MISSION AND CORE VALUES

At NMRA, our mission is to introduce people to the life blood of our planet…Rivers!  There is no feeling more powerful than floating downstream, through a remote wilderness river canyon.  In New Mexico, we have 2 amazing examples of that in the Rio Grande and Rio Chama.  Our guest’s positive experience and time spent on our public lands is the ultimate gift to us.

Evolution and Improvement

• At NMRA, we are constantly learning and evolving.  Each year we look at trends in the industry, new avenues to increase trip quality and guest service and safety techniques and protocols.  Each year that you return to do a experience a trip with us, we promise you will see something new and improved.
• One of our goals is introducing young professionals to the beauty of a seasonal guiding lifestyle.  Our owners lived this life for many years before starting NMRA and strive to promote the same healthy and rewarding lifestyle to our staff.
• It is our goal to provide an inclusive work environment that celebrates the diverse backgrounds, lifestyle preferences and perspectives and different origins from which our team is comprised.
• We provide fair compensation, a sense of value and regular feedback along with responsibility, growth and leadership opportunities and a strong community in which to grow personally and professionally.
• Additionally, we offer sponsored training for guides, the best equipment available in the area as well as holiday bonuses for all staff that has been with us for 3 or more years.  We are very proud of the large number of Guides that we have trained that have venture on to guiding many other rivers across this country and in others.

Sustainable Business Practices

• We realize that our activities have an impact on our rivers and the wild places where we introduce our guests.  For this reason we strive to always educate our guests about the environment in which they are travelling and techniques we use and believe in to help keep these amazing places pristine.
• Including but not limited to leave no trace ethics, education and interpretation skills and presentations, avoiding harmful equipment construction materials, organizing annual river clean ups, carefully cleaning equipment to avoid cross contamination from other resources and always striving to operate in a socially responsible manner.
• We recognize that the majority of our trips take place on or adjacent to the traditional homelands of New Mexico’s indigenous people and and Pueblos.  It is always our goal to inform our guests of this, provide valuable information about the history and culture of these many indigenous communities.  By starting these conversations with our guests, it is our hope that we can inspire new awareness among our visitors of the importance aa well as past and present marginalization of these indigenous peoples.

Supporting Community and Giving Back

• One of our goals is to always facilitate a meaningful connection with our rivers and public lands.  The result is the preservation and increased conservation of these very special places.
• Our commitment to our community includes donated trips to underserved populations like Delancey Street, providing educational trips for youth with groups like Rivers and Birds as well as local elementary schools, donating monetarily to river conservation organizations like American Whitewater and American Canoe Association, local organizations like Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte and community organizations like Bridges, Dreamtree and our local Dixon VFD.
• NMRA is always striving to maintain a culture of caring and community.  We work very closely with our staff and consider many to be family.
• We employ many locals form our immediate community of the Embudo Valley.  We are proud to had 16 year old neighbors start with us and stay with us until their 18th birthday and eventually become Guides.
• We also put a large importance into creating a community of professional guides and members of the adventure tourism industry at large making a way for long careers of introducing the public to beautiful places all over the country in a knowledgeable, safe and professional manner.