Spreading education and awareness

Rolling Rivers A Water Education Project

The East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District provides the rolling river water trailer to users for the sole purpose of promoting a better understanding of river and riparian processes.

Northern New Mexico Stem Program presents: A Place-Based Participatory Path to Geoscience

East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District has obtained funding to create wildfire adapted defensible space around private residences in at risk FireWise communities. The FireWise funded thinning can only be within 200 feet of homes, but  in the El Rito district of the Carson National Forest, the communities that are most at risk, most with populations of 100 families or less, are totally surrounded by National Forest property for which the funding does not apply. In most cases, there is only one road to these towns that can be used for evacuation in case of emergency and there are places where they too are surrounded by dense forest. Approximately 50% of wildfires originate from natural causes, primarily lightning. The other half are human caused, with ignition from power lines being the leading cause of catastrophic wildfires. Students in the proposed NSF GeoScience Pathways project  could provide a valuable service by flying drones along the powerlines and emergency egress routes to collect, map, and analyze visual information in relationship to fuel densities and other fire risk factors to locate and prioritize where the extended thinning is most needed. The participants will gain experience in applying agent based modeling with multiple variables in a real world, multiple agency collaborative setting. Actively engaging with the staff from the Forest Service, Kit Carson Electric, Rio Arriba County and the College, they have the opportunity to develop relationships that could be important in realistically developing career opportunities which don’t require leaving the area to find employment.