"El Llano
Estacado" means "the staked plains" in Spanish. This common name for the area comes from the yucca stalks that break the horizon on the plains. El Llano Estacado RC&D Area consists of seven counties: Quay, Guadalupe, Curry,
DeBaca, Union, Harding and Roosevelt. It covers 11,560,906 acres and serves a population of 84,000 people. The Council is composed of 31 sponsors and has been a nonprofit organization since 1993.
Major actions directed by the council include developing educational opportunities, such as grant writing, technical workshops and practical application seminars on natural resource management, and promoting forestry in urban and rural environments, rural development and tourism.
El Llano Estacado RC&D Council has been a catalyst for tree plantings in Northeastern New Mexico to address wind erosion in the area. Urban forestry activities are active in Tucumcari, Clovis and Santa Rosa. As a result, Tucumcari became the third "Tree City-USA" community in New Mexico in December 1998.
With assistance from the Council, the Mesalands Scenic By-Way in Quay and Guadalupe Counties and the Dry Cimarron Scenic
By-Way in Union and Colfax Counties and part of Southern Colorado and Western Oklahoma, are promoting tourism in their respective areas.
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The Council has been involved in four Youth Conservation Corps Projects. It has been effective in constructing resource education projects and providing 20 summer jobs for youth in several communities.
Greenhouse structures used as outdoor classrooms are very popular in this area, because they are excellent facilities, which provide hands-on learning about botany, horticulture and other natural resource curricula. As a result of the Council's assistance in building a greenhouse building
in Ft. Sumner in 1997, four local schools are searching for funding to install outdoor classrooms.
Improving wildlife habitat through the High Plains Partnership at Risk Project for game bird species is a five-state effort in which El Llano Estacado RC&D Council is actively participating. For example, the lesser prairie chicken is considered an at-risk species, and the project uses sound scientific data to show that it is not threatened nor endangered.
Weather Enhancement is an effort in Curry, Roosevelt and Quay Counties to improve long-term rainfall, which in turn will improve the economy of the area. El Llano Estacado has supported this project and promotes it as a long-term effort to aid farmers and ranchers.
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