Extended Drying of The Rio Grande Affects Bosque

The unprecedented drying of the Rio Grande has made this year one of the hardest summers for the bosque.  

About a month ago, my co-worker Tucker and I were heading out to conduct routine monitoring at one of our habitat sites in Corrales, New Mexico just north of Albuquerque. The location is a place where Audubon has been delivering water to the Rio Grande through our environmental water leasing efforts since early June of this year. Walking into the river corridor we quickly noticed that the outfall associated with our water delivery was green and verdant, while nearby areas were brown and stressed This stressed area was large-scale and looking awful -the site did not look like this two weeks prior when all was green. Alarm bells rang as I experienced flashbacks, recollecting the rapid loss of a cottonwood-willow riparian forest in southeastern Arizona at Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge during the early 2000’s drought.    

Over the next few days, I captured drone imagery throughout the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico and found that the greatest impacts were primarily to the riparian forest through Albuquerque with some stressed trees also near Los Lunas. This was surprising since during river drying events over the last decade, the trees have survived due to shallow groundwater resilience - the greatest impact of river drying in previous years has been to the fish community. The extent and depth of drying this year have been unprecedented and is a direct consequence of a changing climate.  

My heart sank as I previewed the initial drone images at home in the comfort of my swamp cooler. Almost all the younger trees appeared brown or grey, and the older trees were thin-green to grey. Unfortunately, cottonwood trees do not bounce back from extended drying since they rely on saturated soils for survival.   

Since 2019, Audubon has delivered leased water back to the river for environmental purposes in select areas to minimize river drying and uplift local wetlands. This program is coordinated closely with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the US Bureau of Reclamation, as well as a network of other partners with shared interests in a living Rio Grande. 

I sent a deck of drone images out to our network of partners on the Middle Rio Grande with urgency and a plea for action. To my relief, this was met with a sea-swell of concern and alarm from all. As I write, action is underfoot to combine water from the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and Audubon for a release of water into our parched Rio Grande. The hope is to water the riverbed for four days through Albuquerque, soak the aquifer, and provide an “irrigation” to our stressed and dying bosque forest. At the same time, a robust monitoring program has been put in place to understand groundwater response, the seepage rate, characteristics of the watering, and the response of the trees themselves. This monitoring effort will provide invaluable insights to water managers about how we may solve problems of this nature in the future.  

Where this is a story of climate despair, this is also a story of resilience and a reason for hope. This coordinated water delivery is a feat and could not have been done without an incredible network of caring partners, including the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.  

This summer has been the hardest of summers; many farmers in our valley haven’t seen surface water irrigation for more than 120 days, our Rio Grande Pueblos are scraping by on meager irrigation releases and come next year we may see up to a 50% die-back of our treasured Rio Grande bosque through Albuquerque. To be clear, the forest dieback we are seeing is commensurate with a large-scale forest fire and will require significant funds and effort to manage postmortem.  

This collective water action will improve the odds of trees that are currently on the brink, trees that are vital for wildlife habitat and the well-being of our city. Our partnerships, our communities and our people point towards a better future as we all grapple with the drying of New Mexico.