Jim O'Donnell Photography

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Client: Taos Land Trust { 34 images } Created 8 Sep 2017

I'm on regular contract with the Taos Land Trust of Taos, New Mexico, USA as a photographer for their conservation easements, events and other projects
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  • I work frequently for the Taos Land Trust of Taos, New Mexico, USA. TLT conserves open, productive, and natural lands for the benefit of the community and culture of northern New Mexico. They help landowners create voluntary conservation easements to permanently protect family lands and land for the public while staying involved in long-range land conservation planning at the local, county, and state levels. Overall, they have permanently protected more than 25,000 acres of irrigated farms and ranch lands, wildlife habitat, and beautiful open landscapes throughout northern New Mexico. My work involves photographing some of the land owners who have donated conservation easements to future generations. <br />
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Loretta Trujillo<br />
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Trujillo donated fourteen and a half acres of this ecologically important stream-fed agricultural and prime riparian habitat. Known as the Martinez Property, the land lights a bright green, cat-tailed view-shed just east of State Highway 522 where the road snakes through the village of Arroyo Hondo north of Taos, New Mexico.<br />
“It is just simply a beautiful piece of land,” says owner Loretta Martinez. “It would be a shame to see it as anything else.” Fourteen and a half acres may not seem like much but it is the quality of the land that counts.
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  • Wolf Springs Ranch rises over the mesa on La Otra Banda, the volcanic plateau that spreads to the west from the rim of the Rio Grande gorge. There is not much water out there. No lakes, no rivers, no creeks and just a few meager springs. If you want water you’ll have to dig several hundred feet down beneath the basalt bedrock that blankets the plateau.<br />
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Water does fall from the sky. On occasion. The rain generally comes in brief downpours hanging from silver-tipped clouds that swiftly move on to the east and over the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Many times, the moisture does nothing more than tease from the clouds as wisps of gray virga that evaporates hundreds of feet above the ground.<br />
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“Even just on the ranch we see a significant variation in rainfall patterns,” says Tony Benson. “We can have a downpour going on just over there while here it is totally dry.” Benson, the owner of Wolf Springs, placed a significant chunk of his 3,450-acre ranch under conservation easement in 2003. The professional geologist wanted a piece of land that he could both actively ranch as well restore. And the land indeed needed help.
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  • Wolf Springs Ranch rises over the mesa on La Otra Banda, the volcanic plateau that spreads to the west from the rim of the Rio Grande gorge. There is not much water out there. No lakes, no rivers, no creeks and just a few meager springs. If you want water you’ll have to dig several hundred feet down beneath the basalt bedrock that blankets the plateau.<br />
<br />
Water does fall from the sky. On occasion. The rain generally comes in brief downpours hanging from silver-tipped clouds that swiftly move on to the east and over the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Many times, the moisture does nothing more than tease from the clouds as wisps of gray virga that evaporates hundreds of feet above the ground.<br />
<br />
“Even just on the ranch we see a significant variation in rainfall patterns,” says Tony Benson. “We can have a downpour going on just over there while here it is totally dry.” Benson, the owner of Wolf Springs, placed a significant chunk of his 3,450-acre ranch under conservation easement in 2003. The professional geologist wanted a piece of land that he could both actively ranch as well restore. And the land indeed needed help.
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  • According to Hummingbird Community member Michael Elliot, a biologist who recently visited the 171-acre conservation easement located on the Hummingbird Ranch labeled it one of the most ecologically diverse and rich chunks of land in all of New Mexico.<br />
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“The biologists were just blown away,” says Elliot.<br />
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It is easy to see why. Nestled in a high elevation valley on the eastern slope of the snow-laced Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Mora County, the Hummingbird Ranch encompasses an incredibly varied landscape at the convergence of two distinct bioregions, the Ponderosa Pine Forest and the Douglas Fir/White Fir Mixed Conifer Forest. Located near the Santa Fe National Forest and Morphy Lake State Park, the elevation changes dramatically within the easement and a wide range of geologic features further contributes to the diversity of species to be found on the property.
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  • Conservation Easement Landowners: John and Rebecca HallContinuing a Legacy of Land Conservation One of the more foolish things a community can do is build on its farmland. This is especially true in arid regions where arable land is at a premium. In 1994 Dr. William Droke saw such foolishness creeping into the agricultural lands of the Taos Valley and placed a conservation easement on about 18 acres of irrigated farmland on both sides of the Rio Fernando, smack in the heart of the valley.<br />
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Traditionally hay and pasture, the Droke Property is irrigated from two historic acequias, the PachecoCommunity Ditch and the Acequia Jose Venito Martinez – with the Rio Fernando serving as an artery, pulsing the lifeblood of water into the land as well as hosting a wide diversity of wildlife.
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  • Taos Land Trust even for children to explore the conservation easement.
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  • Taos Land Trust frequently hosts children at the main office which is located on a gorgeous piece of protected land right in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.
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  • Taos Land Trust frequently hosts children at the main office which is located on a gorgeous piece of protected land right in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.
    ODonnell_NM_Taos_Taos_Land_Trust_chi...jpg
  • Taos Land Trust frequently hosts children at the main office which is located on a gorgeous piece of protected land right in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.
    ODonnell_NM_Taos_Taos_Land_Trust_chi...jpg
  • Taos Land Trust frequently hosts children at the main office which is located on a gorgeous piece of protected land right in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.
    ODonnell_NM_Taos_Taos_Land_Trust_chi...jpg
  • Taos Land Trust frequently hosts children at the main office which is located on a gorgeous piece of protected land right in the heart of Taos, New Mexico.
    ODonnell_NM_Taos_Taos_Land_Trust_chi...jpg
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