Born and raised in northern New Mexico with a love of family, friends, food, music, and mountains, Miguel Santistevan later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of New Mexico and a Master of Science degree in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Biology at the University of New Mexico. His research interests are in the traditional acequia-irrigated and dryland agricultural systems of the Upper Rio Grande and Sangre de Cristo mountains. Miguel is certified in Permaculture and ZERI Design and has been a High School science teacher, director of youth-in-agriculture programs, and public radio show producer. He grows a variety of crops on his conservation farm with his wife and daughter in Taos called Sol Feliz while coordinating a living seed library program through the Agriculture Implementation, Research, and Education non-profit corporation that he co-founded. Miguel has recently been elected Mayordomo of the Acequia Sur del Río de Don Fernando de Taos for the 2010-2011 growing season of which he is a parciante. More information on Miguel can be found at www.unm.edu/~msanti.