As the climate changes, NM officials draft protection for watersheds against wildfires

28 October 2022

Published by: https://sourcenm.com

USA – State wants to collaborate with acequias and Indigenous communities on safeguards

While New Mexico continues its yearslong recovery process from a disastrous fire season, the state and community partners are reviewing a 50-year water plan taking into account burn recovery and fire dangers the region will face.

Andrew Erdmann is the water planning program manager for the Interstate Stream Commission, a division of the Office of the State Engineer that protects and develops water systems. He gave an update on the draft of the five-decade roadmap — which isn’t yet released — to the public and officials at the New Water for New Mexico conference last week.

Back in 2018, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham promised a 50-year water plan. Despite funding denials and lack of staff, officials began outlining the project in early 2020 and developed a draft over spring and summer this year.

The proposal is being reviewed by government agencies and other partners, including water experts, the acequia community and tribal leadership. There’s no concrete timeline in place for when it will be finalized, agency spokesperson Maggie Fitzgerald said, but the commission hopes to release the draft for public review by the end of this year.

The state hasn’t yet released many detailed, specific actions officials intend to take to reach the plan’s goals. Fitzgerald said the draft has a broader scope for the decades-long trajectory.

The need for the long-term water plan is spurred by human-caused climate change that will continue to negatively impact New Mexico. To know what has to be done to help the state, the commission relied on a New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources study — the Leap Ahead Report — which was released in 2021 and predicts a much drier future for New Mexico.

As the globe continues to heat up, there will be more severe droughts and decreased water availability in New Mexico, according to the report. It also predicts more frequent forest fires due to increased temperatures and dryness, which threaten watersheds.

Watersheds are land areas that channel rainfall and snowmelt to bodies of water, and Erdmann said 80% of New Mexico’s precipitation falls in upland watersheds at high elevations. Those watersheds are vulnerable to disasters like wildfires, he said, and that creates consequences all the way downstream.

He brought up the city of Las Vegas, N.M. Its watershed was so clogged with ash and other debris from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire that the city nearly ran out of water altogether. Filtration systems and preservation efforts have helped save the water supply in the short-term, though the long-term future for Las Vegas still seemed uncertain as of last month.

So the state wants to include wildfire safety in the 50-year roadmap. In addition to recovery needed today, it’s important to keep in mind that there will be more fires to prepare for in the years to come, Erdmann said, both before and after they happen.

“This is really all about trying to restore areas that have burned, make areas more resilient so that they can resist fire,” he said.

The future also holds increased flooding, according to the Leap Ahead Report, partly as a result of the increased wildfires. Flood protection is prioritized in the draft, too, Erdmann said.

Talking to acequia stewards and Indigenous communities

The state also wants to boost the resilience of acequias. To do this, there needs to be a better relationship between the state and the people who oversee acequias, Erdmann said, so officials know what needs to happen. 

“We really need to raise the level of trust and just the understanding of what the needs are,” he said.

A significant acequia water source, precipitation — like snow — will also decrease or vary more in the future.

“At the end of the day, a lot of these guys are on the side of a mountain, and the only water available to them is the snowpack at the top, and that’s going to be diminished,” he said.

So the government and acequia communities need to work together to figure out a solution on how to keep the ancient waterways alive and well, Erdmann said.

More engagement and partnerships need to happen with Indigenous communities as well, Erdmann said. The state should talk to those who have been here for past droughts, he added, and use traditional ecological knowledge. Indigenous communities have a lot of information but collaboration needs to be pursued respectfully on the state’s end, he said.

The first step to this is resolving litigation in courts and moving toward collaboration instead, he said. Tribal nations in New Mexico trying to protect their water rights have filed a number of lawsuits.

“Trying to figure out a way to identify practices that have worked, where they have worked and … adapt those appropriately all over the state is an important piece,” he said.