Southern New Mexico grasslands. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

Southern New Mexico has many desert grasslands, which are home to a number of bird and plant species. This important habitat, however, is threatened by historic overgrazing and climate change.

In a free presentation at PEEC at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19, Karla Sartor will discuss this topic, including techniques to restore wetland and grassland habitats in southern New Mexico, which can also be applied to the Pajarito Plateau.

Sartor is an ecologist who worked as a restoration and conservation ecologist with The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico from 2011-2014. She managed a collaborative conservation project to restore sloped wetlands in the Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands, engaging support from surrounding ranchers and agencies.

Originally from Alaska, Sartor has lived in Oregon, Montana, where she received a master’s degree in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University, and Cambridge, Massachusetts where she worked with the Harvard Center for the Environment studying biofuels and the effects of climate change on human health.

Now she works with the LANL Resources Management Team, protecting the cultural and biological resources of the Pajarito Plateau.

This program is free, and no advance registration is required. For more information about this and other PEEC programs, visit http://www.pajaritoeec.org/ or contact the organization at Programs@PajaritoEEC.org or 505.662.0460.