the value of the only source of water on the south side of Oso Ridge. We are hoping to find funding to keep grazing out of the canyon and protect the spring in the top of the canyon, and also to possibly acquire another bit of private land to include the Big Water Canyon drainage adjacent to LWC, which is also bird and wildlife and rare plant habitat.
Reflection/Evaluation
Education was the goal, and I believe it was met and exceeded…it is a dedicated group of advocates for this special place…
Photos/Uploads
Upload 1 |
Upload 2 |
Upload 3 |
Photo Captions
Photo 1 – Extraordinary old growth Blue Spruce in Little Water Canyon.
Photo 2 – Spring area in LWC – the only remaining functioning spring on the south side of Oso Ridge in the Zuni Mts.
Photo 3 – Bruce Madden and Gary Runyan demonstrate tree diameter in Little Water Canyon.