Heritage is priceless. Yet like freedom, it comes with a tab: eternal vigilance.

Therein lies the challenge facing Ernesto Ortega, Glenna Dean and others who've been working for more than a decade to fully establish Northern New Mexico as a "national heritage area."

In other parts of the country, they've been created, and are working, as The New Mexican's Phaedra Haywood noted in an intriguing story Saturday: The Illinois & Michigan Canal area gained federal status — and federal support — back in 1984 as a result of residents lobbying Congress for money to preserve area canals.

The Blue Ridge of Virginia, a "natural," is yet another of 49 established areas.

But in terms of heritage, where greater than the Northern Río Grande? So figured Ortega, then director of the National Park Service office in Santa Fe. It's the Park Service that administers the program. So Ortega, along with leaders from Taos and Española, formed a group to gather public input on how to administer federal grants turning the idea into tangible evidence of an "American experience" too often associated with Eastern states where our nation's dominant culture developed.

To get that input takes public meetings, required by the Park Service's parent, the Department of the Interior. The Northern Río Grande area's board has been holding them: six so far this spring, in three counties.

From those meetings have come institutional enthusiasm from groups such as Earthworks, San Ildefonso Pueblo and the Youth Conservation Corps.

Turnout, to put it mildly, hasn't been exactly standing-room-only. That's surprising, and at least mildly disappointing; heritage here is a big part of many a conversation — all the more so as Santa Fe either approaches or passes its 400th anniversary, depending on whose herencia is under discussion.

The counties of Santa Fe, Río Arriba and Taos have a long history of settlement; of old and honored cultures, New World and Old World alike. There's a wealth of cultural-development projects — and, a paucity of support to turn them from dreams to reality.

By jumping through the proper governmental hoops, our region could collect a million dollars or so a year in matching funds to make our heritage a more constant reminder of who we are, where we came from and what our regional aspirations are.

The meetings being held are to draft a plan that's to be submitted to Interior in June. If it's approved, money could be headed toward projects next year.

So what're we waiting for? There's a meeting today, at which there'll be people to listen to your ideas, from 2 to 8 p.m. at El Museo Cultural, 1615 Paseo de Peralta, in the Railyard.

Everybody ought to be there — especially museum leaders, acequia officers, land-conservancy boards, farmers-market organizations, Hispanic-action groups, representatives of the Eight Northern Pueblos and lodgers and businesses benefiting from tourism.

Time to dust off long-postponed notions of cultural-heritage projects, and put them before this dedicated group of norteños.