Monitoring for the Greater Rio Grande Watershed Alliance
Alex Makowicki, Corey Beinhart, Joe Zebrowski, New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute
The Greater Rio Grande Watershed Alliance (GRGWA). GRGWA is a collaboration of 13 soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs), Pueblos, agencies and stakeholders along the upper Rio Grande Watershed working on landscape-scale watershed restoration, with a focus on non-native phreatophyte removal from the bosque. They use a variety of techniques including extraction, mastication, aerial, basal, foliar and cut-stump herbicide applications and planting grass, shrubs and trees. Project locations range throughout the upper reaches of the Rio Grande watershed, from Bernardo north to the Colorado border. The New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration has been performing ecological monitoring of completed projects since 2010. This presentation will describe the unique, project-based monitoring protocols developed for this project, discuss some of the issues presented in monitoring in this diverse, multi-jurisdictional landscape, and showcase the project database it is developing to support the adaptive management of these types project areas.
About Joe Zebrowski:
Joe Zebrowski is the Special Programs Manager at the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute. His main focus is on programs that apply geospatial technology to current restoration and conservation challenges. He also facilitates collaborative conservation groups such as the Mountainair Ranger District Collaborative and the Estancia Basin Watershed Health Restoration and Monitoring Program. Joe’s research and applications interests center on the use of geospatial technologies in the support of collaborative conservation and watershed management. Landscape-scale restoration is particular interest. Joe received a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Sciences in Geography, both from Texas A&M University.