Rainwater Catchment: a Path Back to Traditional Farming

The recently articulated vision of the Honoring Water Group, an informal citizen’s group meeting at Zuni, Vanderwagen and Gallup is: “Abundant water, respected and treated ethically.  When water is honored as sacred, mutual flourishing is possible.”  This citizen’s group, with much organizational support from James and Joyce Skeet of Vanderwagen, seeks to honor and protect water in…

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From Portales, NM – “If Only I had Known”

If I had only known! How many times have you said that in your life? Grab some caffeine and join me for a tour of our possible water future. Do you remember that time when you meant to go see someone but something came up, only to get a call that something had happened to…

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Staring into New Mexico’s Water Supply Abyss

Water managers along the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) and across New Mexico increasingly feel as if they are staring into an abyss of water shortages for increasing numbers of users who depend on water supplies for drinking, for economic growth, and even for the survival of our present-day economy.  The reliable supply of NM’s surface…

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NM Court Stops Augustin Plains Ranch Water Grab

At a momentous hearing on April 5, 2024, more than 100 community members from Catron County crowded the court room and hallways of the Seventh Judicial District court in Reserve to hear oral argument on the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC’s continuing and relentless requests to mine and hoard 54,000 acre-feet of water a year from…

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State Engineer’s Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force Report

New Mexico enters 2023 in a water crisis. But with unprecedented peril comes unprecedented opportunity.
To address that challenge, and those opportunities, a diverse task force of stakeholders from across New Mexico came together from June to November 2022, studying the problems and coming to broad, shared conclusions: our challenges are dire, but there are things we can do if we act now.

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