Trail building equestrians of New Mexico

[Una Smith <una.smith AT att.net>]

Hi TREQ-NM folks,

I hope you have been having a great summer, getting in lots of riding.

I have been looking into conservation easements in New Mexico;  the
new NM income tax credit, like the one already in use in Colorado,
is a huge incentive for landowners to donate conservation easements.
And with Governor Richardson pushing for more long distance trails,
especially the Rio Grande Trail, there is also growing interest at
all levels within the state in acquiring conservation easements and
/ or trail easements.

Colorado is a useful model for how conservation easements might play
out in New Mexico, but so is Texas.  In the west Texas "sky islands"
(Davis Mountains), there is an interesting conservation easement
story of selling too much.  Of course, the story has two sides:

POV of The Nature Conservancy:
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/texas/preserves/art6647.html
 

POV of the landowner's descendants:
http://www.rangemagazine.com/features/spring-06/sp-06-land-rich.pdf

New Mexico has its own "sky islands", in the Gila region.  Here is a
2003 essay about conserving them and http://www.skyislandalliance.org/:
http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/Outdoors/Skyislands.html

        Una Smith