TAOS — In recent years, landowner and acequia parciante Miguel Santistevan noticed that fewer and fewer people were showing up for the annual spring cleaning of his acequia, the Acequia Sur del Rio Fernando. "Sometimes I was the only one out there."

Lack of manpower is only one of the challenges facing Northern New Mexico's acequias. When the older people die there is no one to replace them — most young people move away or show no interest in participating.

A native of Taos, 37-year-old Santistevan has always lived on land with an acequia; his family has been in the Taos Valley since the mid-1700s. "I live in the same house my grandfather built on land that's part of the Don Fernando de Taos land grant."

Several years ago Santistevan told community members that they needed to bring in the next generation of parciantes, or acequia irrigators.

With the recent rise in food prices and transportation costs, it has become increasingly important for rural communities to look inward for survival. These communities will depend on their youth to maintain the farming tradition that keeps the acequias alive and well.

In 2006, the Northern New Mexico Acequia Association formed Sembrando Semillas, or Planting Seeds, a program committed to training future farmers and ranchers.

Teenagers are recruited from villages like Questa, Mora, Chamisal and Pecos. Natives of their respective areas, they learn hands-on from their group mentors about seasonal agricultural activities: how to prepare the fields, plant, irrigate and harvest.

According to Santistevan, a former mentor and high-school earth-science teacher, the Sembrando Semillas program allows youth to contextualize what they are doing culturally and what is going on globally. They realize that food and water issues are global and how traditional agriculture addresses these issues.

The youth document their experiences throughout the growing season for the purpose of creating digital story-telling pieces for video, radio and print media during the winter months. Some of them have made award-winning pieces depicting their stories.

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Cattle ranching is an integral part of the acequia culture, and the Mora group continues with this ranching tradition — thrashing wheat, growing hay, branding cattle and going on cattle drives.

In his award-winning film Cattle Driven, DJ Duran, a senior at West Las Vegas High School, recounts the cattle ranching traditions in Chacón, where his grandparents are from. "I've been involved in ranching all my life and remember going with my grandfather to feed the animals." Even though his future plans are to be a math or history teacher, he always plans on ranching part-time.

Youth interested in agriculture are those who learned from their elders, who might speak Spanish as a first language at home, Santistevan said. They have a lot of respect for their elders and would rather spend time with their grandparents, helping out their families and planting gardens. "They're the ones out there cleaning the acequias."

Eighteen-year-old Toribio Garcia from Chamisal has been in the program from the very beginning. He was so inspired that he bought a two-acre parcel of land, which he has been farming for three years, from a neighbor. He grows different varieties of potatoes, peas and corn, along with garlic and other vegetables: "more than enough to feed my family and friends."

Through farming, Garcia has become more aware of how important it is to keep your own native seeds. "They've been in my family for about 100 years," he says. He has been participating at seed exchange conferences. He plans to enroll at UNM in the fall to study ethnobotany (the study of native plants). "And I want to continue farming, pushing for good seeds and more farmers."

"Each of these kids have a beautiful and important history and have contributed to the program in a meaningful way," said New Mexico Acequia Association Youth Coordinator Pilar Trujillo. "Their lives have changed, and they're more appreciative of their heritage and farming traditions."

Garcia has been participating in the annual ditch cleaning since he was 15 and wants to be a mayordomo one day. "It's important to me and my culture."

"I'm certain that the kids in this program will carry on the acequia tradition," Santistevan said. "Acequias are unique, and we're blessed to have them here in Northern New Mexico."