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Kachina Hills Watershed Restoration

In developing Kachina Hills, we shaped 13 acres of eroded and margial land into a verdant landscape with a diverse palette of trees, grasses, and native flowers and shrubs. This is rich habitat for humans, birds, rabbits, deer, and many other animals. Like many places in the West, the land at Kachina Hills was once heavily grazed and deforested, with resultant erosion and loss of soil. The capacity of the land to hold moisture was greatly reduced, and vegetation struggled.

The key to the ecology we have fostered is control of the water which falls on the land, and on the homes and roads. The photographs illustrate how our work has regenerated the vegetation and ecology.

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Before Restoration

The land was heavily eroded and rift with gullies. It had little capacity to hold moisture.

Metamorphisis

These Santa Fe foothills receive 12 to 15 inches of moisture a year, which sustains the high desert savannah vegetation a little lower in elevation, the pinons and junipers around the City, and the pine forest in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above. Where there is more water along the washes and arroyos, fruit trees and cottonwood trees thrive, along with a mix of other semi-riparian plants.

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The land benefits greatly from low technology conservation measures, including check dams in the washes and arroyos to collect the soil and water moving with the rains and snowmelt, planting of trees to hold the soil and create shade, and re-establishing a mix of native grasses and shrubs on all but the more intensively landscaped areas in the courtyards and immediately around our homes.

Along the Trail

This trail accesses the Plaza, Canyon Road, and the State Capitol, a 15 minute wall from Kachina Hills. The rapid growth of the vegetation we planted was largely possible because of our control of the stormwater.

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Detention Ponds are Beautiful

These photographs illustrate the construction, planting, and maturation of vegetation at a detention pond. These ponds help control storm water, and prevent flooding downstream. The water is released slowly overnight, and the moisture retained supports the growth of the vegetation you see.

Turn a Gully into a Garden

These photographs illustrate the reshaping and stabilization of two heavily eroded gullies, and the growth of the plantiings made possible by retaining the soil and moisture behind the check dams.