Whitfield Under the Stars

When the Friends of Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area organized an annual stargazing event last Friday — Whitfield under the Stars — they almost certainly never considered the predictive power of those words.

Our community’s beloved nature park, Whitfield, will be “under the stars,” who are the new employees of Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District.

The district is pleased to announce that Michelle Dent is the new conservation program manager for Whitfield and other properties owned or managed by the district

Jeff Sanders is the new environmental education program manager, who will be welcoming students of all ages back to Whitfield for outdoor hands-on science learning.

Madeline Miller, a former district manager who served for 17 years, has also returned as interim district manager.

Michelle recently completed three years studying the plants, rodents and birds at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge’s many habitats for the University of New Mexico’s Long-term Ecological Research Program. She moved to New Mexico after 22 years of working with endangered birds and their habitats in Florida.

When Michelle and her husband were building their house on 12 acres of grazed desert grassland in the wide-open space of Tierra Grande, south of Rio Communities, they wanted to learn about rainwater catchments and native vegetation to plant. A neighbor referred them to the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District up the road.

Soon after, the district’s contract conservationist, Cliff Sanchez, visited their property, helped her create a habitat management plan and identified grants that could help fund her efforts. Michelle began to attend workshops offered by the district at Whitfieldand soon thought that this special preserve could be a place where she “could have a positive impact on the environment and the community.”

As the new conservation program manager, Michelle is excited to join the district, where she will manage nearly 300 acres of district conservation land along the Middle Rio Grande. She is looking forward to restoration efforts on Whitfield lands razed by the Big Hole Fire in April 2022.

“I hope to bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the Whitfield family,” she said, “and I want to see both Whitfield and the community continuing to benefit from each other’s support.”

Sanders brings more than 20 years of conservation education experience, both nationally and overseas, and “is excited to be the new environmental education program manager.” After earning a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management from Ohio State University, he served in the United States Peace Corps in Cameroon (West Africa), where he worked as an agroforestry extension agent. He taught local farmers and students in Cameroon how to conserve their fragile, tropical soils using agroforestry techniques, and learned fluent French in the process.

Once back stateside, Jeff worked for North Carolina State Forestry as the forester of Mecklenburg County. When Jeff wasn’t out fighting forest fires or developing forest management plans for North Carolina landowners, he found time to teach school children about forest fires while dressed as Smokey Bear. Later, Jeff moved to Nicaragua, where he met his wife.

In Nicaragua, Jeff and his family restored 10 acres of abandoned, degraded land into a refuge of biodiversity that became an ecotourism destination. Jeff led educational tours to hundreds of international guests, taught local students English and became fluent in Spanish.

Jeff and his family have settled in Los Lunas to be close to his parents. He hopes to build up the district’s outdoor environmental science learning and says he wants to reach out to many people to teach them about conservation and how it’s possible to regenerate land.

“It’s an honor to serve my community and I look forward to getting to work,” Sanders said.

Miller returns as interim district manager with new training in urban forestry and nearly two decades of prior service managing the district. She guided the transformation of Whitfield into a nature preserve, where youth of all ages, their families and visitors from near and far “can reconnect with the outdoors and the precious Rio Grande that runs through this high desert landscape.”

Madeline knows the hard work of natural resource conservation, including the current challenges of desertification, drought and wildfire. Her reward, she says, is the “joy of preserving the natural heritage of Whitfield lands and the local food shed by actively engaging the communities in the district.”

Finally, on Thanksgiving, the district is thankful for its “lucky stars,” the current and former district staff, the Friends of Whitfield, partner agencies and all those who experience the wonder nature when they visit the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area.

(Teresa de Cherif is vice chairwoman of the Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District.)