SENATE BILL 582

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

John M. Sapien

AN ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FOR THE RIO GRANDE BOSQUE ECOSYSTEM MONITORING PROGRAM.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. APPROPRIATION.--One hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public education department for expenditure in fiscal year 2016 for the Las Cruces public school district to support existing bosque ecosystem monitoring program efforts on the Rio Grande, including river and bosque water and natural resource monitoring. The monitoring program shall include the participation of at least three thousand kindergarten through college-age New Mexico students in conservation education and citizen science work that supports next-generation science standards and common core standards. The program shall provide technical data, reports and analysis to New Mexico natural resource and research agencies of best practices and effectiveness of wildfire mitigation, exotic plant removal efforts and other management activities along the Rio Grande and the impacts of drought, climate and other ecological drivers on the health of the Rio Grande and its bosque. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2016 shall revert to the general fund.

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