Hank Taliaferro has been selected as the 2018 Intermountain West Joint Venture private landowner conservation champion award winner! This award recognizes and honors private landowners for their contributions to natural resource conservation and management in the Intermountain West in alignment with the goals, objectives, and priorities of the IWJV. Further, the individual or entity is a community-based conservation leader and helps to promote this conservation model at multiple scales. “I have had the opportunity to work with many private landowners along the Rio Grande over the years, and I have never found a landowner more committed to protecting the wildlife, wildlife habitat, and agricultural lands within the Rio Grande corridor than Hank Taliaferro”. –Alan Hamilton, President, Rio Grande Return
Hank is every land trust’s dream conservationist; not only is his dream to protect his farm, but he also works to improve farm productivity while still managing the land to benefit wildlife. The Taliaferro’s La Joya Farm is surrounded by the Sevilleta NWR and the NM’s Ladd-Gordon Waterbird Complex, and includes three RGALT land conservation easements with two more underway. The Taliaferros have used much of their own funding to preserve and enhance a substantial section of the Middle Rio Grande Valley. They focus on several sources of revenue including that earned from farming and ranching operations, hunting opportunities and ecotourism development. An enormous number of wintering geese, ducks, sandhill cranes, as well as migrating shorebirds and passerines can be found in the bosque and farm fields at various times throughout the year. RGALT has worked with Taliaferros to protect hundreds of acres of farmland and riparian bosque with some funding coming from our North American Wetlands Conservation Act grants.
Since RGALT’s initial relationship with the Taliaferros, the conservation effort has grown to become a true example of a holistic approach to conservation. RGALT has worked with the Taliaferros helping to facilitate the implementation of several conservation organization’s programs, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Socorro Soil and Water Conservation District, Save Our Bosque Task Force, Rio Grande Return, and North American Wetlands Conservation Act funding. This is an ongoing collaborative effort to preserve this important ecological area, forever.
RGALT supporters can experience La Joya Farms by attending this years Fall Matanza Fundraising Harvest Dinner. Click here for more details.