Since 2019, we have facilitated collaboration and community forestry in the vicinity of Las Trampas.

Where we started

 

History of land stewardship

Indigenous and Hispano communities have, for centuries, relied on the health of the state’s forests and watersheds for spiritual, cultural, and physical resources. These communities practiced traditional stewardship, improving and maintaining forest health.

Carson National Forest

With the designation of National Forest System lands over a century ago, stewardship of these lands fell under the purview of the U.S. Forest Service, restricting the role traditional residents play. Carson National Forest was established over 1.5 million acres surrounding Las Trampas.

Healthy watersheds and communities

In 2019, a Shared Stewardship Agreement between the U.S. Forest Service and State Forestry was passed which recognized Hispanic communities, land grants, and acequias as essential stewardship participants in protecting and preserving the land.

 
 
“Healthy watersheds support healthy communities.”
— Trampas Forest Council Bylaws
 

Role of the Forest Council

That same year, residents came together to form the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council with a core belief: ”communities that value the lands that support them have always been active stewards of the water, forests, valles, wetlands, wildlife, and clean air that healthy watersheds provide.” This is especially true of the public lands adjacent to their villages.

Forest Mayordomo Program

The Council piloted an innovative model to make good on this rhetoric, engaging traditional residents as “essential participants” in a lasting and meaningful way. Its Forest Mayordomo program reconnects land-based communities to the forests that sustained many of their ancestors for generations through local wood cutting agreements.

Area of concern

Many villages lie on lands that were deeded as land grants at the margins of the Carson National Forest. One such village is the Merced de Santo Tomás Apóstol del Río de Las Trampas (Las Trampas Land Grant), a 1751 community land grant of 28,132 acres. Camino Real Ranger District has jurisdiction over the Carson National Forest near Las Trampas.

 
 

Goals of the Council

  1. enable active collaboration between the Camino Real Ranger District of the Carson National Forest and residents living within the Las Trampas Land Grant;

  2. administer stewardship agreements between the Forest Council, the Forest Stewards Guild, and leñeros;

  3. improve stewardship of the federal lands adjacent to the villages;

  4. provide residents of local communities with access to forest products on federal lands;

  5. improve ecological health;

  6. protect and improve wildlife habitat;

  7. promote sustainable forestry;

  8. improve the economic viability of the forest and its natural resources;

  9. protect our watershed and our communities from catastrophic wildfire.

 
Small green leaves, a new crop of gambel's oak, sprout from a bed of pine needles
 
 

Where we’re going

 

Collaborative Forest Restoration Program

Building off the success of the 2019 pilot program, the Forest Council received 3-year Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP) funding in fall of 2021 to treat 216 acres of overstocked forested land on the Carson National Forest. Unique to New Mexico, the CFRP initiative is a special USFS funding program that supplements existing Forest Service programs. The council will be partnering with leñeros, or local woodcutters, to treat 1-acre blocks of ponderosa pine and piñon-juniper forest across a Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) priority landscape. The leñero program is overseen by the Rio de Las Trampas Forest Council, a forest mayordomo (steward), and asistente. The CFRP includes sub-awards for watershed restoration and road maintenance, a project manager, a monitoring coordinator, and a monitoring field assistant. Leñeros will be entitled to use or sell all fuelwood that is generated within their respective units.

Project objectives

  1. complete 216 acres of fuels reduction;

  2. provide a $300 reimbursement upon unit completion and fuelwood for 100 leñeros;

  3. ensure that established roads used to access the project area are maintained;

  4. convene a workshop on establishing Forest Councils and a leñero program;

  5. provide training and education for local youth from Peñasco High School as members of the multi-party monitoring team while also teaching about watershed restoration and silviculture.