Meanwhile, the invasive Russian olive and tamarisk trees have all moved under the canopy, a flammable species. Forest fires never existed in the past. Now they break out on a daily basis. In 2017, a Tiffany fire in southern New Mexico burned the entire patched landscape, ruining more than 9,000 acres of waterside cottonwood forest.
Because the embankment was built to contain the flow, the Rio Grande River now passes primarily through narrow channels rather than widespread throughout the landscape, which separates the main trunk from many side channels. This has eliminated many of the meandering sloughs, blades, and oxbow lakes that once existed throughout the river but are now found in only 10% of that range, the habitat of silver minnows. rice field.
Some answers to Rio Grande’s existing problems are to restore some similarities in the natural water flow.
Paul Tasidian, Head of Freshwater Conservation in Southwest Audubon, said: “Silver minnows lay eggs during the pulse. Cottonwood seeds fly during the pulse. Neotropical immigrants nest during the pulse. It was a month ago. If it does occur, it is a misfire. There are no of these benefits. “
One strategy is to store water in the reservoir so that it can be released at the appropriate ecological time. This is easier than doing it with little water and is mostly assigned to farms and ranches.
Thomas Archdeacon is a fish biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, responsible for the protection of silver minnows that diminish during a drought. He and his colleagues placed window screens to catch the silver minnow eggs as they flow downstream. They took the eggs to a federal fish farm and planned to raise fish there. But the morning we visited there were no eggs.
Another fundamental problem is that low discharge and irrigation can lead to river depletion and large die-offs in the summer. “If the 30-mile river dries, it will kill all the fish,” said the Deacon.
In July, the Great Deacons rush into a diminishing river, catching fish left behind in the pool and taking them under a nearby dam. There, they can survive for some time in deeper, colder water.
The increasing frequency and scale of wildfires has also hit the Rio Grande River. As I was driving along a river near Santa Fe in early May, I saw a huge cloud of smoke flowing out of a raging wildfire.
“After the fire in Las Conchas [near Los Alamos in 2011] It had a big impact on the Rio Grande, “Allen said. “It was an extreme fire, causing extreme floods and debris flows. It added an incredible amount of sediment and turbidity, changing chemistry and biota. Large invertebrates and fish were wiped out. it was done.”
In New Mexico, efforts are underway to thin large forests to reduce the risk of large wildfires and prevent further fire damage to rivers.
Martin Baka has seen the change first hand. He was born and raised on a riverside family ranch near Bossk, New Mexico, where he grew hay and backed bulls for rodeos. He shows off a bagel-sized belt buckle awarded with a high quality backing bull. He said the normality seemed to be over. “There is less water for irrigation and more wind,” he said. “You can irrigate, and after 5 days it dries. Its hot air is like a hair dryer. And there is no dew. You need dew. It helps the grass grow. But that wind can’t produce dew. “
“The climate is changing,” he said, pushing up the brim of the cowboy hat. “I didn’t believe it at first, but now I do.”
The report in this article was supported by a grant from Water deskUniversity of Colorado Boulder-based initiative Environmental Journalism Center..