Seeds of Harmony, Inc.

This project will grow adaptive capacity to increase civic action to plant the rain to retain water within the watershed to minimize erosion, restore native vegetation/habitats, and increase soil moisture, to drive action toward preparing for rising temperatures within the Colorado River Basin.

Program Opportunity Statement (Recommended 300 words or less) The organization’s roots are within the heart of Indian country. Approximately 40% of the population lives below the poverty line three times the US average of 13%, there are no grocery stores, mostly dirt roads, many homes still have no running water or electricity in their homes. According to the 2011 Draft Water Resource Development Strategy for the NN, "Families, which haul water for domestic purposes, spend the equivalent of $43,000 per acre-foot of water compared with $600 per acre-foot for typical suburban water users in the region. This Navajo water hauling cost is $133 per thousand gallons. This water is among the most expensive in the United States for a sector of the population that is among the poorest." Further the report states, "Per capita water use on the reservation ranges between 10 and 100 gallons per day depending upon the water system and the availability of the water supply. By comparison, the average per capita use for 80 neighboring non-Indian communities in the Western United States is 190 gallons per day." The work is in the arid southwest where water is scarce and in high demand. Billions of dollars are spent on transporting water from one watershed to another (Central Arizona Project, Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, and more recent the Western Navajo Pipeline Project). There is visible desertification, springs and wetlands are drying up, perennial streams are being threatened, and food production is oppressive. Climate change has magnified the need to act. The organization will bring focus back to the land and water. The organization will demonstrate that we DO NOT have to live in a food desert, that our land does not have to erode, and that our land can infiltrate the rain and our soils can be healthy enough to grow healthy vegetation for ourselves and animals. We can grow back to helping one another as we have in the past to achieve sustainability. We can heal ourselves by healing the land.

Bezos Professional Development

This project will create a movement that will increase civic action to engage our community to plant the rain to retain water in our watersheds and utilize our communities’ talents to mitigate impacts of drought and climate change. Including leveraging our tribes’ Climate Adaptation Plan to reconnect to the land.