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Santa Clara Pueblo Flood Mitigation, July 2, 2015

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich tours flood mitigation efforts at Santa Clara Pueblo. In June 2015, Senator Heinrich welcomed news that Santa Clara Pueblo will receive funding under a new national program aimed at restoring the health and fire resilience of iconic landscapes. Santa Clara Pueblo is receiving $400,000 to complete restoration of the natural fire regime — the natural frequency, intensity, size, pattern, season and severity of fire — on the mesa top lands, protecting ancient cliff dwellings, cultural sites, traditional food sources and watershed health. The Pueblo suffered significant damages from the catastrophic Las Conchas fire in 2011, which burned more than 150,000 acres in northern New Mexico. Two years later, heavy summer rainstorms caused severe flooding and erosion where the fire had burned protective ground cover. The funding comes from the Wildland Fire Resilient Landscapes Program, which Senator Heinrich helped create as part of a bill to fund the government. Santa Clara Pueblo has experienced severe wildfire in recent years, burning the Pueblo's commercial timberland and threatening the Santa Clara watershed and the Rio Grande River. Protecting the area will help ensure the watershed remains stable long-term, and restore the Pueblo's timber harvest which is crucial to the local economy. The funding will help reduce an additional 2,000 acres of hazardous vegetation through thinning, and improve the health of 7,000 more acres through planned burns of the mesa landscape.