A collective effort devoted to developing practical solutions to New Mexico’s forest crisis.

Project Coordinators:

Dr. Charles Curtin, is the director and founder of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Initiative, he lives in the Mora Valley of New Mexico. A leading practitioner of landscape conservation, he has over 30 years of experience in collaborative natural resource management, including directing or co-founding both the Blackfoot Challenge and Malpai Borderlands Group as well as the Network for Landscape Conservation. A widely published author, he has written some of the most recognized articles and books in collaborative landscape conservation (his writings have been cited more than 7,000 times). His current work focuses on carbon-negative conservation and rural development practices. He also co-founded graduate programs in adaptive management at MIT and has taught at Harvard and elsewhere, and has extensive experience founding and managing multi-million-acre community-based natural resource projects (www.charlescurtin.com).

Dr. Ilka Villarreal is Panamanian and a Spanish citizen. She currently lives in the Mora Valley of New Mexico. She has decades of experience in cross-cultural translation, including a doctoral in cross-cultural communication from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, and an MA in Arts Administration from the University of Wisconsin. Fluent in four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Russian), Dr. Villarreal focuses on outreach and engaging diverse audiences and alternative ways of knowing and understanding, including promoting arts and culture related to community and ecological renewal.

Project Partners

We are collaborating with Mark Lautman and the team from the Community Economic Lab through his Economic Engineering initiative. Lautman is arguably the most noted economic development expert in New Mexico and across the country, with over 35 years of experience, having led such projects as Space America and the Rio Rancho Economic Development Corporation (https://marklautman.com).

Elmo Baca is a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, NM and a revitalization and historic preservation expert with decades of experience in the field. Board chairman of the New Mexico Humanities Council, he has an interest in cultural heritage tourism development, arts and cultural districts, and architecture. Also a professional writer with several books published on design, interiors, and furniture. He provides a crucial link to local communities in San Miguel and Mora Counties..

We are working with Dr. Chonggang Xu and associates at the Los Alamos National Labs on carbon balance studies to determine the optimal forestry and land management and restoration practices in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico.