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Querencia in Action: Post-Fire Land Restoration

After the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire of 2022 burned through 340,000 acres and the communities near New Mexico Highlands University, the home-base of the Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute, it was immediately apparent that there was a need for information and training on how to restore burned lands. The Institute launched QIA to fill this need, providing free workshops that cover erosion control, tree thinning, seed collection and ethical collection, and plant identification among other topics. These workshops are available to other communities in fire-adapted New Mexico.

Blanca Céspedes, associate professor of fire ecology and forestry at New Mexico Highlands University, talks to landowners during a QIA post-fire land restoration workshop in Monte Aplenado in 2022. Photo by Jake Robinson
Shantini Ramakrishnan and Natalia Shaw move logs to create erosion control structures on private land that burned in the 2022 Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon fire. Photo by Kathryn Mahan
Volunteers work on a land restoration project within the Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon burn scar in 2022.
Restoration specialist Jeremiah Martin talks to workshop participants about erosion control techniques in 2022. Photo by Kathryn Mahan
Habitat restoration director Cameron Weber of Rio Grande Return talks about seed identification and collection with students and landowners during a 2022 workshop. Photo by Staci Matlock
Shantini Ramakrishnan, in yellow, walks with a landowner to assess restoration needs after the 2022 Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon fire. Photo by Kathryn Mahan