Upper Watershed

The Santa Fe Municipal Watershed

Like many cities throughout the western United States, Santa Fe’s water supply is dependent upon forest health and protection from catastrophic wildfire.The Santa Fe Municipal Watershed provides water for approximately 30,000 households and businesses within the City of Santa Fe and surrounding communities. Few residents have ever seen the Santa Fe Municipal watershed as it has been closed to the public since 1932. This very important part of watershed needs maintainence, monitoring and restoration to become a healthy watershed.

Click here to download the Watershed Plan

About the Municipal Watershed

The municipal watershed comprises the upper 17,384 acres of the Santa Fe river basin. Two reservoirs hold approximately 4,000 acre feet, which is about one-third of the water used annually in the Santa Fe water system. The upper 10,000 acres of the municipal watershed are contained within the Pecos Wilderness Area. The lower 7,270 acres of the municipal watershed is dominated by ponderosa pine and piñon pine-juniper woodlands.

The Santa Fe Municipal Watershed Plan 2009-2029

The plan addresses four areas critical to the maintenance of the watershed: (i) vegetation management and fire use; (ii) water management; (iii) public awareness and outreach; and (iv) financial management based on "Payment for Ecosystem Services." This plan is unique in that it seeks to fund watershed activities using the Payment for Ecosystem Services model as an insurance policy against future threats, particularly of catastrophic fire, to the municipal water supply.

The Santa Fe Watershed Association is implementing the public awareness and outreach component of the plan. Outreach will be geared to both the general public and youth.

Watershed education to the general public will be through educational hikes within the watershed, two self-guided interpretive trail brochures:one overlooking the watershed and one in the the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, a video explaining the value of helathy forests for a healthy watershed , a website, two bilingual informational fliers on Payment for Ecosystems Services and a survey with Santa Fe residents to assess the attitudes and knowledge of Santa Fe residents toward watershed management The Watershed Association will also be producing a Santa Fe Watershed Blue Pages, a guide to protecting our watershed.

For Santa Fe youth, two experiential science-based programs will allow them to study and explore their watershed, learning about the complex relationships between living things and their environment .Fifth grade students will explore river health in the classroom and in the field through the macroinvertebrates, "water bugs". Middle school students will collect monitoring data on water quality, vegetation, and wildlife indicators. All students will analyze data and present the information on the watershed website and to their peers.

The Watershed Association will also be staffing information tables, writing articles for existing organizational newsletters, developing public service announcements and 30-second television spots, and placing an information page in the phone book

In photo above, Santa Fe Watershed Association Board Member Francois-Marie Patorni and Pamela Dupzyk with Senator Bingamin, and employees of the Santa Fe National Forest, after a tour of the Upper Watershed.