NMFWRI’s Home

In August, another academic year started at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU), NMFWRI’s home base. With students back on campus, the life of the university is picking up again. Twenty years ago, when Congress created NMFWRI as one of the Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes (SWERI), the legislation stated that the institute would be located at NMHU. Having a university as our home provides NMFWRI with some independence from the land management agencies and other partners we collaborate with, and also gives us access to university resources to support us in our work. Over the past 20 years, NMFWRI has grown with the NMHU campus.

NMHU is a comprehensive regional public teaching university, and this feeds into shaping the identity and culture of NMFWRI. As members of the NMHU community, we participate actively in the routines and operations of the university. Our staff serve on university committees; we work closely with several offices and departments on campus; we employ students and provide them with real world work experience; we assist in planning and participate in events like the Harvest Fest in the Fall and Earth Day in the Spring; and some of our staff teach courses or offer guest lectures in Forestry classes.

The university provides a number of services to our organization, including assistance with hiring and human resources; with information technologies; with transportation; with our grants and contracts; and of course, with office space and maintenance on NMHU’s Las Vegas and Rio Rancho campuses. Our staff have access to the campus’ library resources, dining facilities, and athletics and entertainment events as well.

NMHU is located in historic Las Vegas, NM, at the foot of the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains. New Mexico’s only academic forestry department is located at NMHU, and the university also recently initiated a program in Reforestation Operations, partnering with other universities and agencies in the state. NMHU also has historic ties to land management and conservation. Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, a noted anthropologist, served as president of the New Mexico Normal School (which later became New Mexico Highlands University) from 1898 to 1903. Hewett was instrumental in drafting and shepherding through Congress the Antiquities Act of 1906, the legislation used to create most national monuments. Hewett also played an important role in the designation of several national monuments around the southwest, including Bandelier National Monument and Chaco Canyon National Historic Park.

NMFWRI is proud to be a part of the NMHU family and to carry forward the legacy created by Dr. Hewett in our forest restoration work around New Mexico. And we are grateful for the support we get from the university and from the State of New Mexico that allows us to carry out our important work for the people of our state.