Mountain Goodness

This weekend Matt and I visited our beloved San Mateo Mountains to help out with a stream restoration project organized by New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Along with about 15 other volunteers, we camped for two nights and put in various structures to decrease the velocity of streamflow and re-wet the meadow. The Forest Service will fell some trees in the canyon bottom to complete the project.

Our mini-group built 12 'one rock dams' which require the moving of large rocks from the surrounding hillside to the riverbed. It was hard work. We were with a couple Forest Service guys. There were also people from the BLM and other environmental non-profits on the trip, so I tried to do some networking. We even made a couple friends who live in Albuquerque and got their phone numbers so we can stalk them!

It was definitely a lot more fun than we have at home, no matter how sore we are. Try it sometime! Your local environmental organization probably has similar functions. There were a range of volunteers from young and single to older nearly retired couples. A good time will be had by all (if you ignore the one or two super annoying people).