Salado Soil & Water Conservation District helps landowners in west-central New Mexico pay for the practices that keep water on the land and soil in place.
The District
The District covers roughly 3,899 square miles of west-central New Mexico — portions of Catron, Socorro, and Cibola counties — at elevations from about 5,500 feet to over 10,000 feet. The land here is rangeland, pasturage, and forest, worked by ranching families across long distances and thin infrastructure.
Salado is one of 47 soil and water conservation districts in New Mexico and one of the districts in Region 3. Districts are political subdivisions of the state, governed by a five-member board of supervisors, and are required to meet monthly, comply with the Open Meetings Act, file quarterly budget reports with the Department of Finance and Administration, and be audited.
What the District does
The District's core work is paying part of the cost of conservation practices on private land. Projects are built to NRCS conservation standards.
The District also connects landowners with conservation information and resources from other agencies.
Partner agencies
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)USDA's conservation agency; field office in Datil
U.S. Forest Service (USFS)Grazing allotments and national forest land
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), New MexicoPublic rangeland administration
Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD)State forestry and wildfire programs
Cost-Share
A 50/50 match on approved conservation projects, capped at $5,000.
The District pays 50% of approved project costs, up to $5,000. Applications are reviewed by the board at its regular monthly meetings; one project per applicant per year.
Download the application, fill it out, and get it to the District one of three ways:
Applications received before the meeting packet goes out are taken up at the next regular meeting.
A separate, grant-funded program for defensible space around homes: 50% match, up to $2,500 per home per year, for up to ten homes. Download the application, or pick one up at the Datil NRCS Field Office. Same three ways to return it.
News
Clear the brush, limb up the trees, and open a buffer between your house and the next fire — and let the District pay half. The wildfire mitigation cost-share covers 50% of defensible-space work, up to $2,500 per home per year. The board set aside enough for ten homes this year, and nine of those slots are still open.
Download the application or pick one up at the Datil NRCS Field Office. Return it there, mail it to PO Box 136, Datil, NM 87821, or email contact-us@saladosoilandwater.org. Once the last slot is taken, the program is full for the year.
Vice Chairman Anita Hand will represent the District at the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts Annual Conference in Albuquerque, October 19–21, 2026. Resolutions adopted by districts at the conference become NMACD's legislative priorities for the coming session. At its October 6 meeting, the Board voted to support two of them: San Juan SWCD's resolution on NMDA grant reimbursement procedures, and a resolution on the role of districts in planning for major land and natural resource development projects.
Landowners with concerns they would like carried to the conference can reach the District at contact-us@saladosoilandwater.org.
The District has entered into two Good Neighbor Agreements with the USDA Forest Service, Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands, both signed September 9, 2026 — the Magdalena Mountains Restoration Project and the South Baldy Forest Health Protection Project — bringing more than $542,000 for non-commercial fuels reduction and forest restoration on the Magdalena Ranger District. The work includes hand-constructed fireline and fuelbreak in Hop Canyon and cut-and-pile thinning in the Langmuir units on South Baldy. Under Good Neighbor Authority the District solicits and administers the contracts, while the Forest Service retains environmental compliance and marks the treatment units. The Board of Supervisors accepted both agreements at its September 1, 2026 meeting.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service hosted this year's Local Workgroup meeting at the Socorro County Annex Building in Socorro, with the District assisting. The session was well attended. Participants weighed in on fiscal year 2027 funding categories, ranking criteria and questions, priority resource concerns, and payment percentage rates — input that helps shape how NRCS conservation dollars are directed in our area.
The District's Annual Report of Activities for fiscal year 2026 — July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 — has been submitted to the Soil and Water Conservation Commission and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. It covers cost-share activity, interagency work, information and education, administration, and the year's financial summary, and is posted under Applications, agendas, minutes.
The District paid a $100 add-on to every youth who showed an animal at the 2026 Catron County Fair — 51 exhibitors in all, $5,100 total. The add-on went to all showing youth, not only to those who placed or sold.
Forms & Records
Meeting notices and agendas are posted at least 72 hours before a regular meeting, as required by the Open Meetings Act. Draft minutes of the last meeting are posted after that meeting and replaced with the approved version once the board adopts them.
Board of Supervisors
The board sets District policy, approves cost-share awards, and adopts the budget. Regular meetings are held monthly on the first Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and are open to the public; the notice and agenda for each meeting are posted in advance.
Service Area
Salado SWCD boundary. The District takes in roughly a third of Socorro County, a quarter of Catron County, and a small portion of Cibola County — about 2.5 million acres in all. Base map © 2016 National Geographic Society, i-cubed.
Contact
Datil NRCS Field Office
7714 W. Hwy. 60
Datil, NM 87821
Just west of Eagle Guest Ranch
Salado SWCD
PO Box 136
Datil, NM 87821
Monthly meetings, held on the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Datil NRCS Field Office, are open for all to attend.
Tuesdays, 12:00–4:00 p.m.
at the Datil NRCS Field Office.
contact-us@saladosoilandwater.org
Email is the fastest way to reach the District.
Salado Soil & Water Conservation District on Facebook
Meeting notices, office hours, and news are posted there.