Activity Report Explorer

Rio Grande Valley Broadband • Entered by Susan Ostlie on May 1, 2022

Sandia Collaborative management and general meetings

April 5, 2022 – April 19, 2022

Key Issue: Public Lands Health & Protection
Activity Type: Relationship Building with non-white and/or frontline communities (relational meetings, attending events, community support, etc.)
Key Partners: Ciudad SWCD, FOSM, NM Native Plant Society, Central NM Audubon, friends of Tijeraa Pueblo, AMBA Bernco OS, ABQ OS, etc.
Landscape/area: Sandia Mountain Wilderness (37256 acres)

Short Description of Activity

As a member of the management team for the Sandia RD collaborative, I provide input and record meeting notes and write the summary. I do the same tasks for the SC general meetings.

Reflection/Evaluation

Mgmt team mtg – 4/5/2022 – 1 hr + 3 hours followup,
General collaborative meeting – 4/19/2022 – 2 hrs + 4 hours followup.
The meeting participants are trying really hard to keep the group moving forward on 5 or 6 goals for the rest of 2022.
Here is a summary of the goals we will be working on:
From our pre-scoping, we have the following items (but are not limited to them):
Forest thinning alternatives – Especially in the Las Huertas area – Comments: Phillip – FS generally announces where they will be doing thinning projects and/or CFRP projects. Phillip is strongly involved in two other large projects in the Placitas area, so won’t be able to take on a leadership role, especially if those large projects get funded. Mike – Is there a time later in the summer that you might be available? Phillip – not for 2022; he can be a memberresource, not a leader. Can we get a briefing from Crystal on what can and can’t be done about thinning in wilderness? Phillip – would be willing to be a communication conduit/ liaison with Crystal about ongoing FS thinning plans. He could therefore keep the thinning and restoration projects advocated by the Collaborative in her line of sight. Mike will put a standing bullet on the general meeting agenda for updates from Crystal on restoration and wildfire hotspots on the Sandias.

Invasive plants – Susan hiked with Tom Stewart looking for invasive Asian Poppies and cheatgrass in westside locations, and while it was too early to locate those plants, they did see an extensive Tree of Heaven grouping following the wash at the Indian School trailhead. While there, they discussed Tom taking on a leadership role for this group. Tom agreed to take the lead(although not present at this meeting). Other support – Pam McBride (NM NPS) will most likely be interested; Catherine is interested in participating, and Stephanie would also like to be involved, and the RGVBB group can be recruited and trained. Mike would like to expand the plant list to include invasive trees like Tree of Heaven, which is evident in the west side of the Sandias. To deal with Tree of Heaven, guidance of the ABQ Open Space staff would be needed. Steve’s comment – ABQ Open Space – just hired a new biologist, Kyle Faig, who would be an excellent contact to work on Tree of Heaven issues, etc. Peter Callen is interested in the Las Huertas Creek area – a collaborative field trip could be used to look for invasive plants in that area.

Recreation management plan – Crystal might be open to a discussion about developing a recreation plan. Steve – the possibility came up in the Landscape team, and that team thought it should be a high priority. Julie Padilla – SRD Recreation Staff Officerspe- specialist should be involved. Monitoring – using RIMS – would be a tool to measure recreation use. The idea is to protect wildlife, by managing recreation to support that protection. Leadership – Mike and Steve will work on the recreation management team, if it is combined with the Education and Signage team and the illegal OHV use team.

Education and signage – Julie Padilla, the recreational Recreation Staff Officer specialist is working on a nationwide signage update. Steve – could this category be combined with recreation management team? (See above) Steve and Mike – FOSM might be a good suggestion to work with Julie Padilla on what the collaborative sees as necessary educational signage, although FOSM might be able to handle the execution of the signage installation, but not the planning.

Illegal motorized vehicle use came up at the NE Corner team meetings – La Madera area, Pipeline area on east and Peter mentioned possibly on the western side coming from Placitas. Comment: (??by whom??) South of I40 also needs signage. Combine this team with the recreation team and the educational and signage team. However, the enforcement element is an issue. There is only one enforcement officer for all of Cibola NF and National Grasslands.

Wildlife corridors – Our expert has been Peter Callen on this. One project might be the Under I-40 corridor. What about the I-25 corridor? There is a question of information from Peter Callan and Alan Hatch – Alan has been working with DOT on both I-25 and Hwy 550 corridors, which are 6th on the list of priorities for DOT. There is 20-30 years of data to show that these two road crossings force wildlife to turn back, rather than allowing them to migrate on natural corridors past I-25 and 550; Peter – Las Huertas Canyon is an essential corridor area that needs to be protected. Assessment of the Las Huertas Canyon was the site of a training for the assessment of habitat around water sources. Peter would like to work with the group in the Las Huertas Canyon area. Mike – Question for Alan Hatch and Peter Callen: Could the Collaborative play a role in ongoing corridor projects, rather than taking on a leadership role? Comment: Alan says NMDOT and Game and Fish would need to take on the leadership role, with the collaborative mostly being at the table, but not necessarily a leadership role. This group could play an advisory and supportive role. Question: Stephanie – could I get onto the email list for the current corridors group? Alan will forward her contact information. Question: Mike – to Peter – are you interested in leading a group to educate the collaborative members on migration corridors, etc. Peter agreedd to take the lead. Peter has provided documentation for the collaborative members in the past year – these documents are on the SC website. Peter has supplied these documents as the chairman of Pathways, which is an all-volunteer organization.