Protecting Our Forest, Community, and Health
Housed within the current and ancestral lands of the Pueblos of Nambe, Tesuque, and other indigenous and traditional communities, the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed represents 107,626 acres of interconnected social and ecological wildfire concerns. The human and natural communities surrounding Santa Fe have been left vulnerable to high-severity wildfire, drought, and ecological disease by climate change and past land mismanagement. A number of studies and risk-modeling efforts have illuminated just how severe the consequences could be if a wildfire raged across the Sangre de Cristo mountains in their current untreated and overly dense condition.
What Can Be Done: Forest Stewardship for Future Resiliency
In an effort to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest resiliency, forest and fire managers now work collaboratively with the community and landowners to put the best available science into practice through forest treatments on this landscape. The primary objectives in planning and carrying out land management treatments such as stream restoration, forest thinning, and prescribed burning are to improve forest health and create conditions where fire can resume its natural beneficial role in these fire-adapted forests.
Want to Learn More?
A two-page insert was circulated in several December 2021 editions of the Santa Fe Reporter describing the history of this landscape, how and why it has come to be at-risk, and the ways in which the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition and others are working to improve the well-being of our forests for generations to come. We invite you to revisit this briefing paper to learn more about our collective responsibility and privilege in Stewarding the Fireshed. Click the link below to view all Fireshed Coalition briefing papers and learn more about challenges and opportunities across the landscape.