New Mexico

New Mexico joins nation-wide challenge to protect and restore water resources – NM Political Report

Published

2 years ago

June 28, 2024

New Mexico joins nation-wide challenge to protect and restore water resources – NM Political Report

New Mexico has joined the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge, a national partnership effort to conserve and restore freshwater resources. President Joe Biden announced the challenge in April as part of the Earth Week celebrations. The goal is to “protect, restore, and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our nation’s rivers […]

New Mexico has joined the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge, a national partnership effort to conserve and restore freshwater resources.

President Joe Biden announced the challenge in April as part of the Earth Week celebrations. The goal is to “protect, restore, and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our nation’s rivers and streams by 2030,” according to a press release from April.

White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory explained, during a visit to Albuquerque on Thursday, that New Mexico’s waterways will receive more focus.. A map behind her showed areas of the state where waterways are no longer protected under the Clean Water Act due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision. This includes ephemeral waterways as well as places like the Jemez River that run dry before connecting with larger waterways.

The Sackett decision led American Rivers to list New Mexico’s waterways as the “most endangered river” this year. In addition to the impacts of the Sackett decision, New Mexico is one of the states without its own surface water permitting system.

Mallory said that coordinated efforts are key in areas like New Mexico where the impacts of the Sackett decision are so great.

“New Mexico is doing a lot all by itself. But having the ability to get additional focus or sending in additional resources as they’re available, is really going to be a really important part to the success,” she said.

Joining the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge does not necessarily mean more funding will be available to New Mexico. However, Mallory said it might make New Mexico more competitive in the future as it pursues federal resources. She said that the federal government, knowing that there’s already groundwork being done in New Mexico to restore and protect waters, may see funding projects in the state as having a greater potential impact compared to some other parts of the country.

“We are all working together to make sure we can continue to protect water,” Tanya Trujillo, the deputy state engineer, said.

She said that New Mexico is facing many challenges with water, including both drought and flooding.

“We have to be able to take care and manage our waters during all of the conditions that we may see,” Trujillo said.

The states, local governments, Tribal entities, businesses and nonprofits that have joined the challenge all agree to a set of commitments to restore and connect wetlands and waters.

One of the original members of the partnership was the Navajo Nation.

“To Navajos and all Indigenous people, water is a sacred element,” President Buu Nygren said in a statement in April. “We in the Southwest, and especially Navajos, are aware daily how precious water is to our life, our livestock, our crops, wildlife and the natural world all around us. We are pleased to join the Biden-Harris Administration in this initiative.”

Some of the other partners include Colorado, Amigos Bravos, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Audubon Society, New Mexico Wild, Patagonia, the Rio Grande International Study Center and Trout Unlimited.

“But New Mexico waters are in peril. We are in the eye of a perfect storm. We are in an arid state to begin with. And climate change is hitting us hard. Today 66 percent of our state is in drought conditions,” Tannis Fox with the Western Environmental Law Center said during the event in Albuquerque.

She said that while the majority of waterways in New Mexico do not run year round, they play important roles.

Speakers highlighted how contamination released into ephemeral waterways can jeopardize the water quality in acequias and even in waters that remain protected under the Clean Water Act.

New Mexico’s participation in the challenge complements actions that are outlined in the 50-year water plan unveiled in January.

“We’re going to be able to continue to implement our water quality protection programs, both surface water and groundwater, develop the necessary regulations that it’s going to take to make sure we can do those right and to do things like take care of our watersheds,” Trujillo told NM Political Report.

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New Mexico

Santa Fe National Forest, other Northern New Mexico land, announce fire restrictions

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9 hours ago

April 1, 2026

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Santa Fe National Forest, other Northern New Mexico land, announce fire restrictions

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New Mexico

New Mexico State women’s basketball’s 3 best March Madness moments

Published

21 hours ago

April 1, 2026

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New Mexico State women’s basketball’s 3 best March Madness moments

New Mexico State’s women’s basketball team has entered a new era with the hiring of Adeniyi Amadou as its new coach. He’ll try to take the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament, where they appeared multiple times in the 1980s and 2010s.

NM State has six NCAA Tournaments, four conference tournament championships (all won as part of the Western Athletic Conference) and eight regular-season conference championships to its name in women’s basketball. The Aggies have reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament once in 1988, although that was when teams could receive first-round byes if they were a high enough seed (they were a No. 6 seed then and lost to Washington in their first NCAA Tournament game).

Let’s look back on some of those seasons. Here are the three best March Madness moments in NM State’s women’s basketball history:

First conference tournament win (2015)

NM State began its WAC dynasty in 2015.

The Aggies won their first-ever conference tournament in women’s basketball in the 2015 WAC Tournament. NM State was the regular-season conference champion and earned the No. 1 seed and a bye to the semifinals of the WAC Tournament as a result. The Aggies went 2-0 to secure a conference tournament championship.

