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This 2015 Annual Report provides information on the results of forest thinning during the calendar year 2015. Initial 2008, 2009, and 2010 baseline pre-treatment monitoring data from permanent monitoring study sites provided 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. Monitoring data from 2011 to 2015 provides post treatment information on the above parameters along with data on medium-sized to large wildlife and livestock for the first 5 years following thinning treatments.

Second Annual Report of the Rio Grande Water Fund

Spreadsheet listing collaborative groups working on forest and watershed restoration in and adjacent to New Mexico. Updated 10/20/16. List includes some partners and collaborative projects. Distributed at the Fall 2016 Coordinating Group meeting.

An unprecedented 40-year experiment in a 40,000 acre valley of Yosemite National Park strongly supports the idea that managing fire, rather than suppressing it, makes wilderness areas more resilient to fire, with the added benefit of increased water availability and resistance to drought. After a three-year assessment of the Park's Illilouette Creek Basin, UC Berkeley researchers concluded that a strategy dating to 1973 of managing wildfires with minimal suppression and almost no prescribed burns has created a landscape more resistant to catastrophic fire, with more diverse vegetation, forest structure and increased water storage. "When fire is not suppressed, you get all these benefits: increased stream flow, increased downstream water availability, increased soil moisture, which improves habitat for the plants in the watershed. And it increases the drought resistance of the remaining trees and also increases the fire resilience because you have created these natural firebreaks," said Gabrielle Boisramé, graduate student at UC Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and first author of the study. The Cohesive Wildland Fire Strategy supports management of fires where possible. Managing fires is part of the Cohesive Strategy vision: to safely and effectively suppress fires, use fire where allowable, manage our natural resources, and as a Nation, live with wildland fire. Read the full article and find the published study at: ttp://wildfireinthewest.blogspot.com/2016/10/wildfire-management-vs-suppression.html.

Handout about an accessible tool under development for planning, mapping and tracking forest and watershed restoration projects in New Mexico

Handouts from 09/26/16 Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition meeting showing proposed and future projects

Document describing the mission and values that will inform the Landscape Resilience Strategy for the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition

List of collaborative groups working on forest and watershed health in New Mexico. Compiled for the April 15, 2016 Coordinating Group/Watershed Management Subcommittee meeting.

PDF Version of a presentation made to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016

Presentation to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016