Tajique Land Grant
Grants Awarded
The Land Grant-Merced Regional Outdoor Recreation Project unites seven land grants in the Manzano and Sandia Mountain areas to establish a youth conservation crew focused on enhancing community parks, trails, and recreational spaces. By improving access to safe outdoor activities, this initiative seeks to promote physical health, foster community engagement, and empower underserved populations through collaboration with various organizations. Ultimately, participants will have greater opportunities for recreation while enhancing the quality of life and public spaces in their communities.
The Land Grant-Merced Regional Outdoor Recreation Project is a collaboration of seven land grants (the Tajique, Chililí, Manzano, Town of Tomé, Torreón, Cañón de Carnué and San Antonio de las Huertas Land Grants) located around the Manzano and Sandia Mountains that seek to collectively create a land grant-merced youth conservation crew to work on several projects in seven land grants across four counties. The projects include trail creation and improvement (including trail improvements around a fishing lake, recreation and camping area, and community playground), creating and improving community parks and playgrounds, and building erosion controls at community centers and playgrounds and at a popular spiritual and pilgrimage site. Through partnership and collaboration with Ancestral Lands (nonprofit focused on developing indigenous youth conservation corps), the UNM Land Grant Studies Program, the NM Land Grant Council (state agency tasked with supporting land grants), and the Resource Center for Raza Planning at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning, we are confident that we can make significant improvements in each community increasing recreation opportunities and improving physical health. Outdoor recreation has always been an affordable way for people to benefit from fresh air and activity. The communities participating in this regional project are underserved populations with limited access to safe and functional recreation opportunities. Working collectively, each community will use the resources they have to make substantial improvements to their public spaces, providing them the opportunity to strengthen community and improve spaces where people can safely engage in outdoor recreation.