projects

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Abandoned oil and gas production/exploration pads as well as roads and caliche pits dot our landscape.  These abandoned sites create an unhealthy environment for our wildlife.  By removing the caliche from these sites, returning to natural slope, reseeding with native blends, and adding ground treatment, we are helping to create a seamless habitat for our wildlife and livestock to thrive.

Landscape scale brush control projects have a positive impact on our environment.  Working with various agencies, land owners and allotment leasees, we have been able to “ignore the lines on the map” and treat vast areas of land regardless of ownership in order to return them to a historically healthy plant regime.

Carlsbad SWCD is an active promoter of conservation education for our community.  Radio broadcasts, television shows, public speaking engagements, as well as demonstrations and the distributions of learning aids to our schools are all part of the District’s commitment to education.  If you have an event that you would like for District staff to participate in, feel free to contact us.

The Gopher Tail Bounty Program began in March of 2007.  As of July 2021, over 40,000 tails have been turned in with over $242,000 in bounties paid out. 

 TURN – IN DATE – All pocket gopher tails will be turned in the first Monday of every month between the hours of 8:00am and 3:00pm. If the first Monday is a holiday, tails will be accepted the following Tuesday. PAYMENT - $7.00/tail PAYMENT DAY – Checks can be picked up the second Tuesday of every month during business hours (7:00 – 3:30pm).ELIGIBILITY – Any person wishing to participate in the program must present a drivers license, Social Security card or any two forms of ID that show an address and Social Security number and complete a W-9 Form.  All participants must be residents within the Carlsbad SWCD. All pocket gophers must be trapped within the boundaries of the District. If there is a question on veracity of tails, the District reserves the right to withhold or refuse payment.  Click here for a District map. 

NMDA created its Healthy Soil Program when the Healthy Soil Act was signed into law in 2019.  The purpose of the program is “to promote and support farming and ranching systems and other forms of land management that increase soil organic matter, aggregate stability, microbiology and water retention to improve the health, yield and profitability of the soils of the state.” 

The Act directs NMDA to award grants to Eligible Entities, defined as “local governmental [entities] with proven land management capacity to support soil health”, including:

• Nations, tribes, and pueblos
• Land grants
• Acequias
• Soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs)
• NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service

All Eligible Entity types may seek grant funds to implement their own on-the-ground project to improve soil health on lands within their jurisdiction.

Individual Applicants seeking grant funds to implement an on-the-ground project to improve their soil health must first secure the written support of a *qualified* Eligible Entity, one that can serve as their project’s fiscal agent.  Qualified Eligible Entities are Nations, tribes, and pueblos, and SWCD's.

At the heart of the Healthy Soil Act and thus the Healthy Soil Program are five soil health principles:

1. keeping soil covered;
2. minimizing soil disturbance on cropland and minimizing external inputs;
3. maximizing biodiversity;
4. maintaining a living root; and
5. integrating animals into land management, including grazing animals, birds, beneficial insects or keystone species, such as earthworms.

A project taken on by the CSWCD was the second hoop house for Firm Foundation Farms. Rey Sosa and his family had plans to expand on the no-till market gardening model that they had already implemented. After much research, they held to the principals and ideas of developing healthy soils as the most important part of a sustainable regenerative organic farm. They are happy to share their knowledge and experience with the community to further these principles. 

Last school year, CSWCD was approached by students and PTA members from Jefferson Montessori Academy who wanted to change out old drinking fountains for new ones that included water bottle filling stations.

They found that there were few places on campus to safely and sanitarily fill a bottle.  These new stations would encourage students to reuse water bottles, producing less plastic waste and also reduce the amount of water going down the drain from the fountain. The new fountains include counters that keep track of how many plastic bottles have been saved by the refilling station. Students are able to track the impact they are making on conservation efforts. CSWCD adopted the project and after approval from Carlsbad Municpal Schools, had three of the water bottle filling stations installed at JMA.