BEMP Events & Opportunities

** BEMP Senate Bill 295 - $150,000 funding.  Click to learn more!

The Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP)

Science, Education and Stewardship

The Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program is joint effort coordinated by the University of New Mexico's (UNM) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network and Bosque School.  BEMP research is conducted by student and citizen volunteers along the Middle Rio Grande and its associated riparian forest, known locally by its Spanish name 'bosque'.  Through this project, citizen and student groups accept responsibility for gathering long-term data related to the overall condition of the forest ecosystem located along New Mexico's most prominent river.  Primary program start up funding was through the National Science Foundation.

Through this program, many people who are not formal scientists gather meaningful data on the bosque's overall condition. With this approach, citizen volunteers build direct connections with their local environment and in so doing, increase public understanding of a complex ecosystem as well as fulfill essential research needs.

The program consists of a series of 27 research sites along 560 km (350 miles) of the Rio Grande.  Sites are presently located between Ohkay Owingeh pueblo and Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park.  Monitoring activities are synchronized between sites with volunteers (primarily grade K-12 students and their teachers) collecting long-term data on:

• core weather data
• shallow groundwater table depth
• monthly precipitation
• surface active arthropod activity
• measurements of forest production such as:
  • leaf litter biomass/plant productivity
  • tree diameter and growth rates
  • woody and herbaceous plant distribution

Data gathered by volunteers is incorporated into larger UNM sponsored bosque research efforts and is shared with other researchers, as well as land and other natural resource managers.

BEMP Mission Statement

The mission of the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) is collaborative long-term ecological monitoring of key abiotic and biotic processes and characteristics to promote continued education, understanding and stewardship of the riparian ecosystem to scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and the public.