For over two decades, we have dedicated our lives to restoring and caring for the land at Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center. Our site has become a demonstration ground for permaculture and regenerative practices, inspiring hundreds of students and volunteers to join us in healing the watershed. Last year, with the help of a state-funded project, we made significant progress in restoring our watershed and protecting our access road from erosion.
However, a new challenge has emerged: the single grade control structure installed in the previous project was not adequate to stabilize the whole channel. It got blown out and a new erosion gully has formed.
The lowering of the channel results in deteriorated ecological functions of the watershed. The adjacent land that used to thrive by absorbing the overflowing floodwaters, is left high and dry. We planted willows here and if we want these willows to live to continue creating a lush riparian wildlife area, we need to install more giant rock structures and build back up the level of the arroyo. Once established, floodwater-fed lush hubs of diversity continue to grow and expand even after our work is done.
Our primary and alternate plans for repairing the damage to this watershed did not pan out. Our contingency plan fell through at the last minute. Now, with heavier than usual monsoon rains expected, the timing for completion is critical.
We need to bring in more boulders and work with a local contractor with heavy machinery to properly construct the grade control. These efforts are crucial to stabilizing the area before the upcoming monsoons, which could otherwise wash away the re-vegetated banks and contribute massive amounts of sediment to the floodwaters, impacting water quality throughout the watershed.
Our Ampersand community has poured hundreds of volunteer hours into sowing seeds, planting native trees and shrubs, and building dozens of hand-crafted rock structures.
Now, we are reaching out for some extra help since the monsoons are coming soon. With your support, we can restore the land, protect the floodplain, and create a thriving, diverse native habitat that will benefit the Madrid Arroyo watershed for generations to come. Please join our community in this vital effort to restore our land and waters.
The success of this project will be used as a teaching tool to spread the healing of watersheds across the nation and beyond.
Our team: Amanda Bramble, co-founder of Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center, has designed, built, restored, and taught for over 18 years. She has also taught through Santa Fe Community College and other learning institutions.
Bill Zeedyk has been advising Ampersand on watershed restoration since 2013. He is the subject of the documentary Thinking Like Water.
Our contractor is San Isidro Permaculture. Jeremiah Kidd has been a friend since Amanda worked for him over 20 years ago.
Our shared lands and waters have been degraded for generations. This is how we begin a culture of repair, regeneration, and stewardship, even as the world seems to unravel and fragment. We start small and local and bring people in at all stages. The techniques and the ethics underpinning them spread and link to other like minded projects, growing communities of care and mutual aid as they do so.
This project will be a focus of our 2026 Earthstar Land Practice Mentorship .
We'd be thrilled if you joined us, whether by donating, volunteering, or signing up for our Mentorship program.
You will be invited to visit the beautiful growing oasis that we are creating once the project has been installed. We can celebrate together when the monsoon floods flow through our upgraded watershed restoration project.