Website: https://hermitspeakwatersheds.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HermitsPeakWatershedAlliance
Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance (HPWA) is a local, grassroots, 501c3 nonprofit organization who has been in existence since 2009. HPWA serves the Gallinas, Tecolote, Sapello, and lower Mora Watersheds in New Mexico.
WHAT IS A WATERSHED?
We all live in a watershed. A watershed is all the land that water flows across or under on its way to a river, lake, ocean, or other body of water. Rain or snow may travel above ground across farmland, forest land, and city streets or it may seep into the soil and travel as ground water.
Watersheds can be small like the area draining into Beaver Creek or huge like the area draining into the Rio Grande River. The Gallinas Watershed is all the land from the top of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the valley bottoms that drain into the Gallinas River.
Watersheds are more than just water. They include soil, topography, water, air, plants, animals, and people. The health of a watershed is influenced by how these parts are treated.
***
Videos
***
“The important work that is done by Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance is extremely vital to the vibrancy and future of our community. We are extremely fortunate for the foresight and fortitude of this organization. The benefit of their work will be realized for generations to come.”
Max Trujillo, San Miguel County Commissioner District 3
Post-fire watershed restoration underway
Patrick Gutierrez, project manager for the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, points to a media luna, a handmade rock structure shaped as a half-moon to catch cascading stormwater and spread it across the landscape. Scott Wyland/The New Mexican
• Two nonprofit river restoration groups, Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance and Rio Grande Return, are building hand-made rock and log structures to prevent flooding, erosion and debris flow in areas burned by a historic wildfire.
• The state Environment Department is funding a large part of the groups’ efforts with grant money.
• The groups focus on stanching stormwater and debris flow toward the top of a hillside before they gain momentum, allowing them to use smaller structures.
GALLINAS — Patrick Gutierrez walks up a drainage canal deepened by torrential storm runoff after a historic wildfire, stepping over a series of small rock dams his five-man crew had pieced together like jigsaw puzzles.
Every so often, he encounters a log barricade the crew assembled known as a “trash rack” because it catches sediment, debris and anything else stormwater could carry down the slope to the Gallinas River.
The crew installed several hundred handmade structures in the Gallinas watershed to curtail flooding and debris flow in the aftermath of last year’s devastating Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.
With the help of state grant money, the nonprofit Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance hired the crews as part of a larger effort to restore and enhance landscapes left flood-prone after the immense wildfire ravaged a 534-square-mile area in San Miguel, Mora and Taos counties.
Another five-person crew from the Youth Conservation Corps built about 300 of them in the neighboring Sapello watershed.
Putting together simple structures to counter fast-flowing, contaminated runoff is the most practical approach on a rugged hill inaccessible to heavy equipment, says Gutierrez, the group’s project manager.
Stopping at a waist-high rock dam, he commends the workers for building hundreds of these structures in a short time, saying they’re already catching silt and debris and slowing stormwater. But this is just one step in tackling the widespread fire damage, he says.
“It’s affecting multiple watersheds,” Gutierrez says. “Right now we only have enough manpower to focus on the Gallinas and the Sapello.”
Read more
Tour Highlights Wildfire Concerns in Gallinas Watershed
Las Vegas, N.M. — A wildfire in the Gallinas canyon could have catastrophic effects on Las Vegas’ water supply, forest, fire and water officials told community leaders during an Aug. 6 tour of the canyon.
“It’s not if, but when, we get a large wildfire in the Gallinas canyon and we anticipate it could be catastrophic,” said Steve Romero, U.S. Forest Service district ranger for the Pecos/Las Vegas District. “The question is, ‘How prepared are we for a big fire and its aftermath?’ The Gallinas is a very high priority for the forest service because it supplies water to Las Vegas. A major wildfire here would mean all hands on deck for suppression.”
The Gallinas River is the primary water source for the City of Las Vegas. The New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute organized the tour.
During the tour, Romero pointed out federal forest thinning projects on Santa Fe National Forest land as well as previous wildfire sites, including the 2010 Tecolote Fire that burned approximately 800 acres in the Gallinas.
“After a large-scale fire in the Gallinas, flooding during the monsoon season is a critical concern for the water supply and quality,” said Andrew Egan, director of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute at Highlands University. “Massive soil erosion could overwhelm the water filtration system.
“One of the reasons for this tour is to connect the dots from the watershed to your faucets, as well as to better understand the issues and challenges ahead. Preplanning, communication and education are vital,” Egan said.
In addition to Egan and Romero, other experts were on hand to give talks to the tour group:
Carmen Austin, district forester,New Mexico State Forestry Las Vegas District, said state forestry is working in cooperation with private landowners in the Gallinas on an incentive cost-sharing program to create defensible space around homes as well as strategic tree thinning. She said the Tierra y Montes Soil & Water Conservation District administers the federal funding for the landowner projects. For more information, call Tierra y Montes at 505-425-9088.
Dennis English, manager, San Miguel County/City of Las Vegas Office of Emergency Management, said his office received federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to complete a comprehensive countywide hazards mitigation plan, including wildfire. The plan is nearly completed. He added that an important objective of the Gallinas Partnership is educational outreach to the approximately 300 residences in the Gallinas watershed. The county has a geographic information systems (GIS) mapping system in place to identify structures for evacuation purposes. In addition, county emergency messages and preparedness information is available on Facebook (www.facebook.com/smclvoem), Twitter (www.twitter.com/smclv_oem), the Nixle alert system (www.nixle.com/), and both the city and county websites.
Read more
