Intense Drought Catalyzes Valley-Wide Collaboration: Celebrando 2013 Follow-Up

Celebrando las Acequias 2013 facilitated rare valley-wide dialog among the commissioners and parciantes of the Lower Rio Embudo acequia communities.  In July, in the face of extreme water stress, fifty neighbors came together to learn from each other, clarify roles and responsibilities, exchange information, and debate the merits of traditional and contemporary irrigation techniques.  Celebrando Coordinator Estevan Arellano has summarized the results of the session, and published them here (scroll down for the downloadable PDF).  

Citizens clearly identified persistent obstacles to productive collaboration in Summer 2013.  Winter 2013-2014 provides an opportunity to address some of them.  Want to involve more youth in acequia maintenance or stream monitoring?  Need commissioners to clarify your ditch's by-laws?  Time to recommit to la limpia?   Not sure how ripartimiento applies to drip- or flood-irrigated farms?  Have new neighbors who would benefit from an orientation to acequia management?  Want to look at working examples of how an alberca balances principals of both flood and drip systems?  Consider joining with your neighbors to retool for Spring 2014 and beyond.  We hope you will find the summary anaylysis useful for sustaining ongoing dialog and collaboration.  

Follow-up resources and contact information for all Celebrando participants as well as all commissioners in the valley are included in the document.  We look forward to hearing your progress, ditch-by-ditch as well as valley-wide.  Stay in touch.