This page was last updated December 30, 2025.

Mountain Cloud’s Vision includes turning towards our campus in terms of practical caretaking and in deepening our relationship with the land through ecodharma. Our aim is to reduce the risks of losing our facilities and habitat, while maintaining the health of the ecosystem and its inhabitants. We hope that our efforts in this matter can be a community effort, and that our friends and neighbors might gain the opportunity to learn and build skills through our process. 

The Big Picture

The Land Stewardship Program lives within a complex system that includes: habitat preservation, soil remediation, drainage and erosion work (aka “water planting”), tree health, plant and animal diversity, and intentional (and literal) pathways for human engagement.

The Fire Mitigation Project is one way that we are stewarding this beloved place, this land and the non-human communities that we share it with. This project is interconnected with other efforts underway which include:

  • Water Management — Erosion mitigation, building natural berms and soil restoration areas, drainage management and water planting
  • Ecodharma Infrastructure — repairing trails, managing erosion risks and mitigating negative human impact on landscape while creating opportunities for engagement
  • Ecodharma programming — building our spiritual relationship with the land and learning stewardship skills

As we move forward with each individual project, we are keeping all of these aspects of Land Stewardship in mind. For example, while looking at our Fire Mitigation plan, we are thinking about how these efforts will work in concert with water-planting and erosion control.

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Fire Mitigation Project

What’s Been Done

Fire Mitigation Committee (click to read)

The Fire Mitigation Committee was formed in 2024 in order to get the Fire Mitigation Initiative started. It was comprised of Board Members, Staff, and Sangha members including, at various times: Executive Director Sarah Giffin, Facilities Specialist John Juan Handelin, Sangha member (and fire mitigation professional) Laura McCarthy, and Sangha member (and fire mitigation professional) Brian Stampe, Peg Froelich, Jay Coghlan, and Bill Bruce. Now that several beginning steps have been achieved, the committee is defunct. In its place, we are relying on the coordinated efforts of staff (Juan, Sarah, and Abby) to facilitate ongoing and inclusive dialogues with the sangha and groups such as the Turtles.

(Read below for ways to get involved and Sign Up for Updates.)

Thinking, Learning, Feeling (click to read)
  • Alongside conversations with other community members and other professionals, we have relied heavily on this Wildfire Mitigation Report from the Forest Stewards Guild.
  • Land stewardship as it relates to fire mitigation is a complex topic. By its very nature, we are mitigating a natural process to protect our human interests (and lives!). This invites us into deep reflection about the Bodhisattva path, needs vs desires, and our responsibility as land stewards. Throughout this process, we hope to engage our whole practice. We’ll host events designed to help us with this, like our upcoming Forest Care Practice on Saturday January 10th, 2026.
  • See the bottom of this page for more learning resources on Fire Mitigation in the Southwest and Sign Up for Updates.
What We’ve Accomplished (click to read)

Easy Wins and Preparing the Way

  • 2 professional Fire Mitigation Assessments of the land
  • 1 professional Erosion & Drainage Management Assessment and Plan
  • Drafted Fire Emergency Plan
  • Updated our relationship with the Hondo Fire Department (now ongoing)
  • Administered professional safety checks on our emergency watering systems and gear (now ongoing)
  • Performed timely removal of recently downed trees (to prevent the attraction of beetle infestation)
  • Refreshed survey of property to clarify property lines

Phase 1 of Fire Mitigation Outlined by the Forest Stewards Guild

  • “Hardening” of Cabins
  • Installed signage at roadway to help emergency vehicles
  • Created a “defensible space” around lodging buildings and main center
    • Arborist (Seeds of Wisdom), with the guidance of our sangha group the Turtles, removed high-risk branches from within 0-5ft of our buildings and fire hydrant.
    • Forester (Chris Orosco-Fletcher), with the help of volunteers and the guidance of sangha group the Turtles, guided a process of clearing high-risk plants from the 0-5ft radius of our buildings, and removed deadwood from the radius of 0-30 ft from our buildings and fire hydrant.

What’s Next

In 2025 – We made important headway in protecting our buildings. (Read more above).

2026 – We will extend our fire mitigation work to include a 1-acre area that is close to our buildings and most heavily trafficked by our human participants. (Click here for details.)

