Rito Peñas Negras Project
Santa Fe National Forest
- Multi-phase project designed to stabilize the degrading channel and meadow, improve meadow and riparian function and reestablish and protect vegetation. Joint effort with NFF, Rio Grande Return and National Fish and Wildlife Federation and USFS.
- Initial phases installed beaver dam analogues (BDA) and post assisted log structures (PALS) designed to restore the processes of wood accumulated, stream and floodplain connectivity and to mimic beaver dam activity to support fish habitat and increase natural water storage capacity and riparian wetland function.
- Installed 300+ structures across 5.5 miles of stream and planted over 4,000 willows. With thousands more over the next few years and 16 existing riparian enclosures maintained and modified to protect the recovering stream, riparian and meadow system.
- SFNF hosted workday to continue the instream restoration work. An additional 9 instream structures were constructed by a team of a 20 individuals including members of the public, Rio Grande Return employees, SFNF employees, RO employees and individuals from the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project Team.
- Additional funds have been awarded through a National Fish and Wildlife Federation Grant
- additional opportunities exist to leverage funds and resources such as utilizing the IYSCC crew to perform hand work associated with project-based restoration is in the works for FY 2024
