Preservation
Articles
Scenic: Turquoise Trail
Scenic Conservation Along the Turquoise Trail
Editor’s Note:
In September, 2007 New Mexico’s Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway was the second byway to complete a Scenic Conservation workshop. The Turquoise Trail
Association (TTA) worked cooperatively with the Turquoise Trail Preservation Trust (TTPT), which took the lead on the organization of the workshop. Workshop leaders from both organizations answered questions for Vistas.
Vistas: This workshop was hosted by the byway organization but formally organized by a partner organization along the Trail. How did the workshop help develop a positive partnership between the Turquoise Trail Association and the Turquoise Trail Preservation Trust?
The Turquoise Trail Association and the Turquoise Trail Preservation Trust are cooperative partners on the byway, and the leaders of each organization serve on the other’s board. Each organization has a different focus and different strengths, and they serve the byway in different ways. The focus of the TTA is to market the byway for businesses, and the focus of the TTPT is historic and cultural preservation of resources along the byway, as well as enhancement of recreational opportunities, such as the development of bike lanes along the byway. The byway organization and New Mexico State Byways Coordinator Laurie Frantz invited the TTPT to take the local lead on the workshop since they had more available energy and organizational strength.
A great deal of energy goes into the development of both the pre-workshop and the actual two-day workshop, and we had our challenges in sharing the organizing the workload. These challenges helped us learn to identify who in our two organizations can be counted on to follow through on projects. In the end, we felt that the workshop process helped to foster good communication. We were able to recognize common goals both organizations want to accomplish for the Turquoise Trail and ways to work together to accomplish those goals.
Vistas: What were your goals for the scenic conservation workshop?
Our goals for the workshop were to heighten awareness of the intrinsic values along the Turquoise Trail, to highlight the need to protect the Trail, and how to develop a plan to carefully develop its potential. We wanted to make the right connections with various New Mexico organizations for future collaboration, and we felt that this workshop could be the first step to assemble partners who can participate in the development of a scenic conservation plan. The contacts we made at the workshop helped us to understand who has jurisdiction where, how authority for different decisions overlaps on the Trail, and, by making contact with those key people in attendance, we could better understand who the ultimate decision makers are along the Turquoise Trail.
Vistas: How did the workshop bring together important stakeholders?
From the beginning of the invitation process, we found that telephone conversations often helped to widen our range of potential participants. Often, our initial contacts recommended someone more appropriate from their organization to attend, or recommended an additional key person with whom we were not acquainted. The TTPT worked carefully to invite a broad group of people who could represent many stakeholder interests along the Trail. Workshop attendees included our New Mexico State Byway Coordinator Laurie
Frantz, representatives from the New Mexico Department of Transportation, New Mexico Tourism Department, a Sandoval County Commissioner, Bureau of Land Management, State Historic Preservation Division, Cibola National Forest District Ranger, the Cibola National Forest Landscape Architect, a planner from the Mid-Region Council of Governments, and the largest land developer along the Turquoise Trail. The byway bus tour on the first day and the second-day breakout discussion groups were really important to engage partners. As a result of participating in the two-day workshop, all became more aware of what they can contribute to preserving and enhancing the Turquoise Trail.
Vistas: What were your impressions of the workshop process?
The workshop was very successful due to extensive planning during the pre-workshop. As a result, the workshop progressed smoothly.
The byway bus tour helped everyone understand scenic conservation issues along the byway, and gave us the starting point for breakout group discussions on our second day. The workshop was well run and kept people engaged.
Vistas: What are your future plans for developing a scenic conservation plan?
Using the new knowledge gained from the scenic conservation workshop, and utilizing the current Turquoise Trail corridor management plan, we can create a more detailed scenic conservation plan. Since the
CMP is a living document, we will revisit it to develop and hone the scenic conservation plan. We invited participants in the workshop to help us develop the plan and have already received assurances that many of them will be active participants in its creation. We plan to develop an SCP, which will enable us to guide development along the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway in such a way to preserve our resources, intrinsic qualities and viewshed.
