Spring 2025 NCHC Portz Grant Recipient

University of New Mexico

"Healing Human and Ecological Communities through Reciprocal Restoration"

Project Description

Healing Human and Ecological Communities through Reciprocal Restoration is a 300-level seminar that will run in Fall 2025 at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Honors College. This course will explore reciprocal restoration, a framework integrating land management practices informed by ecological science with cultural knowledge and social programs to heal both human and ecological communities. Rooted in the principle of mutual benefit, reciprocal restoration emphasizes the interconnectedness of human and natural systems and calls for a deep engagement with place, culture, and history. After examining the scientific foundations of restoration ecology, particularly in the context of New Mexican landscapes, students enrolled in this course will explore the practice of reciprocal restoration by engaging with interdisciplinary texts and participating in tours of existing restoration sites, highlighting how they incorporate traditional ecological knowledge, participatory design, and collaborative management to restore not only ecosystems but also the relationships between people and the land.

Expanding the existing course activities and student learning outcomes, Portz Grant funding will allow students in this course to plan and implement a restoration project at the Valle del Oro National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) (or similar public land unit nearby, such as the Rio Grande State Park or Sandia Open Space). This high-impact, hands-on, service-learning project will go beyond an conceptual understanding of issues such as climate adaptation and community resilience, helping students cultivate a holistic understanding of restoration as a reciprocal process serving as a form of ecological and social justice through personal experience.

The refuge, located in an urban milieu in Albuquerque’s South Valley, is a 570-acre refuge focused on preserving habitat as well as engaging local communities in conservation and restoration. Since 2012, it has worked to restore native wetlands, grasslands, and riparian habitats while offering educational opportunities that connect visitors with local wildlife, conservation, and cultural history. The students in the class will collaborate with Valle del Oro NWR staff and the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation (a local volunteer group) on this restoration project. Students will first visit the site to perform a dryland ecosystem health assessment that will inform their restoration plan. After drafting and presenting this plan to the collaborating organizations, the students will implement the project, which will likely involve invasive species removal (given the prevalence of Kochia spp. and Salsola tragus) as well as installing process-based riparian structures to slow erosion and prevent channelization. Depending on students’ interests, it could also involve environmental interpretation and/or public engagement activities (e.g., bioblitz, native plant identification tour, etc.).

Institutional Support

At present, the institutional support for this project includes faculty involvement, administrative backing, and some financial resources derived from course fees. The UNM Honors College curriculum committee has approved the course, and the college dean and department chair have agreed to the project. A key UNM Honors College faculty member will teach the course, leveraging his decade of experience as an applied ecologist who applies a socioecological lens to study restoration in New Mexico and Chiapas, Mexico. Furthermore, the UNM Honors College will collect a course fee to pay for the field trip travel using university vehicles to implement the project, as well as honoraria for guest lectures delivered by restoration practitioners regarding dryland restoration and inducing meandering for restoring incised channels.

Complementing these institutional contributions, Portz Grant funds will be used to purchase necessary equipment for this project. In particular, because we have not run a similar course in the past, we will purchase personal protective equipment (e.g., gloves), hand tools (e.g., shovels, mattocks, etc.), and native plant seedlings, as specified in the proposed project budget. By providing funding for this equipment, the Portz grant will obviate additional course fees, reducing student costs, which would be of particular benefit for low-income students. Save for the consumables (seedlings and contractor bags), this physical equipment will be retained by the UNM Honors College for future course activities, allowing us to continue to engage these collaborations to serve our student and surrounding communities through reciprocal restoration.

Alignment with Shared Principles and Practices

This project aligns with the National Collegiate Honor Council’s (NCHC) Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education in several ways. It provides students with an opportunity to participate in civic engagement through curricular service learning. It will also serve as an experiment in the laboratory for pedagogical innovation that is the Honors education, strengthening this our community of learning through shared experiences and intense student interaction to conduct interdisciplinary community-engaged research. Finally, by engaging undergraduate students, as well as communities in Albuquerque, allowing them to incorporate their diverse perspectives and skills across disciplines and backgrounds, this project will help demonstrate the UNM Honors College as a model of inclusive excellence.

Project Beneficiaries

There will be several beneficiaries of the project. Students will gain practical skills, interdisciplinary knowledge, and professional networks with local sustainability organizations. External beneficiaries include the Valle del Oro NWR, Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, as well as the Albuquerque South Valley community that uses the refuge for recreation and education. Finally, this project will benefit the refuge’s ecological community as well by enhancing habitat and other ecosystem services. This will be the first iteration of the collaboration with UNM, the Valle del Oro NWR, and Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, so it will serve as a pilot project. Pending successful completion, it could be expanded moving forward. For instance, the College has also contacted the U.S. Forest Service about maintaining trails in the Cibola National Forest.

Project Sustainability

There is institutional interest for the Honors College to expand its commitment to community engagement and sustainability, such as collaborating with the UNM Sustainability program in maintaining the campus community garden. This reflects the broader UNM values of excellence, inclusion, environmental sustainability, and integrity the peoples and places of New Mexico and all humanity. In turn, the Honors College advances UNM’s strategic goals by fostering student success through courses that enhance critical thinking, research, and engagement, including the reciprocal restoration course outlined above, which could not be implemented in larger disciplinary courses. The Honors College also contributes to UNM’s mission of academic excellence, innovation, and public service by expanding access for underrepresented students and strengthening UNM’s regional impact through community-based learning.