We are working with the Forest Stewards Guild (FSG) on thinning on a 1-acre area of our property. The guiding principles of this work are to:

  • maintain the beauty of the landscape (e.g. choose intervention sites intentionally),
  • protect natural habitat features (e.g. standing dead wood),
  • fire prevention (e.g. reduce risk of fire spread that would endanger human and nonhuman species).

This thinning work takes into consideration related factors such as erosion, soil health, habitat health, forest health, and sustainable practices for dealing with thinned materials. For example, here are some considerations that have gone into choosing the site for thinning and the trees that will be thinned:

  • Thinning will leave “clumps” of tree/brush habitats for our local critters
  • Standing deadwood will be left in place as habitat. (These are low-flammability.)
  • Some deadwood, logs, and branches are left in place to allow for regeneration of the forest floor & erosion control.
  • Trees for thinning are selected with tree-health and resource-competition in mind.
  • You can learn more about FSG’s depth of knowledge and care by watching this webinar on Dead Wood and Fire Mitigation. or deep dive into some best practices through these academic articles shared by Ruth Wallen: Restoration Ecology and Bandelier Wilderness Case Study.

Winter 2026-2027 – Materials thinned in 2026 will be stacked in preparation for a future controlled burn (tentatively planned for 2026-2027 winter). (Click here for details.)

We will have plenty of time between now and next winter to engage as a community, learn, and discuss the pros and cons of a controlled burn strategy before confirming this method of clearing. Importantly, this very small pile burn would serve as a public learning demonstration for not only our community and neighbors, but professionals in training and the broader Santa Fe Community.

Alternatives to pile burning include distributing the thinned materials on the forest floor (which can counteract the fire mitigation effect), or hauling wood off site (which removes vital native nutrients from the landscape). In contrast, controlled burns allow the nutrients to stay on the land. We are in a good position to do prescribed burns for this project because: (a) it is small in size (just 5-10 piles on 1 acre), (b) burning will be happening close by to our residents and staff who can keep an eye on the burns, (c) burning will be happening closeby to roads reachable by our local Arroyo Hondo Fire Department, and (d) the burn is in Santa Fe, so our neighbors in this vital watershed area will be able to come learn from this demonstration.

Once thinning is completed in January, Mountain Cloud will host community dialogue with sangha members and local neighbors to discuss the controlled burn process. Sign Up for Updates.

In 2027 – Where 2026 focuses on thinning and trail work, in 2027 we will aim to tackle larger erosion management projects. We have received an in depth proposal from RainCatcher around large scale interventions. We also hope that the learning and community building done in 2026 will establish momentum for sangha-driven work in this arena, as we know many of you have skills and knowledge in this arena! Sign Up for Updates

How to Get Involved

The best way to stay informed is to let us know you are interested in being updated about this work. Please Sign Up for Updates

  1. We invite you to read the proposal devised by the Forest Stewards Guild: [Thinning and] Pile Burn Plan. Note the 1 acre area on which we plan to do this work. For even more background, read the Wildfire Mitigation Report that Forest Stewards Guild prepared about our property.
  2. We invite you to attend a Forest Care Practice at Mountain Cloud on Saturday, January 10th from 10-11:15am led by Juan Handelin, Abby Shepard and Ryan Littman-Quinn. This will be an opportunity to talk with Juan about the thinning process (he has been involved in marking areas for thinning and will be present during the work), to pay witness to the landscape, express gratitude to the forest, and reflect on our reciprocity with the land, and our part in shaping and stewarding it. Wear clothing appropriate for being outdoors, and meet at the front of the building. If you have questions about thinning, please read the [Thinning and] Pile Burn Plan ahead of attending this meeting, as it is rich in information!
  3. For those who are interested in learning more about what goes into the process of piling, there will be an opportunity for a few volunteers to join Juan and Forest Stewards Guild. Please fill out our interest form to stay tuned.
  4. Following our February 14th Sangha Meeting, we will hold a community zoom call to discuss the pile burning, pros and cons, and process.
  5. Sign Up for Updates

Learn More About Fire, Forests, and their Stewards in the Southwest

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