Earth Works Institute

Our Mission

Earth Works Institute is a non-profit environmental services organization that fosters EcoWise communities.  EcoWise communities actively address the causes and impacts of climate change and natural resource degradation to promote healthy ecosystems and healthy communities.

It is EWI’s mission to help communities build capacity to restore, protect, and live in harmony with their natural environment. We implement this mission through an integrated approach: bringing together education, community-driven land stewardship, watershed restoration, land-use planning and policy work, and a green collar climate corps.

Our geographic focus is the north-central Rio Grande and the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Desert Bioregions, with a particular emphasis in the greater Santa Fe County region of the Santa Fe and Galisteo Watersheds.

Earth Works Institute (EWI) focuses its attention on communities within their educational context (schools), ecological context (watersheds), their social-economic context (regional networks), their political context (local government jurisdiction), and the context of public resource management areas (local, state and federal resource management agencies). We use active participation in workshops, quarterly forums, field programs, service projects, Green Teams and Stewardship Councils to deepen people’s relationship to the land and with each other.

History

Earth Works Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and was founded in 1993 by Leslie Barclay. In 1995 and 1996, Mrs. Barclay endowed EWI with 160 acres of range land along the Galisteo Creek east of Cerrillos, NM.  She saw a need to develop, teach, and implement effective methods of land stewardship and permaculture to protect and conserve the natural resources of similar environments.  Using the EWI Demonstration Ranch and the adjacent Barclay ranch as a base, EWI initially focused on experimental research and educational demonstration projects to develop and promote permaculture and sustainability techniques.

Since 1993, EWI has created demonstration models and education programs of sustainable food production, soil conservation, water harvesting, natural home design, forest and grassland management, small wood utilization in traditional construction methods, and biological septic waste treatment.

In 1998, EWI launched a watershed-wide restoration and education program for the entire Galisteo watershed area surrounding the EWI Demonstration Ranch. This program included bio-technical stream and upland restoration projects, watershed education programs in schools, and the establishment of a watershed association, the Galisteo Watershed Partnership.

In 2003, EWI began a multi-year program for forest health improvements and capacity building for small wood utilization in partnership with several Navajo communities. EWI trained more than 30 Navajo people in constructing log hogans in the communities of the Torreon/Star Lake Chapter, the Ojo Encino Chapter, and in Pine Hill on the Ramah Navajo Reservation.

In 2005, EWI expanded its activities by launching several new programs. EWI also presented  several new regional planning and outreach initiatives, such as:

• The completion of a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy for the Galisteo Watershed (2005).
• The establishment of the Galisteo Watershed Partnership (July 2005).
• The launching of a wetland assessment and planning program in the Galisteo Watershed (report published in 2006).
• The launching of a “green infrastructure” and open space planning project for the Galisteo Watershed (report published in 2008).
• The first H2O Water Festival & Symposium (June 2005), in collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Art of Santa Fe. With nearly 2,000 people in attendance, H2O 2005, featured 14 films, art exhibits, two panel discussions, a fair with exhibits from regional water conservation groups and businesses, a workshop series, children’s activities at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, a book display, and a key-note address by Robert F. Kennedy.
• Research of local water governance and incentives for water conservation in the greater Santa Fe area (report published in 2008).

Following several years of research, development and testing of a septic waste pilot facility as the EWI Demonstration Ranch, in 2005 EWI signed the LLC Agreement for a new company called Bioregen Systems that was designed to develop and operationalize commercial-size septic waste treatment facilities using constructed wetland as the main operating technique. Preparation for the first Bioregen plant began in St. Tammany Parish in southern Louisiana.

Also in 2005, EWI established a Landscape Management Services program for fee-for-service assistance to communities and rural landowners. Earth Works clients included landowners, neighborhoods, conservation organizations, and local government agencies throughout northern New Mexico.

In 2008, after a strategic planning process and the sale of the EWI Demonstration Ranch in 2006, EWI launched its EcoWise Communities Initiative (earlier known as Watershed-Wise Communities Initiative) and the new Climate Change Conservation Corps program. This website represents the latest presentation of EWI programs and services under the EcoWise Communities Initiative.

Who We Are

We are ecological educators, planners, and implementation specialists who help communities restore, protect and live in harmony with their natural environment.  We are systems thinkers — we understand how natural systems provide the best and most efficient long-term solutions to land use problems.

What We Do

• We coach and train students, teachers and administrators to make schools more ecoliterate
• We teach communities how to live as part of natural systems without degrading them.
• We connect communities seeking ecologically responsible land use solutions with available funding sources, information sources, and service providers.
• We strengthen the connection of communities to their natural resources to build support for better stewardship practices.
• We design, develop, and demonstrate best land management practices.
• We advocate for public policy that reflects best land management practices.
• We develop and execute service projects to lower carbon footprints and promote green collar careers.

The organization’s work is spread over four program areas that harbor and develop specific professional staff expertise, clientele, funding sources, and outcomes:

1. Earth Action Education
2. 4C: Climate Change Conservation Corps
3. Water & Land Health
4. Eco Planning & Policy

Our Values

• We value collaboration; forming coalitions and working with others to solve problems.
• We value natural systems and believe that they can guide us to the best and most sustainable land use and resource solutions.
• We believe connection to the land will motivate citizens to become better stewards of the land and will promote rootedness and health
• We value youth and investments in youth as a key to future community and ecosystem health

Our Unique Strategies

• Organizing community-driven land stewardship coalitions in rural and suburban communities (coalitions may include community associations and community leaders, tribal organizations, farming and ranching communities and coops, youth groups, schools, open space management agencies/coalitions, conservation organizations).
• Promoting bio-technical land stewardship solutions.
• Connecting people to the land through outdoor education, promotion of local food production, and hands-on land stewardship and restoration activities, with an emphasis on rural and open space areas (commons) in a watershed context.
• Employing a youth corps to reduce carbon footprint, equip young adults and mobilize the will of communities to act.