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This Document elaborates issues, projects, and strategies to deal with the changing environment of Western American forest land. . The 2008 Farm Bill set into motion a landmark endeavor for all U.S. states and Pacific Islands to complete assessments of the forests within their boundaries and to develop strategies to address identified threats and opportunities. This document states some of these findings up through 2013

Part 2 of a video describing principles and methods of forest road and skid trail construction to minimize impacts to water quality.

We invite you to offer a paper or poster at the 2013 Convention to inform the conversation and to ensure that our profession and its practitioners continue to ensure sustainable forests and protect the values they provide for the nation.

- The Estancia Basin Watershed Health, Restoration and Monitoring Steering Committee (Steering Committee) oversees forest thinning projects and monitoring of forest and watershed health in the Estancia Basin in coordination with the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute. The primary goals of the Steering Committee are to improve forest health and create defensible space from wildfire. Funding for this project has been provided by the New Mexico Water Trust Board. - SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) was awarded a contract in 2007 to conduct monitoring for forest thinning effectiveness on the eastern slopes of the Manzano Mountains for the Steering Committee. SWCA finalized a comprehensive monitoring plan in March 2008 which is available online at the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute’s website (http://www.nmfwri.org/images/stories/pdfs/Estancia_Basin_Monitoring/ Estancia Basin Monitoring.pdf)—that provides background information, research questions, and a discussion of methods relative to forest thinning and monitoring. - The principal goals of forest and watershed monitoring are to determine the effectiveness of standard prescribed forest thinning on soils, hydrology, water yield and quality, vegetation, and wildlife. SWCA is responsible for planning and implementing forest thinning monitoring in order to evaluate these resources. - Data from permanent monitoring study sites provide information on rainfall, ambient and soil temperatures, soil moisture, soil surface profiles to assess erosion over time, soil surface stability, soil chemistry, bird and small mammal composition and relative abundance, and vegetation composition, structure, and cover.

This poster presents research on the effectiveness of aerial seeding conducted on private lands by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) following the Trigo Wildfire of April 2008, which burned 13,709 acres of ponderosa pine and mixed conifer in the Manzano Mountains of central New Mexico. The general objectives of this research were to: - determine the effects of fire severity on the recovery of forest understory vegetative communities and determine how different plant species respond to fire severity; - determine the response of intentionally seeded grass species used in restoration efforts by the NRCS (annual rye grass, Lolium multiflorum, and tall wheat grass, Thinopyrum ponticum) to high and low fire severity; and - evaluate the relative recovery responses of native and exotic plant species to fire severity.

Prepared by TNC for Ciudad SWCD, February 2015

Video presentations from the conference held October 18-19, 2016 at Utah State University. As climate changes, forests are being impacted by severe drought, longer fire seasons, and impressive insect epidemics. New approaches to landscape restoration are needed to cope with these disturbances. The 2016 Restoring the West Conference offered presentations by experts in climate science, landscape restoration, and forest ecology on techniques for this uncertain future, and gave examples where these techniques are working.

Presentation on two TNC initiatives: the Rio Grande Water Fund and the proposed Burned Area Learning Network. Presented by Anne Bradley to the state Coordinating Group and NM Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee at their April 21, 2014 quarterly meeting.

Bagdon, B. and Huang, C.H., 2016. Southwest Fire Science Consortium Working Paper

by Yasmeen Najmi, Sterling Groghan, Dr. Cliff Crawford. June 2005. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, Albuquerque, NM