Partners Celebrate One Million Acres of Land Restored in New Mexico (10/16/09)

Landscapes restored to native grasslands, open woodlands, and riparian (streamside) habitats

Roswell, N.M. – More than 100 partners gathered in Roswell, New Mexico, today to celebrate the restoration of over a million acres of degraded habitats across the state since 2005.

What's unique about the Restore New Mexico partnership is the number of individuals and groups that have joined the effort.  The BLM and more than 300 partners, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), other federal and state agencies, ranchers and other landowners, conservation groups and the energy industry, are working together to treat entire landscapes rather than individual parcels of land.  

The results are remarkable – native desert grasslands, cottonwood-willow habitat along streams, and healthy, open woodlands are returning to our state, greatly enhancing the areas' biological productivity, which in turn, benefits soil stability, groundwater supplies and wildlife populations.  Restore New Mexico efforts are focusing on landscapes dominated by mesquite, creosote, juniper, salt cedar and other invasive species in order to restore native vegetation.  

"People with a shared vision are taking action on an unprecedented scale," said Linda Rundell, New Mexico State Director for the BLM.  "Taken together, it's more than just restoring land – we are restoring the fabled landscapes of the American West, the special places that give us our sustenance and our spirit."

Following a tour of restoration projects near Roswell, the BLM presented awards to individuals and groups that have made major contributions to the Restore New Mexico partnership (see attached fact sheet for additional details).  

Two individuals and a family were awarded the BLM's prestigious Restore New Mexico Award by Rundell for their leadership in restoring degraded grasslands and other native habitats, and for promoting partnerships with additional ranchers:
- Judy Bock, manager of the Carlsbad Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)
- Joe Stell, a rancher southwest of Carlsbad
- The Ben and Jane Cain, and Phil and Judy Wallin families north of Las Cruces

An agency and two corporations received special, one-time One Million Acre Awards for their efforts as founding partners and continued financial support of Restore New Mexico since its inception in 2005:
- The Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Marbob Energy Corporation
- Devon Energy Corporation

Three entities and an individual received Pecos District Restore Awards for their efforts:
- The American Petroleum Institute (API)    
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC)  
- The Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV)  
- Jimmy Richardson, a rancher east of Carlsbad  

In addition, John Moen, Chairman of the Southwestern New Mexico Chapter of Quail Unlimited, presented the BLM with a check for $34,000 to help fund wildlife habitat improvement projects in southwestern New Mexico.  The funds, donated by members of the chapter, will be matched by the BLM's Las Cruces District.

While many people in New Mexico may not be aware of the problems affecting the state's landscapes, the issues are significant.  Habitat fragmentation, increased erosion and the spread of invasive plants have resulted from decades of human impacts and natural ecological processes.  

Because fire has largely been excluded from the landscape, there's been a dramatic shift over the past 150 years from fragile desert grasslands to vegetative communities extensively dominated by invasive shrubs; from healthy riparian areas to stream sides choked with salt cedar; and thick, overgrown forests that have lost meadows filled with native grasses.  Taken together, these negative changes have occurred on more than six million acres in New Mexico.

"Who would have thought, just five short years ago, that so many partners would have joined with us in our efforts to restore New Mexico's landscapes?" said Jesse Juen, the BLM's Associate State Director.  "But we can’t afford to sit back and focus on past accomplishments, as there is still so much to do – so much more habitat to improve, grass to grow, and so many more watersheds to heal."

Regardless of differing opinions on how lands should be used and managed, everyone agrees that we need to look at the land differently than we have in the past – not pasture by pasture or ranch by ranch, but as a whole landscape, Juen added.

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Restore New Mexico Awards Fact Sheet

State Director's Restore New Mexico Awards
Judy Bock was instrumental in planning, developing and implementing restoration projects throughout southeast New Mexico. She provided the initiative and leadership for the formation of partnerships with landowners, oil and gas companies, and other federal and state agencies.

Bock also manages a partnership that includes three southeast New Mexico counties, the BLM and local Soil and Water Conservation Districts to control the spread of noxious weeds, plus salt cedar extraction on the Pecos, Delaware and Black Rivers, allowing natural biodiversity to become reestablished.

The weed partnership Bock manages has contributed over $300,000 over the past five years for the control and monitoring of noxious weeds.   In 2008, the Carlsbad SWCD received a grant of $250,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for brush control in the Avalon watershed north of Carlsbad, treating 8,000 acres of critical habitat for the Aplomado falcon.

