WE RESTORE, SUPPORT, AND CONNECT OUR NATURAL SPACES
What is the Rio Chama CFLRP?
The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), enabled by Congress in 2009, is designed to increase the resiliency of forests and watersheds in priority forests across the U.S., largely through active forest management and collaborative efforts.
The Rio Chama CFLRP is the largest project of the 2-3-2 Cohesive Strategy Partnership, which serves as the local collaborative group working with the Forest Service. The Rio Chama CFLRP is providing $30 million in funding over ten years, from 2022-2031.
While the funds from the Forest Service are reserved for federal land, the project supports work across all lands; private, state, and federal. The federal dollars are leveraged to secure funding for cross-boundary work facilitated by the 2-3-2.
Visit the USFS CFLRP website to learn more about CFLRP and the data dashboard to view accomplishments by the numbers.
Goals
- Increase the forest resilience to disturbances like wildfire, insects, disease, and environmental change
- Restore watershed and riparian areas to improve water quality and watershed function
- Improve range conditions and wildlife habitat and connectivity
- Support local rural economies and create jobs by utilizing restoration byproducts
- Connect with tribal, land grant, and acequia communities, and engage youth in public land management
Highlighted Accomplishments
- Executed a 10-year Master Agreement with the Forest Stewards Guild for watershed restoration
- Finalized and implemented the 2-3-2 Partnership Multiparty Monitoring Plan, including field monitoring for ecological and socioeconomic indicators.
- Executed a Tribal Forest Protection Act Workforce Development Agreement with Santa Clara Pueblo for watershed and forest restoration treatments.
- Permanently staffed the Rio Chama CFLRP United States Forest Service team: Coordinator, Project Manager, GIS Specialist, and Partnerships and Communication Specialist.
- Finalized and implemented joint communications strategies for the 2-3-2 and Rio Chama CFLRP.
- Completed prescribed burns on the Carson National Forest (Dorado/Cañada del Agua) and Santa Fe National Forest (Golondrino), totaling 4,381 acres, and implemented 2,018 acres of managed Comanche Fire.
- Completed 15,514 acres of fuels treatments, 15,951 acres of watershed improvement, and 47,921 ccf (hundreds of cubic feet) timber volume sold on National Forest land.
- Facilitated cross-boundary CFLRP treatment planning.
- Hosted three 2-3-2 Partnership tour meetings with combined total of 170 attendees, including Tribal, federal, state, non-profit, legislative representatives, and research partners.
Where is the Rio Chama CFLRP?
Water is the critical connection between the upstream headwaters in the San Juan Mountains and millions of residents in downstream communities who rely on that water. This project covers 3.81 million acres across Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico (for reference, that’s larger than the state of Connecticut). The Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project is one of 17 active CFLRPs in the United States.
Who is part of the Rio Chama CFLRP?
The CFLRP is inherently collaborative. Around 50% of the land in the Rio Chama CFLRP is managed by the United States Forest Service. The remaining land is private, state, tribal, and municipal along with land managed by other federal agencies. In a sense, everyone who falls within (and even adjacent to) the boundaries of the CFLRP are participating in or affected by the work, though not always in an official nature. Those who are formally part of the project can be found here on our partner page.