Statement of Purpose

The Santa Fe Watershed Association works to return the Santa Fe River to a living river, from Lake Peak to the Rio Grande, balancing human uses with natural resource protection and restoring the heart to our community.

  • Our goal is to protect the long-term integrity of the Santa Fe River's watershed.
  • We engage in education, research, and on-the-ground projects of riparian and watershed restoration, as well as provide input into governmental planning, permits and projects.
  • We strive to find common ground among different points of view regarding uses of the river and its watershed.
  • We advocate surface and groundwater resource management that balances human use with natural resource protection.
  • We encourage government and community leaders to place high priority on sustaining seasonal stream flow in the Santa Fe River, yielding hydrologic, recreational, aesthetic and environmental value to the community. We believe that this goal can coexist with providing a reasonable supply for human use.

Staff

David Groenfeldt, Executive Director

David Groenfeldt (Ph.D., University of Arizona, major, cultural anthropology minor, agricultural economics)has twenty years' experience in international rural development research, analysis, design, implementation, evaluation, and training. His areas of expertise include water and agricultural policy, irrigation and watershed management, community participation, indigenous people, natural resource management; protected area and buffer zone planning and management, and organizational capacity building.

Pamela Dupzyk, Program Director

Pamela Dupzyk (B.A., History and M.A. Museum Studies) has an expertise in connecting the public to their environment. Most recently, Pamela was the Program Director for a Northern California Watershed Association where she worked with the community on water quality monitoring and habitat restoration. Past projects include creating and managing a biodiversity program for students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences for the California Academy of Sciences, creating exhibits and developing curriculum for numerous museums focusing on the environment.

Raquel Baca-Tompson, Membership Coordinator

After working in corporate Human Resources for over nine years, Raquel put her career on hold to stay at home with her two young children before coming to work for the Santa Fe Watershed Association. In addition to a Human Resources background, Raquel worked as an assistant to the Director of Shidoni Foundry, Inc.; she holds a certification in fitness training; and has volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico. As a native Santa Fean, Raquel remembers growing up with water in the Santa Fe River and holds fond memories of taking off her shoes to play in the river with friends.

Board Members

Francois-Marie Patorni, President

Francois-Marie Patorni retired from the World Bank 2001, where he was managing the Water Policy Reform Program, helping countries build capacity and make policy choices for sustainable water resources management. His recent volunteer activities include: member of the Board of the Piedmont Environmental Council, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the natural resources in nine counties of Virginia; co-founder of RappFLOW (Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of our Watershed), a small non-profit to protect the Rappahannock river watershed in Virginia; member of the advisory Board of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education; Past-President of the International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management; member of the American Water Resources Association and of other professional networks promoting better environmental policies. He moved to the Santa Fe area in early 2004.

Eliza Frank, Vice-President

Eliza Frank has over fifteen years of experience with environmental clean up, regulation, and public health, primarily involving hazardous wastes. She worked for four years in emergency response at oil and chemical spills and on Superfund sites. She was a contractor to several companies and organizations, including the US Environmental Protection Agency, and worked for six years at the New Mexico Environment Department. Eliza earned a BS in biological anthropology from the University of NM in 1990. Since 2004, she has volunteered and worked seasonally for Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity and been a river steward of the Santa Fe River in her neighborhood. She also co-organizes an email network to provide information in the neighborhood and became President of the Barrio la Cañada Association in February 2008. Eliza grew up in Albuquerque and Truchas and moved to Santa Fe in 1997.

Bart Kaltenbach, Treasurer

Bart Kaltenbach has been involved with building design and construction for 45 years; the last 30 in the Santa Fe area, specializing in solar energy applications, energy conservation and efficiency and rain water harvesting. During the past few years he has engineered and constructed numerous storm water catchments and control projects for erosion remediation and ponding. Bart was a faculty member at the Santa Fe Community College for 10 years (1980-1990). He joined the SFWA Board in January 2004.

Bruce Gallaher, Secretary

Bruce Gallaher has more than 25 years of professional experience in the Water Resources field and is currently a senior hydrologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Most recently, he headed up a 4-year study of the impacts of the Cerro Grande wildfire on water quality and streamflow within the Rio Grande drainage system. Before joining the staff at Los Alamos, he had the good fortune to work on projects across the country and in Australia.

Michael Chacon

Michael is a ninth generation descendant of Nicolás Ortiz and Mariana Coronado of Santa Fe. He currently serves as the Technical Reviewer/Quality Assurance Manager for the Dept. of Environmental and Cultural preservation of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, a small Indian Tribe which borders Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) near Santa Fe. In this capacity he oversees sampling and analysis plans for all environmental media within the Pueblo, and analyzes data from sampkling events. For the eight years prior to his current position, he was a regulator with the New Mexico Environment Department, with responsibility for RCRA Hazardous Waste Permitting and Corrective Action at LANL, as well as Dept. of Defense and private facilities. Michael also has environmental laboratory experience with both radionuclides and water quality analyses from his work at Controls for Environmental Pollution in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael earned a bachelor's degree in geology from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1989.

Gerald Z. Jacobi

Jerry is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science and Management at NewMexico Highlands University. He has worked for state and federal resource agenencies and is currently engaged in research projects with the NewMexico Department of Game and Fish, New Mexico Environment Department, U.S. Forest Service, and Trout Unlimited. His primary area of interset is in the use of aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators of environmental quality, i.e., effects of prescribed burns, effects of fire and flooding, and effects of fish toxicants. Collaboration with his wife Donna and colleagues produced an index of biotic integrity for evaluating the conditions of surface waters of the state by NMED. His secondary research interest is on the distribution of PLecoptera (stoneflies) in the southwest. He is a member of the City of Santa Fe's River Commission.

 

Dale Lyons

Dale Lyons has over twelve years of research and consulting experience including post wildfire disturbed land rehabilitation, agricultural water use efficiency, wetland mitigation, and watershed hydrology. Mr. Lyons holds a BS degree in Soils and a MS degree in Land Rehabilitation, both from Montana State University. He has served on the Santa Fe Watershed Association board since 2002, and his technical background complements the expertise of other board members. A Santa Fe native, Dale is also an active volunteer with Santa Fe Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

Tom Noble

Tom Noble is a realtor and home rennovator. A 36 year resident of Santa Fe, he worked on the original Earth Day here and helped organize The Central Clearing House, one of Santa Fe's first environmental organizations. When not out getting up close and personal with the landscapes of the high desert, he has worked on a number of issues, including coal fired power plants in the Four Corners, grazing on our public lands, archaeological site monitoring, and wilderness protection. He is currently on the board of Forest Guardians and volunteers with the City of Santa Fe Archaeological Review Committee.