Supporting the Land of Enchantment with Brittany Fallon

Western Lands Manager, Brittany Fallon, has channeled her love for New Mexico and the environment into a career championing climate solutions in the Land of Enchantment. She loves river rafting on the Chama and snowshoeing with her dog Cooper whenever she's not fighting for our Western Lands.

In this episode, we learn about The Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, a bill Brittany has worked on for over 5 years. This bill will create permanent funding for 10 programs that help protect New Mexico and support outdoor equity in the Cactus state.

Further Reading

• Learn more about the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund
• Email your legislator about the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund
• Learn more about the Together for Brothers program
• Email Julia.Barnes@nmlegis.gov if you are a school interested in participating in the Speaker's Academy
• Check out all of the programs that would benefit from the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund
• Visit the podcast blog page for photos and more information

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Transcript

Introduction

It's time for a new adventure. This episode, we are traveling to one of the most gorgeous and diverse states in our Western region, The Land of Enchantment, What's up New Mexico? For example, New Mexico, ranks number two in the United States for the largest number of species of native mammals. It's just behind California, which is way larger in size than New Mexico. This state is jam-packed with interesting plants, landscapes, animals, and people. It's dominated by five major ecosystems: alpine conifer, desert & basin, juniper scrub, plains-mesas, and riparian habitats. It also has such a strong, diverse community of people representing all different cultures that call New Mexico home.

And today on the podcast, we're talking with Britney Fallon about the Land of Enchantment fund that's coming up during this legislative session. And all the things it's going to do to help New Mexico and its people.

"All of the programs really do impact all new Mexicans in every county because we all need clean air, we all need clean water, we all need lands that are not on fire. And that is really the goal is just to make sure that New Mexico is resilient."

- Brittany Fallon

Welcome to 2 Degrees Out West, a podcast where we celebrate the Western United States, where we talk about the changes and the impact of climate change on the West and what we can all do to help and make a difference today. I'm your host, Jesse Janusee. I'm the multimedia storyteller here at WRA, and I'm the person that takes all of this information, this science, this policy, and creates it into stories that we can all share, resonate with, and understand. Let's get started.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Today on the podcast we have Brittany Fallon, who's the Western Lands Senior Policy Manager.

Is that for New Mexico or just for all Western lands?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

For All Western lands, but I'm based in New Mexico.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

That's a lot. You're policy for all Western lands. Nice.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Just the seven we work in, really.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah. That's a lot though. Cool. Welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to talk to you. I wanted to get started by just talking a little bit about New Mexico, we have been talking about Nevada for the last two episodes and I'm excited to move over to a different western state, one that I haven't spent much time in, but a little bit. I ate some sopapillas in Santa Fe one time. They were delicious.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

With honey?

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yes, with honey. Tell me about New Mexico. How long have you been there?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I've lived here for about seven years. I moved here fresh out of my Ph.D. in biology to work at the University of New Mexico and while I ultimately decided that being a professor was not my calling, I did decide that I absolutely love New Mexico and wanted to stay here.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Well, I'm glad you're not a professor because instead, you're protecting these Western lands. But also, what about New Mexico made you want to stay and then pivot to this environmental work?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Well, today we're talking about the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, and the name for that fund comes from New Mexico's moniker, the Land of Enchantment, and it is very enchanting. Locals jokingly call it the land of entrapment because once you move here, you don't want to leave. And I think part of the allure is the high-altitude desert.

There's snow and mountains all over the state, but it stays very sunny, like much of the West, and it's a very dry climate, so not super humid. And there are also some beautiful rivers, including my favorite river, the Wild and Scenic Chama. I love to river raft, so that's a place that I frequent often when the weather's nice.

And there are also amazing cultural resources here from tribal communities that have been in New Mexico since time immemorial and unique cultural institutions like acequias, which steward our state's water and traditional land uses, and the food, did I mention the food? New Mexican is its own cuisine and it is phenomenal.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

I love all of that. Good food, river rafting. I live in the high desert, so I understand how once you get here you kind of can't leave. There's just all this space, especially for us folks who come from the East Coast.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes. Incredible sunrises and sunsets.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah, it's mind-blowing. New Mexico is amazing, and we're gonna talk a lot more about it.

