September 17, 2020

First, Miss Quale Thank you and the La Montanita Co-Op for the Marshall Kovitz Memorial Scholarship last term. It will be extremely helpful in achieving higher education. As far as food systems go, I am still involved with my Tribe in efforts to educate our local community with the practice of better grazing management practices. Using small plots of land, the Adaptive Multi-Paddock model is being applied to avoid overgrazing. This year with the help of the Tribes Natural Resources Department, I hope to put these practices into larger scale in the Jemez Mountains. My Tribe recently in December 2018 signed a lease with the Santa Fe National Forest for grazing on about 40,000 acres. The goal is to not only take care of our lands better but to revitalize the soil and grasslands in much of our overgrazed lands. This will also produce better quality beef (grass fed beef) and educate our cattle owners in grazing management. Another goal is to consider carbon farming in the areas of grazing which could also have a positive economic impact for our Tribe as well as support our environment and assist with climate change.