A watershed health tour of the Abo Arroyo Watershed in Torrance County will be held Aug. 1. The tour is free and open to the public. Visitors will be able to see firsthand how new management practices implemented in the sensitive area have improved the ecology of the watershed. The program will begin at 1 p.m. in the Robert J. Saul Community Center in Mountainair with a video of conservation work done on the 144,445 acres of watershed west of Mountainair. A tour of the watershed will follow, and the day will conclude with discussion and dinner.
All events are free and open to the public.
The Abo Arroyo Watershed was identified as a geographic priority area in 1997 by the Bureau of Land Management, several federal and state conservation agencies and private landowners. Resource needs assessments done in 1995 determined that foreign species invasion and soil runoff into the Rio Grande had created ecological degradation of the area. A combination of brush, water and grazing management plans was started in the watershed in 1997 with funding from federal, state and private sources. The plans are intended to reduce erosion and runoff, improve water quality and quantity and improve biodiversity in the watershed. The tour is sponsored by the Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the New Mexico Association of Conservation and Southwest Strategy.