But first, I also wanted to get into how you became a senior policy manager for the Western Lands Program and how you got here to WRA.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Ooh, that's a fun little meandering story. So as I referenced earlier I moved to New Mexico to take a research professor job at the University of New Mexico where I was doing something completely random.

My Ph.D. was on wild chimpanzees and researching language and culture in wild chimpanzees and how those things may have evolved in humans. But a side effect of doing fieldwork in Uganda is that I had a really up close and personal and often very sad view of the impacts of climate change on habitat and endangered species through forest encroachment and the extinction crisis and particular plant species that were no longer able to survive without sufficient rainfall or over-harvested and things like that, and decided, my calling in life was to address those things that I saw firsthand.

So, I left academia and started working in the policy world first with the Sierra Club and then with New Mexico Wild, and on every piece of legislation that I worked on, there was always somebody from Western Resource Advocates that was there being the technical expert and advising the coalition.

And I came to realize that that is the role that I wanted to play. And when this position came up, I had already worked with several members of the team on different projects over the years and reached out, applied, and I feel like I'm in a really good niche right now in terms of having a really supportive group to work with in every state that WRA covers working on the nitty gritty, detailed type of policy that I really enjoy because I am still a nerd.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Heck yeah. Shout out to Nerds. That's awesome. Do you ever miss it? Do you ever miss the chimpanzees in Uganda?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I do. I don't miss teaching in a university environment, but I definitely miss the fieldwork.

One thing that's nice is it takes so long to publish things sometimes, and when you do work in the wild, you have a really unique data subset. So the data that I collected lives on, Masters and Ph.D. students are still analyzing it today, and I'm still working on publications in that world using my old Ph.D. data.

And I imagine I will probably be doing that for quite some time as just a side effect of having a pretty substantial corpus.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

That's really cool. I love that the work is still happening, you know, even though you're here doing this full-time and making sure that there's a positive change for climate action here in the West, you know?

But simultaneously that other work you did is still important and relevant. So that's really cool.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

It's a nice bridge. Even though what I'm doing now feels so theoretically far from what I was doing before, the work that I'm doing now is still not just going to impact the West, it's gonna impact the globe as myself and millions of other people across the world are trying to mitigate the effects of climate change, which ultimately will help protect wild chimpanzees stay in the forests where they belong.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah, that's very true. People see something working in one place and then they get to apply it in other places. It's the not-so-eloquent way of saying that.

But I even see that in articles I am reading where someone will be talking about Southern Nevada and their turf replacement program and using that in all these other cities across the US and stuff. And I'm like, oh, see, yeah, work in our region is impacting across the globe as you were saying.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I think New Mexico actually is considering adopting something similar to what Nevada pushed.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah. makes sense. I want to get into the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund. This is a new fund that is coming through in the legislative session in New Mexico right now, and the governor is behind it and is excited about it. And right now we're working on the financing part of it. But before we go into all of that, let's just talk about the fund in general because it does cover a lot and it's really cool. It's this interesting fund that encompasses many aspects of outdoor stuff in New Mexico.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

It does. It's very encompassing and maybe it's helpful to talk about it, in terms of what the challenge is and the solution that we're trying to bring forward to address the problem.

The issue is that New Mexico, unlike most other Western states, does not have a dedicated source of funding for land and water conservation. And this is a big deal because at the federal level, Congress has made literally billions of dollars available to states nationally to do important work like wildfire mitigation or watershed restoration, which helps with drought mitigation.

And New Mexico does not have a dedicated fund to help us bring those federal dollars back into the state. So what we've done with this bill, the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, is over the last five years and lots of negotiations with lots of diverse stakeholders Western Resource Advocates alongside many other organizations in New Mexico have identified the top 10 programs in the state addressing land and water conservation that strongly need dedicated recurring funding year after year.

