Dreaming New Mexico

A state-based restoration project

Dreaming New Mexico (DNM) is an innovative Bioneers collaborative project to reconcile nature and cultures at the state level in our Southwestern home base. 

About Dreaming New Mexico

A core goal is to build a prosperous restoration economy that embraces the rights of people and nature, grounded in social and economic justice.

The premise: Dreaming the future can create the future. What would success look like?

What are our dreams? These transformative questions have propelled a powerful process of envisioning “do-able” dreams and mapping how to realize them in New Mexico, as a tool and template for place-based initiatives elsewhere.

The Project in Action

The project’s centerpiece is “future maps” created by project co-director Peter Warshall, a gifted polymath biologist, anthropologist, author and longstanding bioneer. Our first future map and an accompanying in-depth pamphlet on “The Age of Renewables” were released in September 2008 to acclaim and interest in New Mexico, nationally and even globally.

The maps are designed to serve as points of departure for convenings of cross-sectoral networks around a shared vision of restoration.

In January 2009, Bioneers co-sponsored a New Mexico Green Jobs Summit with our partner New Energy Economy (NEE), the principal statewide renewables coalition, and Regional Development Corporation. The Summit brought together about 70 key players from government (state, county, municipal), business, education and civil society. Peter Warshall’s presentation resulted in an invitation for a briefing for Governor Richardson’s energy staff and his newly formed Green Jobs Cabinet. Major educational institutions also requested use of the materials for their curricula. The Summit was covered in national media, including Forbes and Associated Press.

Native American organizers began using the map and pamphlet as educational and organizing tools in 20 Navajo communities in their struggle to stop coal and make the transition to renewables. Eight Santa Fe schools started using the materials as well.

Peter Warshall had earlier presented the draft map at the prestigious Tällberg Forum in Sweden in spring 2008, where it gained interest from the Swedish Royal Family, former head of Scenario Planning at Royal Dutch Shell, former Deputy Mayor of London and the Energy Foundation.

Kenny Ausubel and Google Earth Outreach’s Rebecca Moore each referenced DNM in plenaries at the Bioneers Conference, as well as in a panel discussion. Rebecca showed how DNM adapted one portion of the map onto Google Earth (see www.dreamingnewmexico.org), the result of a prestigious pilot grant to Bioneers from the Google.org Fund of Tides Foundation. The Dreaming New Mexico project was one of the first to use the new Google Earth API. With donated time from Google Earth KML wizard John Gardiner, our work together was featured on several prominent Google blogs. DNM was the only pilot grant highlighted in Google’s next round of grant announcements. We’ve received inquiries for Dreaming Oregon, Nebraska, Florida and Mexico City. The project has already inspired a Dreaming Mallorca group in Spain.

We began work on our next map of a The Age of Food Sheds, led by Peter Warshall and Bioneers Food and Farming Director Arty Mangan, in collaboration with the Center of Southwest Culture and others. With support from The Christensen Fund, the project places special emphasis on biocultural crops and the traditional indigenous and Hispanic farming cultures that give New Mexico its rich cultural heritage. The map is slated for completion around August 2009.

Awards Earned

DNM was selected as a finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Prize, to be awarded in May 2009. [Update: Dreaming New Mexico was selected as the runner-up for this prestigous award.]

Feedback on the Project

“I attended the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment retreat and I took the DNM maps and booklets. They were a hit. Everyone there loved them.”
Anna Rondon, Navajo organizer, 1Sky

“We gave out lots of your Dreaming New Mexico maps to people from Ruidoso to Clayton. They will be hanging in Chambers of Commerce, solar businesses, schoolrooms and a therapist’s office. We went to the legislature’s bash at the Convention Center where there were people from all over the state: legislators, businesses, top Santa Fe restaurants. People were eager to talk about something of substance. We spoke highly of your vision and work, and they took your maps and promised to display them prominently.”
Mariel Nanasi, New Energy Economy

“Our Education Fund is currently working on a project to promote a clean energy movement here in Nebraska. I was inspired by the amazing materials you have on the Dreaming New Mexico website and I would like to hear more about your experiences developing this project.”
Eva Sohl, Program Coordinator, Nebraska League of Conservation Voters

The Santa Fe chapter of Sierra Club distributed maps to local schools including Santa Fe Community College and five elementary schools. “Just to say many thanks to you for the beautiful Dreaming New Mexico posters and booklets on renewables for the teachers. The materials were a big hit. I made a display board of the various color maps and information on potential solar/wind/biofuel/geothermal sites that some teachers wanted to replicate with their classes.”
Teresa Seamster, Sierra Club School CFL Program

“I have the poster on my office wall. It’s inspirational and timely. I’d like to add a biodiversity component to it. At Natural Heritage New Mexico (NHNM), we have the state’s rare and endangered species database and other biological conservation databases. We’re in the middle of strategic planning and I brought Dreaming New Mexico to our planning sessions. At NHNM we’ve been discussing how to include biodiversity information and concerns into the alternative energy development process for several years. I’m wondering if there’s a way for us to partner with you in this effort.”
Rayo McCollough, Data Services Manager, Natural Heritage New Mexico, UNM Biology Dept.

“I was thrilled to see your Dreaming New Mexico report and find tangibles for our state’s renewable resources future. You’ve done a beautiful job of compiling information, shifting dismal probabilities into hopeful possibilities, and addressing head-on the realities that face our state (all the while doing so in such an aesthetically pleasing and clear way). Bravo! I have been referencing your report non-stop. So many people need to see this. I work with a small fund in Northern New Mexico, serve on the New Mexico Community Foundation’s Santa Fe Advisory Committee, and collaborate with an array of practitioners across fields committed to climate balancing. I want to share Dreaming New Mexico with everyone.”
Adelma Hnasko

Special thanks to map artist Glen Strock, map designer Diane Rigoli, pamphlet designer Julie Tennant and web strategist Chantal Foster for her superlative work on dreamingnewmexico.org and the Google Earth project.

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