Bolstered by 22 points from Sasha Weber and 16 rebounds from Brianna Freeman, NM State pulled out a 79-75 overtime win in the semifinals over Seattle. Another 20 points from Weber helped the Aggies win the WAC Tournament championship game 70-52 over UT-Pan American (which has since merged with UT-Brownsville to form UTRGV) and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988. Freeman was named the WAC Tournament MVP.

Three in a row (2017)

The Aggies would then make it three consecutive WAC Tournament championships two years later.

NM State entered the 2017 WAC Tournament with a perfect 14-0 conference record, and it kept that unbeaten run going. The Aggies defeated UMKC (now referred to as Kansas City) 71-63 in the semifinals thanks to four players scoring in double figures, including Moriah Mack’s 21 points in 40 minutes of action. NM State then took down Seattle 63-48 in the championship game off the back of a double-double from Tamera William at 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Mack won the WAC Tournament MVP that year. She scored 18 points against the Redhawks in the championship game. It was the third and final WAC Tournament championship for then-coach Mark Trakh before he joined USC.

Resilience in overtime (2019)

Another regular-season conference championship wasn’t enough in 2018, as the Aggies lost to Seattle in the semifinals. But NM State got back on its perch in the WAC in the following year.

Guided by second-year coach Brooke Atkinson, the Aggies needed two overtime victories to win the 2019 WAC Tournament after defeating Chicago State in the quarterfinals (the WAC Tournament went from seven to eight teams starting in 2018, with no byes to the semifinals). The first one came in a 91-80 win over UMKC after NM State allowed just five points in overtime. The Aggies were forced into double overtime during the championship game against UTRGV, which ended with a 76-73 win.

Gia Pack scored 86 points across the WAC Tournament, including 36 against UMKC, to win the tournament’s MVP. Brooke Salas scored a team-high 29 points in the championship game.

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New Mexico

‘Just incredibly creative’: Tinkertown near Albuquerque prepares for the season

Published

1 day ago

March 31, 2026

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‘Just incredibly creative’: Tinkertown near Albuquerque prepares for the season

BERNALILLO COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) — Wood carvings, glass bottles, and other odds and ends help make up an art museum tucked away on Sandia Crest Road. It all started over 40 years ago with a man aiming to be as creative, as curious, and as open to experience as possible – Ross Ward.

“I often describe a walk through the museum as kind of walking through the head and the heart of my dad… You begin to understand that this person was very passionate, very curious, very excited, and just incredibly creative,” said Ross’s daughter, Tanya Ward Goodman. “And it inspired you to do the same.”

Tinkertown is an artist-built environment that first opened its doors in 1983. There you can find animated miniature figures, various artifacts from Ross’s travels, and thousands of glass bottles, among much more. The spot has been around for quite a bit now, but they’ve recently made an exciting new change that’s been in the works for years.

“We have turned the entire museum into a 501(c)(3),” said Tanya. “And our mission is to preserve and protect the work and the artistic legacy of Ross Ward and translate his vision into a rousing call to live a more creative and colorful life.” Tanya added that it “has always been a little bit of a self-sustaining enterprise… the fact that all proceeds already went into the operation and management of the museum, it really isn’t a huge leap for us.”

Their main goal as a non-profit? To ramp up art and writing workshops while encouraging rural collaboration between New Mexico artists. It’s also a way to potentially bring more helping hands to the museum.

“My dad died in 2002. He had early onset Alzheimer’s. He was diagnosed at 57, and he died at 62. And my stepmother, Carla Ward, has been running the museum since his death, and she’s getting to a place where she would like to retire or take some steps back,” said Tanya. “I think she’ll always be involved because she loves it and it’s been such a deep labor of love on her part… We had been sort of exploring different options and thinking about how to keep the museum open while also having some sort of retirement for her, and we would need to bring in extra people.”

The change comes in time for Tinkertown’s 2026 season opening on Friday, April 3, with a grand opening celebration on Sunday, April 5 – Ross’s birthday. There will be live music, cake, book signings, and more. “I wrote a memoir called ‘Leaving Tinkertown’ that was published by the University of New Mexico Press,” said Tanya. “I will be signing books. University of New Mexico Press will sell that book. We have other books about Tinkertown. Other authors will be there.”

As for the 2026 season overall, Tinkertown hopes to see more familiar faces and new faces alike come through the doors. “People come from not only all over New Mexico and the rest of the U.S., but all over the world,” said Tanya. “We have a huge map and there are, by the end of the season, there are colored pins in almost every continent and country in the world… I think what I hope that they learn is just that if you have an idea and an interest that you can follow that and wonderful things will happen.”

You can learn more about Tinkertown on their website.

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