earth day naturally
Feature Story
The beautiful green swath that cuts through Albuquerque along the Rio Grande Bosque is a soothing and healing space and one of the jewels of the city.
That greenery from the towering, majestic cottonwood trees to the often-dense undergrowth provides a healthy place for urbanites to rest and recover from stresses and tensions of the day.
But creating more and easily accessible natural places for people to rejuvenate is the goal of The Nature Conservancy, which is heavily involved in creating partnerships to help all of the metro area become greener.
“What I like about the Conservancy, we’re a little different than other conservancy and environmental organizations,” said Amy M. Miller, director of external affairs for the organization’s New Mexico chapter. “We are very collaborative in our approach. Very non-partisan. We seek partners from all walks of life. And we get things done on the ground. We advocate for policies but we put those into real-life projects.”
One of those projects is helping provide some people power for the city’s understaffed Parks and Recreation Department’s forestry group, which is tasked with maintaining the trees in the city’s nearly 300 parks, said Sarah Hurteau, urban conservation director for the organization.
After the success of a pilot program last summer to provide some workers through the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps program, the Conservancy this year has brought in
eight more young Youth Corps adults aged 18-25, doubling the number of workers the Parks Department has available.
“What we know from science is that people need nature in their day-to-day lives and without having that nearby access to nature, there are consequences to that,” Hurteau said. “Having the ability to connect with nature in whatever form, whether it’s a big expedition, or go to take a hike in the Bosque or go to the top of the Sandias, or whether you have potted plants on your balcony, what the research shows us is that people are smarter, they’re healthier and they’re happier when they have access to nature.”
And this program is beneficial in that it not only helps out a city department and the health of the parks, but also provides experience for the temporary workers.
“This is a way to help our city maintain this really important infrastructure that’s available to all of the people in the city,” Hurteau said. “Our city parks should be the gems that people can go to and enjoy in whatever way they do with their families and help them have access to those clean spaces.”
Additionally, ‘the concept is through this project and others, it will allow them to see what a career in natural resources might look like and give them an opportunity to build skills,” she said. “They may go to college and they get education credits through AmeriCorps, but there are a lot of avenues by which they can use these skills that are employable without a college education. They can choose to go to college but whether they decide to go to college and explore that way, they can. But if that’s not a path for them, then they’re still gaining valuable skills in tree pruning, proper watering of our trees, what species should we be planting here, and what ones are native to our region.”
The Nature Conservancy also is involved in expanding the green space in the area known as the International Zone, south of Lomas between San Mateo and Eubank.
This expansive area has one of least amounts of green space coupled with the highest densities of impermeability in the form of concrete and asphalt, making for an unhealthy living environment, Hurteau said.
Through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Albuquerque was one of four cities to receive funding to boost the green space.
“We’re working with the community there to engage them in envisioning what they want so that they can help tell us what it is they want in their greens space,” she said. “It’s not a lot of money, but it will just get things started. The portion that will come to $70,000 and with any grant, there are in-kind matches, additional funds and efforts to bulk that up.”
Partners include the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps again, the New Mexico State Forestry, urban and community foresting program as well as local community organization Artful Life, which helps build social cohesion through art projects.
“So the idea with this, it could be an art project that’s also water-related so maybe there’s a water conveyance sculpture or something that includes green space and art,” Hurteau said. “It will be interesting to see what the community comes up with as we task them with developing these ideas.”
Because parks in lower-economic areas can sometimes be overtaken by lesser elements, that issue has been a part of the discussions so far, as well, she said.
“One of the site locations that we’re looking at is the San Mateo-Kathryn redevelopment area where it could be also co-housed near the new police substation,” Hurteau said. “So then in this particular instance, while we’re investing money to create green space, it also will become a very safe space for families to go and will create that just a little bit of buffer space that families need to go there and feel safe.”
The Nature Conservancy also recently completed a pilot program at Dolores Gonzales Elementary School near the Rio Grande Zoo.
In a partnership with General Mills Co., 10, 250-gallon plastic, food-grade totes in which the company receives its materials, were converted to rain barrels to capture rainwater from the school’s portable classrooms.
“This came about because parents who have been involved in the school for a long time have started a couple of different gardens and one of them doesn’t have any access to outdoor water,” Hurteau said. “There’s no irrigation we could tie into. No outdoor hose bib that they can bring water from. They had a couple of vegetable gardens and fruit trees really struggling to keep things living for the students and the garden club. So these rain barrels were put in specifically to water these gardens and fruit trees.”
The City of Albuquerque and a grant from the Center for Social Sustainable Systems helped pay for the project and Plant World donated seeds.
“Our vision is that we can really change the way the city interacts with natural resources,” Hurteau said. “This touches down in projects that when you roll them all up together, they’re addressing the big challenges that we’re facing here in Albuquerque and that’s heat and water conservation.”