Because the reality is right now, these programs get piecemeal funding through the budget process annually, and that might mean they get a lot of money, it might mean they get no money. it might mean they get a little bit of money and there's no reliability with which to plan for projects that help our communities become more resilient to climate change.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

I know that it's going to fund a lot of different things, not only like, okay, let's get this funding to help with lands and watersheds and the things you were saying, but also there's a component of it that deals with outdoor equity as well and programs that are working on that. So that's really cool too.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes. And this is one of Western Resource Advocates signature issues for the Western Lands program. One of the 10 programs is the Outdoor Equity Fund, which was established in New Mexico in I think, 2019. And the goal of the program is to get underserved youth access to the outdoors so that they can enjoy one of New Mexico's greatest assets, its public lands. A lot of the kids that participate in these programs for example, it might be kids in Albuquerque who live in the inner city but have never been to the Rio Grande to tour the Bosque. And there's a great example. It's a program called Together for Brothers. Their mission is to get young men of color outside, and they are an outdoor equity fund grantee.

And their program provides all of the transportation needed to get kids from different parts of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho on city buses. They provide the bikes and they take the kids on bike tours through the Rio Grande and the Bosque, and there's an outdoor education component to it as well. New Mexico I think was one of the first states in the west to establish an outdoor equity fund.

Several other states have since done it including Colorado and Nevada. Colorado established one the year after New Mexico did. But they provided dedicated annual funding from their lottery the first year that they created their outdoor equity fund. And here we are in New Mexico several years in having created our fund first, and we still don't have dedicated recurring funding for this program.

The outdoor equity fund right now is, granting out a little under a million dollars annually, and that is money that we have to fight for every year instead of money that our communities should be able to rely on.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah, and it seems like with this bill, it's so cool because a lot of these programs that are going to benefit or all of these programs that are going benefit have already been in place and they already are doing the work. Then like this outdoor equity fund, then that fund that's going benefit from the Land of Enchantment fund grants other programs so really the impact is huge.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yeah. There are 33 counties in New Mexico and every single one of the 10 programs that will receive funding from the Land of Enchantment Legacy fund impacts every single one of the 33 counties.

I'm glad you mentioned that these are all existing programs. I think that's one of the keys to this proposal is that it's not creating any new bureaucracy. It's not creating any new rules or any new programs. It's selecting 10 tried and true programs that are already impacting New Mexico communities, and if they were receiving more dedicated funding, they would be able to help every county every year.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah, that's great. I mean, then like you're saying, every single county is being impacted, so many different people from so many different backgrounds get something positive from this fund and also going forward it's not a one-time thing, it's like a sustained funding source for all these programs. So we know they're going to continue to exist and grow and be beneficial for New Mexicans.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

So what the bill does exactly is it establishes two funds, the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, which you can think of as being like the money in your wallet. It's going to be a smaller portion of the overall appropriation that will be available immediately for these programs to spend within the next three to five years.

And then the bill also creates a second fund, which is the permanent fund. And over time, that will be a much, much larger amount in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and its like your savings account, the money that you're investing and any of the interest earned from those investments will feed into the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund or the wallet for continued use in communities.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Nice. I mean, It makes sense to me.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yeah. And this is a model that other states have already implemented, so it's time for New Mexico to catch up. And critically, this is a really sound investment because New Mexico has a 3.6 billion, with a B, dollar surplus right now from oil and gas revenue. And we know that oil and gas is one of the primary contributors to exacerbating climate change. And we should be investing some of these dollars into mitigating the impacts of climate change and every dollar that is put into this fund can be leveraged with federal money to increase it. So some of the federal programs, for example, the ones that the Department of Game and Fish would like to leverage to bring $3 of federal money in for every $1 of state funding.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Nice. And that surplus is going to many different things, right? This is just like one fund coming out of that giant surplus and Oh yeah, exactly. We know that those industries are negatively impacting New Mexico, so why don't we do a little bit to offset that and support all these amazing programs that are giving to the people of New Mexico in this other way? So yeah, I think that's really cool.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

The amount that we're talking about would be less than 10% of the budget surplus. But it would go toward preventing widespread wildfires, which New Mexico has really struggled with in the past several years, including multiple record-breaking size of wildfires that burned many people's homes.

It will help us mitigate drought, which we like all western states are struggling with, and It will protect water sources by restoring and taking care of the watersheds that not only provide water for rural areas, but also provide 70% of Albuquerque's drinking water as well.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Wow. And this will also create a lot of new jobs too, right?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yeah. So we are really confident. Bill is going to work if fully funded because all of these programs already exist. They're already granting whatever meager funding they've received over the years, and every time these programs issue a call for grant proposals, the demand is substantially more than they have funding to give. So for example, one of the major wins we had in the last year, which Western Resource Advocates helped with is getting the River Stewards program, which helps promote healthy rivers in New Mexico, 10 million of American rescue plan funding, which was the congressional package that came out of Covid.

