PROJECT GOALS: Talking Talons Youth Leadership (TTYL) was awarded funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundations 2019 Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program for its project, Engaging Watershed Stewards.  This project will provide education and stewardship activities focused on the Tijeras Watershed, a major tributary of the Middle Rio Grande.

With 16 partners, TTYL will plan and deliver over 3000 hours of watershed-based environmental and wildlife education and stewardship sessions to at least (405) youth and their teachers, and provide Teacher Workshops to at least (20) teachers with up to (200) hours of environmental education (EE) delivery training from March - December 2020. Partners will target schools and other underserved groups in communities with cultural and geographic ties to watershed.

Five Main Project Partners include TTYL; Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District; City of Albuquerque Parks, Recreation and Open Space; Cañon de Carnué Land Grant; and Singing Arrow Community Center.

Fifteen Additional Partners and Supporters: Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA), Albuquerque Metropolitan Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA), Conservation Legacy Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands (Ancestral Lands), Bernalillo County Stormwater (Bernco Stormwater), Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network (FAC NM), Friends of Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site (FOTP), Jim Brooks of Adaptive Terrain Systems (Adaptive Terrain), New Mexico Forestry (NM Forestry), Sandia Mountain Bear Collaborative (SMBC), University of New Mexico Wild Friends (Wild Friends), Tijeras Creek Watershed Collaborative (TCWC), Bernalillo County Parks, Recreation and Open Space, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, USDA Forest Service Sandia Ranger District, Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife Service.

In the Spring of 2020, we had multiple field trips scheduled for this project and were in the planning stages for Teacher Workshops and Fall program delivery.  In March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on our doorstep. Everything changes. The entire world had to find ways to respond.  

The EE community in New Mexico and around the US buckled down and came up with wonderful and creative ways to continue delivering quality education to youth and the community during this time, especially to underserved communities who were suddenly and devastatingly cut off from formal and informal education opportunities. 

Education Resources Generated

• Talking Talons Youth Leadership (videos)
  • Water - the Big Picture
  • The World's Water
  • What is a Watershed?
  • Tijeras Watershed Connection!
  • Threats to the Tijeras Watershed
  • Efforts to Protect the Tijeras Watershed
• Fire Adapted New Mexico Learning Network and Forest Stewards Guild
  •  Dendrochronology Education Module
  • The Language of Trees PDF or Powerpoint 
• Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District
• Conservation Legacy - Ancestral Lands video with Kyle Trujillo - Native Youth Conservation Crews efforts (video)
• Sandia Mountain Natural History Center - Mud Spring (video)
• City of Albuquerque Open Space Candelaria Preserve videos
• Talking Talons Youth Leadership Education Modules for STEM Grab&Go Bird Basics zip file
• Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (handout)
  • Wastewater Treatment Process
  • Wastewater Treatment Education Module and Quiz