San Juan Watershed Group

The San Juan Watershed Group, in partnership with The Potting Shed JNJ, will conduct/host their Healthy Soils workshop originally scheduled for February 23rd , has been rescheduled, due to weather conditions, to March 2nd, from 6-8pm, at the Sycamore Community Center. The course curriculum includes Micro-Farm Design, soil & water sampling, drip irrigation, and water retention/conservation. The activity for the workshop will be demonstrating how to properly take soil & water samples, identifying soil stability and texture. As an incentive for attending this workshop, free soil & water testing equipment will be provided to workshop participants. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please contact Heather Dostaler at [email protected] or Jenna Wethington at [email protected].

Have you ever seen the New Mexico Agricultural Statistics Bulletin? The newest one has just been released and has lots of interesting info. Unsurprisingly, New Mexico chile and pecan production ranked in the top two spots in the nation in 2020. But did you know New Mexico also ranked 5th in the nation for onion production, 9th in the nation for milk (at $1.3 billion!), and 14th for cattle and calves? Statistics are broken down by county, so search "San Juan" to learn more about our local agricultural production!
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/New_Mexico/Publications/Annual_Statistical_Bulletin/2020/2020-NM-Ag-Statistics.pdf

Want to join the team? Check out our website for more details!

Now Hiring: Natural Resource Specialist San Juan SWCD is now hiring for a Natural Resource Specialist to join the current team of 3 full time staff at their new office in Aztec, NM. The District Natural Resource Specialist will complete mapping and data analysis for ongoing conservation projects, conduct field work and provide conservatio...

A project that takes a community ❤️ thank you to the River Reach Foundation, City of Farmington, Friends of the Nature Center, San Juan Soil & Water Conservation District, and the community for supporting this project

River Reach Reforestation Project

At its November, 2021 meeting, the Board of Directors of the River Reach Foundation voted to purchase twenty-five native trees with a 2-3 inch caliper (diameter) to be planted in the field west of the Riverside Nature Center to assist with the reforestation of the area. The City of Farmington has submitted a grant application to fund additional trees and an irrigation system, and the Friends of the Nature Center are also looking at ways to assist. The opportunity for citizens to sponsor additional trees will be developed closer to project implementation.

The Farmington Fire Department acquired a grant through the San Juan Soil Conservation District via the New Mexico Water Trust Board for invasive species removal, specifically Russian olive and saltcedar. A single Russian olive consumes 80-120 gallons of groundwater per day. The removal has three purposes: wildfire protection, ecosystem restoration, and water quality improvement.

Areas east of the Riverside Nature Center, across the river at Cottonwood landing, and around the All Veteran’s Memorial were mitigated, but it wasn’t as noticeable. However, the area west of the Nature Center was a thickly wooded area almost exclusively Russian olive, and their removal was a visual shock.

The multi-year project will include repeated application of EPA approved herbicides to the Russian olive stumps and continual physical removal of regrowth. In year 3 there will be replanting of native grasses and groundcover. The project calls for 500 cottonwood pole plantings, but the River Reach Foundation saw a need for larger trees to be added sooner. We are hoping that the Farmington Parks Department will be able to implement this planting as an Arbor Day project in late April 2022.