"Anyone who's worked with Judy knows that she is the glue that holds our private and federal partnership together," said Jim Stovall, manager of the BLM's Carlsbad Field Office.

Ben and Jane Cain have been leaders in managing and conserving public lands north of Las Cruces.  Ben passed away in June 2007, but his family continues his legacy of sound stewardship in managing public land.  Ben's daughter, Judy Wallin, and her husband Phil, have assisted Jane in managing the ranch. 

The family manages two BLM grazing allotments, the Bar Cross Ranch (53 percent public land) and the Lewis Cain Allotment, with 64 percent public land.  The Cains were some of the first ranchers to show an interest in the BLM's grassland restoration efforts, which started in the early 1980s.

The first two creosote treatments in the Jornada del Muerto Landscape Area north of Las Cruces were on the Bar Cross and the Lewis Cain Ranches.  Pre- and post-treatment monitoring of the treatments showed a 65 percent increase in grass forage production.  In total, the Cain family has cooperated with the BLM in treating 86,800 acres, which included chemical treatments and a prescribed burn over the past 27 years.

The Cains and the Wallins' have also adopted longer grazing deferment periods after brush control treatments so that grasslands could more fully recover.  The families have also worked closely with BLM and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to develop a plan that allowed them to operate the ranch while providing habitat on BLM public land for wildlife displaced as a result of Spaceport activities on adjacent state lands.  Through this mitigation plan, the Spaceport committed funding for water improvements on BLM lands to provide for beneficial use of restored habitats.  The Cains and Wallins' will match that amount and have agreed to reduce their permitted grazing use each year by 30 percent.

Joe Stell has been ranching in the Carlsbad area for almost 50 years.  Since 1988 he's been on the Slaughter Canyon allotment in the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains in Eddy County.  Joe has worked closely with the BLM to improve the range condition and productivity of the grazing allotment. 

His ranch was the first in southeast New Mexico to treat creosote and catclaw.  The treatment, done in 1992 with Joe sharing the cost of the treatment on state and private lands, was a remarkable success: a shrub-dominated desert pavement, with little or no grass, was transformed into a rolling black grama grassland. 
In 1998, the area was retreated with prescribed fire.  Again, Stell contributed money for the portion of the prescribed burn conducted on his private land.  His careful management of grazing has maintained the results of the brush treatments and prescribed fire project for 17 years.

In 2005, an antelope habitat analysis was conducted on Stell's allotment.  It fit the textbook description for pronghorn transplanting success, so in 2008, antelope were reintroduced onto the ranch.  Thanks to Stell's continued cooperation and habitat improvement, antelope are back in the area.  Based on this success, BLM and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are planning future releases for this area.   

Stell continues to be a strong advocate for the Restore New Mexico.  He is quick to speak about the positive benefits from this initiative to outside groups, other agencies and fellow ranchers.  He has also hosted a number of large field tours to the Slaughter Canyon allotment so others could see firsthand the long-term positive rangeland improvements that are possible through the 'Restore' initiative.

One Million Acre Awards
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has provided over $6 million, about $1.25 million each year since 2005, to the Restore New Mexico program through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program. This contribution has been essential in the Restore New Mexico program's ability to garner funding matches from other partners to treat large acreages of degraded landscapes throughout New Mexico.  Almost $30 million in federal, state and private funding has been raised to restore the one-million-plus acres statewide since 2005.

Both Marbob Energy Corporation and Devon Energy Corporation have contributed to restoration efforts statewide, developed Best Management Practices to reduce 'footprints' of their operations in southeastern New Mexico, and funded the reclamation of old, abandoned oil fields (well pads, roads and pipelines that were left behind by other companies prior to 1970, before federal requirements were established for onsite reclamation).

Pecos District Restore Awards
The American Petroleum Institute (API) provided a grant of $50,000 to Restore New Mexico this year that was matched by the BLM ($200,000).  Also, the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) offered a match of $180,000, bringing the total to $430,000 for the restoration of habitat in southeastern New Mexico.  The project will focus on improving habitat for two special status species (candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act), the lesser prairie-chicken and sand dune lizard.  TNC and PLJV contributed funding based on a grant they received from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. 

Jimmy Richardson has worked with the BLM since 2006 to improve the range condition and productivity of his two allotments east of Carlsbad.  Treatments on about 22,000 acres of brush have been completed to restore densely invaded shrub communities to native grassland and improve ecological functions of the watershed.  Richardson contributed to these projects financially, as well as with grazing management restrictions, and partnered with the BLM, NRCS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore and improve potential habitat for the lesser prairie chicken and sand dune lizard.