December 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 46

B U I L D A PA R K

As a thank you to community members,
the Taos Land Trust concluded its yearlong planning efforts with a Matanza.

we realized that it had incredible
value. Protecting water resources,
wildlife habitat and agricultural
lands is key to our organizational
mission, " she explains.
Nurtured by a portion of the
looping Rio Fernando, a narrow
stream sheltered by 100-foot-tall
cottonwood trees and jungle-like
thickets of willow and cattail, Rio
Fernando Park encompasses an array of ecosystems, including several barren and depleted acres once
thick with corn and alfalfa, but
now dominated by groves of invasive trees, such as the Siberian elm.
After consulting with local partners, the Land Trust embarked on
a year-long community-focused
process to develop a master plan
for the land, to create a public park
and restore the river and wetlands.
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Parks & Recreation

" We put ourselves squarely in the
realm of community conservation.
For us, that means listening to our
community and letting those needs
inform what we do, " says Ortez.
And, by community, the Land
Trust meant the entire community,
particularly groups who tend not
to have a voice in community planning: the Native American population, the legacy Hispano community, and recent Central American
and Mexican immigrants.
" Equity, " emphasizes Ortez. " Building a park has to be about equity. "
The Rio Fernando
The Rio Fernando is one of the
most impaired rivers in north-central New Mexico. It begins as a
bubbling spring in the wide, gently
sloping La Jara meadows of the
Carson National Forest. From irresponsible grazing practices and
poorly conceived roads, to overuse,
erosion, homes built on its fragile

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banks and a persistent E. coli ailment from poorly managed septic
systems, the Rio Fernando faces a
gauntlet of challenges on its run to
join the Rio Pueblo de Taos and
eventually the Rio Grande just
south of Taos.
When the Land Trust purchased
the Romo farm, the land was imperiled. It took a visionary to see its
potential. Luckily, the Land Trust
is blessed with several visionaries.
" There was a lot of trash out here, "
says Ortez. Miles of barbed wire and
fencing cut the land, a homeless encampment had grown in the forest,
and tires and trash laced the creek.
" But, we were struck by its awesome wildness, " Ortez relates. " I
could visualize children playing in
the trees. I could visualize fish in
the stream. I knew we had work
ahead of us, but I was blown away
by the potential. "
The organization had just come
out of several very challenging
years, and, according to Ortez, turning toward community conservation
forced it to dig deep. " Why were we
doing this? What would this mean
for us and for the community? We
made sure we were going into this
with eyes wide open, " she says.
Supported by grants from NRPA,
the LOR Foundation, Taos Ski
Valley Foundation and the CocaCola Company and with lots of local support, the Land Trust chose
to engage in a master planning
process to identify the needs of
the community and how the newly christened Rio Fernando Park
might fulfill some of those needs.
" From the outset, we knew we
needed to create a place that would
be welcoming to all segments of
our community, " Ortez points out.
" We knew we didn't have all the
answers. We had to bring the community onto the land. This could

December 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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