Over the past two years, the project included construction of 52 Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS), made entirely of natural materials, which allow water to permeate the nearby flood plain and restore habitat for native species. Native youth crews from the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps and Southwest Conservation Corps, alongside local volunteers, also planted more than 600 culturally-significant plants – including willow, sage, mint, cattails, chokecherries, buffalo berries, cottonwood, and sumac – and seeded 2 acres of eroded land along the river corridor.

These outcomes were made possible by a unique collaboration between Trees, Water, and, people, Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC), Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT), and other local partners that facilitated restoration and Tribal access along private stretches of the Mancos River. As well as increasing availability of culturally-significant plant species, the project supports the Ute Mountain Tribe’s access to their ancestral lands.

In the summer of 2024, working with the Rio Grande National Forest, the GMUG hired their first all-Native American field crew using money from the Greater Rocky Mountain Resource Advisory Committee. On the GMUG, the crew constructed handline to help contain the future Horsefly prescribed fire. They used chainsaws and hand tools to remove vegetation along one edge of the unit, which will allow for a safe and effective prescribed fire.

The project came about through a partnership with Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps to offer land management opportunities to young Native Americans. ALCC’s goal is to strengthen indigenous peoples’ connections to their native lands and to careers with the Forest Service.

The 2024 Partners trip, led by trip leader Jen Lair, boat operator John Napier, and assistants Nichole Sanchez and Stephen Yazzie, served two ALCC crews and based out of Arizona and New Mexico and one all-Indigenous Southwest Conservation Corps Crew based out of Colorado. The youth and young adults on this trip belonged to a diversity of Tribes in the Southwest and beyond.

Five Fremont County college students traveled to world’s highest peak to test climate sensors in partnership with historic all-Black expedition