Community Stewardship

by Finnegan Hautau

La Luz experiences the very same ecological problems of weedy growth (also called “invasive species”) as the rest of the world, except on a smaller, arid scale. Global human travel brought with it the global travel of species to lands they had not adapted to. Most of these wayward species were unsuccessful in their new lands, but a select few found heightened success — some to the extent that they entirely disrupted the local ecosystem. Perhaps the most famous example in the United States is Kudzu, a vine native to East Asia that was brought to the US and swallowed much of the US’s Southeast.

Chamisa, Sagebrush, and Prickly Pear at La Luz. Photo by Jim See

Efforts to eliminate these invasives and restore native biodiversity exist wherever invasives do. However, these efforts work against the grain, both ecologically and economically. There is no immediate profit in restoring an ecosystem, and invasives tend to be quite stubborn. ...

A Brief Glossary of Terms in Landscape Sustainability 

COLLECTED BY PAT GALLAGHER

Practices that shape our surroundings have become more sophisticated with the advent of new tools, methods and understanding of our living space. Most of the terms below grew from the widespread agricultural industry.   
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Sustainability requires a study of the unknown future, a prediction. Based on accurate recording of successes and failures, the prediction sets a path. It hopes to determine what is likely to render healthy soil, clean air and an artful quality to the landscape going forward.

Preservation of land is different from sustainability in that it is the activity of protecting land from other uses. Locally, it is often about Open Space vs shopping centers.

​First step, the land must be preserved before it can be restored to a healthy state.

Ecological  restoration work is nearly always done on a very constrained budget, and often by contracted environmental companies, resulting in management plans that prioritize economic efficiency. Herbicides allow one laborer to effectively do the work of multiple people when it comes to invasive species removal. However, the use of commercial herbicides carries great risk of exposure to carcinogens to the applicator, as well as local life. For myself and many others, this is the unfortunate reality of much of the professional restoration work done in this country.

​Ecological restoration work in the for-profit sector puts revenue first — it’s no secret. Ecological best practices are not best business practices. I believe communities like La Luz can restore native landscapes without compromise. However, I also believe this would require that the community embrace two key ideas, those being resilience and community stewardship. If we restore a landscape with resilience as our guiding principle, we will cultivate a landscape that will better persist and withstand the ecological threats it faces, whether they be erosion, invasive species, or drought. They require far less maintenance as well.

Sunset over the open space at La Luz. Photo by Matt Hautau

The need for community stewardship is so important because invasive species management will always be an ongoing effort in any community. Anna Helt, in her 2024 article, The future of New Mexico’s beloved bosque, highlights innovative practices organizations, such as the Yerba Mansa Project, and the Santa Ana and Sandia pueblos, are employing to restore and regenerate the Middle Rio Grande bosque. Per Helt, “No matter its makeup, restoring and maintaining a more resilient bosque ecosystem will require cooperation and long-term maintenance.”

Total resilience is impossible in a complex ecosystem, and so we must accept our roles as stewards of the land which we have been made to ignore. We must do right by the land if we want it to do right by us.”

Restorative Landscaping is “the return of something to a previously functioning state. It does not convey any qualities of the restored state…” as described by Oliver Broadbent. 
Restoration could be considered a reasonable second step on the path to healthy soil, favorable to resilient plant and animal life.

Regenerative landscaping is the active pursuit of healthy soil. It refers to methods and tools that can be employed now to generate and maintain a healthy eco-system down the road. “Natural systems are regenerative, and so given time and the right conditions they can restore themselves to a flourishing state.” says Doug Fogelson. This could be considered the third step in achieving healthy, lasting landscaping.

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 The View: Volume 1, Issue 1

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about the author: 

Finnegan Hautau is a recent graduate of Knox College with a BS in Environmental Science. Finn lived in La Luz for six years and is an alum of neighboring Bosque School, where he grew more passionate about the environment through programs like BEMP.  Finn just finished his first season in the field with Prairie Restoration, Inc. in Esko, MN.