Taos Land Trust
Grants Awarded
We are expanding our Emerging Ecologists program to engage younger participants seeking leadership opportunities. Through youth-run workshops at TLT’s 20-acre Rio Fernando Park, participants will learn about ecosystem resiliency, farming, conservation, and scientific inquiry while actively exploring the natural environment. This initiative aims to foster environmental stewardship and community engagement, ultimately benefiting both the youth and the local community.
Taos Land Trust seeks support to enhance the Outdoor Learning Center at Rio Fernando Park, improving infrastructure for recreation and outdoor education. This initiative will directly benefit hundreds of students annually by providing formal training in ecological monitoring and food production while promoting fresh produce distribution within the community. Upgrades, including improved accessibility features, will encourage greater usage among diverse local residents and foster sustainable outdoor education and recreational opportunities.
The Taos Land Trust project will enhance Rio Fernando Park through the creation of a universal-access trail, an extended wetlands access trail, a sustainable landscaping plan, and an energy-efficient indoor/outdoor classroom. These improvements are designed to increase accessibility, foster community engagement with natural habitats, and promote ecological education, ultimately benefiting both participants and the wider community.
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.