And lots of states put it toward outdoor recreation and conservation-related needs because at that time, much of the country was still on lockdown, and being outdoors was the only. We could go to get solace, right? So we successfully got 10 million for the River Stewards program, which was the most that program has ever received, and they issued a call for grant proposals and they received 20 million in requests.

Wow. Yeah. And all of these projects are on-the-ground projects that require people to be there doing the work. So we know the workforce is there, we know the need for the projects is there, and that there are people who want to do these jobs. The state just needs to put the infrastructure in place, the funding infrastructure in place so that the demand is met.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

So the bill has already been supported by the governor. Right. And it's already approved by the legislators and they're just figuring out the, how much it's going to be?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

No, Okay. So this is where we're at. The governor played a significant role in negotiating unity among all of the different stakeholder groups. The coalition supporting the Land of Enchanted Legacy Fund is comprised of people who you don't always see on the same side. We all really have come together and coalesced over the idea of this fund because of how strong the needs are in all of our different communities. So kudos to the governor for bringing everybody together.

She helped draft the version of the bill that was introduced in the New Mexico legislature. It is Senate Bill nine and that bill. Being supported by a bipartisan group of legislators. We're very excited about the enthusiasm for this in the legislature. We have bill sponsors from both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, who are sponsoring this and seeking to get a large appropriation into the permanent fund so that it would accrue enough interest to be meaningful.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

So it looks good basically. It looks good.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes, it does. It's in six years of working in policy in the New Mexico roundhouse. This is probably the bill that I have seen the most widespread excitement for in all that time.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Aw. Land of Enchantment. People getting excited for it. What are some folks that are supporting it that might be surprising?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

It can be unusual for environmental groups and agricultural groups to be working together toward the same goal, but that's exactly what is happening here. The local soil and water conservation districts. Are eligible to receive a ton of federal conservation funding a lot of which is through the Farm bill, but they have to have a state match in order to access those dollars.

So they are one of the recipients of the land of Ench Legacy Fund, and that will go a long way toward helping our farmers and ranch. Also become more resilient to climate change because they're not immune either. The drought is still a problem. Wildfires are a problem, and the goal is to help get more money on the ground to support these communities.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

I love that. So supporting kids getting outside, supporting outdoor enthusiasts, supporting ranchers and farmers. It's really like anybody that's living on the land and loving the land is gonna get benefits from this.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

There's no one that will be untouched by this. And the programs that the Department of Game and Fish can go toward managing game species habitat and fish habitat, and can even go toward doing things like expanding wildlife management areas, which increases hunting opportunities for New Mexico residents, so there's an equity component there as well.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

But how is this going to possibly impact the tribal people of New Mexico?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

As sovereign nations tribes are eligible to apply for all of the 10 programs that are in the land of Enchantment Legacy fund.

And sometimes tribal governments do that. Sometimes native LED organizations do that. So most of these programs already fund projects in collaboration with tribes. So for example, in. Taos County. There was a wildfire mitigation project on Taos Pueblo land and in the outdoor equity fund, the Flower Hill Institute.

As part of Hemis Pueblo and the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project, were both recipients of the outdoor equity fund and there has also been Trails Plus program funding with Santa Clara Pueblo to build ADA-compliant picnic sites. Each of these programs. Can touch tribal communities and the funding is available for tribal communities to leverage just like every other New Mexico.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Nice. And then those dollars, like we talked about earlier, will be matched by federal money and then yeah, the possibility of funding just becomes even greater. So that's awesome. For all these tribal communities. One thing I noticed working in the arts sector, which is what I did before coming here to WRA and also working here at WRA is funding is earmarked for these different things, right? Like when we would get a new sculpture in Reno or now with this land of Enchantment Fund or the EV school buses or anything like that, I often see the public kind of have this reaction like, oh, why are you spending this money on art? Or why are you spending on this, this money on electrification instead of spending it on something?

