Santa Fe Watershed Association Receives Support: Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Pledges $150,000 Over Three Years to Help Restore River
SANTA FE, N.M – October 26, 2007 – Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company has announced a $150,000, three-year commitment to support the Santa Fe Watershed Association and the organization’s initiatives to restore the health of the Santa Fe River.
The river, which stretches from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Rio Grande – though a majority of the river bed is dry most of the year – was named “America’s Most Endangered River” for 2007 by American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based group.
In announcing the grant, company President & CEO Rick Sanders said the company and its employees, in addition to providing financial support, will adopt a stretch of the river and provide other in-kind support.
“We applaud the work of the Santa Fe Watershed Association,” Sanders said, “and we are pleased to be able to support efforts to return the Santa Fe River to a living river which can once again serve as the heart of our community. This contribution is a perfect fit with our longstanding focus on environmental concerns.”
Acknowledging the contribution, David Groenfeldt, the association’s executive director, said “the vision of a permanently flowing Santa Fe River, supporting trees, fish and recreation, has been advocated by many people and organizations for many years. Right now we have an unprecedented opportunity to make that dream a reality.
“Our Living River Initiative, which SFNTC will be supporting along with a number of other initiatives, will focus on awareness raising, public outreach, stakeholder meetings and dialogues to generate support for restoring an environmentally useful flow to our river,” Groenfeldt said. “A flowing river will not only restore the surface environment for people and nature – it will also help restore the subsurface aquifer which our children and grandchildren will depend on for their water security.”
On December 8, the first of two community-wide meetings will held in Santa Fe to discuss how environmental flow could be applied to the Santa Fe River. The aim of the public meetings will be to identify information needs and discussion on water quantity and flow pattern needed to support river health.
Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, based in Santa Fe, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007. It was recently named one of the best places to work in New Mexico.