Food System & Watershed Restoration

Our Watershed restoration work will allow the land to heal as we slow water down so more can percolate into the ground. This will ensure better soil moisture for local native plants to reestablish and local ground water to be recharged. The restoration will also minimize soil erosion and damages to local infrastructure.

Watershed ecosystem restoration retains all available water on the land, thereby restoring the capacity and health and diversity of land and water and dependent communities (human, plant, animal) to be resilient in the face of climate change. The more water is stored in soils, water tables and aquifers, the more life strength there will be to draw on, to help withstand drought and aridification.

With fully restored watersheds, in wet years, every drop of rainfall and surface flow will be retained in these diverse natural storage systems, to mitigate the effects of inevitable following periods of drought. With the restoration of diverse and abundant plant and animal life on Dine Bikeyah ecosystems, flowing springs, shallow wells, wild plant and animal foods and medicines as well as locally adapted traditional crops of high nutritional value will remain within reach of Dine families, clans and communities threatened by disaster.