Teachers or potholes or infrastructure things, you know, and I kinda get frustrated about it cuz it's just not how it works, you know? The funding, for one thing, doesn't take away the funding for something else, if that makes sense. So I kind of wanted to address that. And I also wanted to address I noticed a few people also, you know, they see initiatives for electrification, our initiatives for conservation, and they feel like those initiatives would somehow hurt ranchers or farmers. And as we talked about earlier, and you can talk about it a little bit more again, if you'd like. That's definitely not the case with the bill at all. Farmers and ranchers are working with you and are excited about this fund just as much as we are.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I think there are two questions in, in what you just asked. The first is the budget impact and this fund would not take money away from other initiatives because we're only asking for money from the budget surplus, which is the extra money. And again, that's 3.6 billion with a B dollars for the next fiscal year alone in New Mexico.

So we're asking for a portion of that new unallocated money to be invested for land and water conservation. And the reason why that is so financially sound is because we can leverage those dollars for federal money. So $1 could be turned into a dollar 50 or it could be turned into $3. The second question you asked is whether protecting land and water would adversely impact certain constituencies.

And the answer is no. The programs that are included in the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, Don't impact industry. They do impact farmers and ranchers, but in a positive way. So the fund invests into three programs at the Department of Agriculture. One is when I already mentioned putting money directly into soil and water conservation districts so that they can help local farmers and ranchers access federal dollars to improve their lands.

The second is the healthy Soils program. Which is run by New Mexico State University and it uses soil health with farms and ranches as a tool to mitigate carbon. And the third is funding for the State's Noxious Weeds program, which removes invasive species, which is helpful for the environment for a variety of reasons.

And all three of those programs would get annual disbursements of funding and all three of those programs would directly and positively benefit. Farmers and ranchers across the state only positives using bonus money to help everybody and also help, yeah, help animals, plants, ecosystems like yeah. So good.

And you know, that's in addition to all of the other benefits, like farms abut forests. And if those forests are not managed for wildfires, the farms are then at risk. So all of the programs really do impact all new Mexicans in every county because we all need clean air, we all need clean water, we all need lands that are not on fire,

And that is, Goal is just to make sure that New Mexico is resilient to the extreme weather changes that we are seeing increase every year, and also a secondary goal in the fund of helping new Mexicans get outside and sustainable and safe ways to enjoy the lands that we're protecting. I think maybe a nice way to frame it is, Protecting New Mexico's lands and waters for everyone's enjoyment.

No matter how you enjoy getting outside, whether it's river rafting or farming, or hiking or biking. Like, for example, our colleague Jonathan Hayden, who I need to give a shout-out for working on the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund because he has been a powerhouse in getting this bill to where it is today.

He loves to mountain bike and the Enchantment Legacy Fund is going to help protect these outdoor spaces for all of us, no matter how we choose to get.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Let's take a quick break to talk about W R A. Western Resource Advocates have been around for 33 years fighting climate change in the Interior West. We have really dedicated staff and policy experts that work to protect the climate, land, air, and water of the west to find out more about the work we're doing and see how you can.

Please visit our website, western resource advocates.org. Join WRA as a donor today and help us protect Western lands, fight for clean air, support, healthy rivers, and advance clean energy. Now let's get back to talking with Brittany about the land of Enchantment Legacy Fund and all the amazing things it's gonna do for New Mexico.

While working on this bill, has there been any surprising or exciting experiences or stories or outcomes that have happened that you'd like to share?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I'm so excited. So there's a program called The Speakers Academy. It's put on by the speaker of the New Mexico State House and his staff and. It gets schools from all over the state, north, south, east, west to learn about the legislative process.

They typically pick a couple of different bills, but this year all of the schools coalesced around this one Bill, land of Enchantment Legacy Fund, and the kids will. Do various projects on the bill. They'll either learn about one of the programs that is included in the bill, or they'll learn about the budget process, or they'll learn about the stakeholder process that it took to get all of us to unity, or they'll learn about the permanent fund and how investments work for the older.

And they range from eighth grade to high school, coming from the Animus and Las Cruces and Rio Rancho and Los Lunas and Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and more schools are still signing up. So TB d I forgot to say that part of it is that the kids come in person to the roundhouse. , it differs on what they do there, depending on what their preferences is.

