Taos Land Trust

Now in our 35th year, Taos Land Trust empowers people to protect the land and traditions they love through education, advocacy, and conservation. Over these nearly 4 decades we have worked with private landowners to protect their land under conservation easements – totaling more than 25,000 acres across northern New Mexico. In late 2015, the Taos Land Trust purchased a 20 acre parcel in the middle of the town of Taos. Riddled with weeds on its 13 acres of formerly productive ag-land and practically choked with invasive Russian olive trees and teasel on the 7 acre wetland, this property became our passion project and allowed us to refocus our work on community conservation. Over the last 8 years we have worked with community partners, scientists and ecologists to revitalize and restore the land we know call Rio Fernando Park. Our work has focused on bringing the river, the acequia, and the land it waters back to life using innovative soil health and farming techniques and traditional ecological knowledge. Rio Fernando Park has become the central location for physical activity and educational programming, with Youth Conservation Corps, local schools and summer camps participating in lessons on the conservation of soil, water and habitat. We have employed more than 100 young people from our local community – they’ve earned a living wage while becoming farmers and ecologists. Their work has translated into thousands of pounds of grain and food that has fed our community Thanks to support from local donors, philanthropists and government parties, the Taos Land Trust has connected people to the land, revitalized and restored thousands of acres of fallow land to grow food and protected ten of thousands of acres of working lands forever.