But some of them will testify in committee and they'll talk about something about the bill that they're passionate about and support. Some of them will have one-on-one meetings with their legislators. It's a really cute program and I'm excited. I'm really excited that the kids have chosen this bill.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah. Well, it makes sense. It's a great bill. It's going to do so much. Thanks for sharing that with me.  It makes me really happy that those kids are out there learning this stuff because it's important stuff. And I think in a lot of ways, right, the bureaucracy and government stuff can feel really inaccessible and confusing.

So I love that these kids are going to come down there to the roundhouse and see it firsthand and feel like it is accessible and like they have agency, you know, and like their voices are heard. And they can see how the process works. Right. And maybe make change in the future.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yeah. And I was so unprepared for how precocious all of these kids were going to be.

I was expecting questions like, what does the Healthy Soils program do? That's one of the 10 that's funded. But the questions were like, how does the state investment council invest these dollars? And how do they ensure that a stock market crash won't leave New Mexico communities broke?

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Whoa, You're like, I'm not even really sure, but yeah, good question. I'll research that. Like giving you notes. That's amazing.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

It was. It was really impressive.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

That's great. The future's bright. Maybe they'll all work for WRA one day.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I should start recruiting them now. Huh?

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

You really should. You know, you just grow that lands team.

It seems like this younger generation is really about it, and I mean, of course, it's their future. It's huge. They see it. They see it playing out every day. They're living in it. They're living in wildfire, smoke and drought.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Mm-hmm. and I think the bottom line for kids is that they understand that climate change is not a partisan issue and that perhaps unlike older generations, their future literally depends on our ability to mitigate it.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Yeah, so what is the element about the conservation financing? Which I think seems like a big term, especially if you're not in this world, but is actually not that complicated or isn't as complicated as you might think it is.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes. Since joining WRA, I think conservation financing has been the concept that I have most struggled to translate and really all it means is just money to do the work that we need to do to mitigate climate change. We can't protect forests for free. We can't protect rivers for free. We can't protect wildlife for free. I wish all of that were true, but it's not. And a lot of states and the federal government take policy positions on what we should be doing to protect land, water, the environment generally.

And we have to have the money to back those initiatives up, and that's all conservation financing is, is finding some kind of reliable source of funding to enact the policies that we wanna see on the ground.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

I guess this is one of the parts that when we first started talking about creating this podcast, that I was like, okay, let me try to get a handle on this.

But, so the way that it works with the bill is that the governor proposed a budget for it when she first announced it, and then when it goes to the legislative session, people kind of negotiate and decide on that budget, and then that becomes the real budget when the bill is passed.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes. Kind of. Sort of, it's a little more complicated than that, but that I think is sufficient for the purposes of our listeners, most likely a number was thrown out there. It will be negotiated over the course of the next 60 days. A final number will be landed on, and that will be what ends up in the final bill.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Okay. But as individuals, we do have the power to voice our opinions about this fund and about the amount of money going towards it. Correct?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Absolutely.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

So we could reach out to our legislators who are deciding on this fund and be like, you should spend a lot of money on this because I love New Mexico and the people and the land of New Mexico. And this will support them.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes, absolutely. And we are asking people all across the state to do exactly that.

If you are a listener who lives in New Mexico, we have a citizen legislature. There is substantial deference to members of the public, speaking to their legislators here, unlike what I've seen in other states. And you could literally just pick up the phone and call a number and be talking to your senator or your representative, which is not something that you can do easily in other states.

So I encourage you to exercise that power of your voice. And very conveniently, the coalition working on this has a website. It is enchantmentfund.org. And not only can you see the actual text of the bill on the website and an explanation of how the fund would work and who all the coalition members are, but there is a link to take action on the website where you can email your legislators if you live in New Mexico.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Does it also show all the different programs and gives you a little bit more information?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes, it does, and it shows the exact breakdown of what percentage of the fund would go to each program as well.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

That's great. I wanna look at that.

Of course, everybody's voice and everybody reaching out to support this bill is positive and helpful, but are there some people whose statement would have a really great impact?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yeah. If your senator or representative serves on either the Senate Finance Committee or the House Appropriations Committee, you are very lucky because the person who represents you has a disproportionate say in how much money will get put into this fund than any other legislator.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

If you're in that small pool of people, then your voice is going to have a lot of impact and could mean way more financial power and reach for the future of the legacy fund.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Yes. Absolutely.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Awesome. So people can definitely go and find who their legislative representative is on their own, but also we will have it on our podcast page.

So we always have show notes, which contain links and the calls to action and everything you need to know plus some photos of Brittany kayaking. So check it out. And the link for the podcast page is right in the podcast description. Wherever you're listening to this just look in the description, and there's a link right there. Click it. You get all of the info and the photos and everything. Cool.

Any other things that you want to mention? Any shout-outs, any calls to action as we're wrapping it up?

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

I truly feel like it would not be happening this year if not for Western Resource Advocate. So you asked for shoutouts and I've gotta recognize the senior leadership team because they recognized the impact of what this would do for New Mexico's lands and waters and economy and they put the full weight of our organization behind it and it's made all the difference.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Heck yeah, Western Resource Advocates.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

Happy to be here.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

And it, you know, it has legacy in the name because it truly is this legacy. It's going to be so impactful for forever. And that's so exciting that WRA really pushed for it and works really hard on it. And I'm just so excited for the future of New Mexico, you know, and all the positive things that are going to happen because of this fund. Awesome. When are we gonna know that the bill has passed and that it's been funded and it exists? When is that information gonna happen? That process is in process right now. Right? Because it's the legislative session.

Brittany Fallon - Western Resource Advocates Senior Policy Manager for the Western Lands Program

It is. That'll be sometime in mid-March.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Cool. Not that far from now. I'm sure if you follow us on social and get our emails, you will definitely hear about it. Stay connected with us and we'll get you the info.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this fund, why it's important, why it's so exciting and how we can help with it. And thanks for being part of that coalition to make this all happen. Also, shout out because this fund took five years of tireless effort, and thanks so much, Brittany, for making it happen.

Seriously impressive. As I said earlier, if you want to find out more and support this bill, you can go in the show notes and click on the link and go to our website, or you can just go straight to our website at Westernresourceadvocates.org. And if you're not from New Mexico, you know, you can still follow along and support and like and share.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

Now it's time for our little creative segment. It's the space where you get to come and tell us what you like about the West. It's called "What I like about the West". In this episode, we have my friend Kurstin Graham. He is an avid bike packer in Nevada and beyond, and you can follow him at bikepackingNV on Instagram.

He has a ton of good resources. It's really amazing how he goes on long camping trips with just a bicycle, blows me away. And he just had an article posted on bikepacking.com in front of tons of people, so that's amazing. Great job, Kurstin. So cool. And if you wanna be like Kurstin, if you wanna be rad, send us your recording. We wanna hear what you like about the West. All right. Let's hear from Kurstin and see what he really likes about the West.

 Kurstin Graham - Bickpacking NV

Hi, Jessi and 2 Degrees Out West. This is Kurstin Graham, and why I love the west, it's our access to our public lands that gives me the freedom to come up with great routes to explore on my bicycle. That feeling of being so small surrounded by silence and incredible solitude that allows me to fulfill my childhood fantasy of being a pirate on a sea of Sagebrush.

Jessi Janusee - Western Resource Advocates Multimedia Storyteller

2 Degrees Out West is a production from Western Resource Advocates. And as always, I'm your host, Jessi Janusee. If you've enjoyed this podcast, be sure to follow us so you can be updated about new episodes as they come out, we have some really cool things coming up. And also please leave a review because we'd love to get feedback from you and hear what you enjoy and also hear your suggestions for new episodes.

This episode is brought to you in part by our generous sponsors. We'd like to take a second to give an extra special thank you to our premier sponsor, Vision Ridge Partners, as well as our signature sponsors, BOS Developments, Conservation Colorado, Denver Water, FirstBank, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, and Torch Clean Energy. WRA would also like to recognize our supporting sponsors BSW Wealth Partners, Keyes & Fox, Neptune Mountaineering, and Utah Clean Energy. We appreciate you. Alright, that's a wrap of our New Mexico Land of Enchantment episode. Thanks so much for listening and supporting. We will have a lot more fun stuff next time.

We're doing a little letters to the West podcast next. I hope you all have some time to get outside to witness our beautiful Wild West, and let's keep this place beautiful and clean and wild. See you next time.