New Mexican Rio Grande: Wild and Tame

My thoughts, one recent night, were on the wild things that use the river. And on whether the wild river and human uses of the river will continue to co-exist.

Rio Grande riverbed south of Las Cruces in mid-May 2015

Just the previous week, the water was released from Caballo Dam and then, just upstream from Las Cruces, Leasburg Dam. That morning, I walked across the sandy riverbed. Dry like a child’s sandbox. There had been no flow through the channel since last October, unless one or two of the local rainstorms provided a brief flush of damp.

In the Rio Grande riverbed just north of Las Cruces, waiting for the flow to begin

I watched the slow trickle of water as it approached us. Narrow rivulets covered with phosphorous soap foam built up during the dry months. As it grew to a wash, covered with four-inch-thick foam, we slowly moved out of the river bed. Backing away reluctantly. Craving the gurgling rush as we stood in 90-degree desert sun.

Walking to the east bank of the river as the water approaches

This night on the river, one week later, we are riding our bikes swiftly along the path next to the Rio’s rush. Ducks cry out and flap wildly upward, silhouetted against the sunset. We hear frogs singing on all sides. A little foam still floats on the water, but the flow fills the riverbed and logs and clumps of grass also drift rapidly by.

The smells are strong and unlike the dry, desert odors we have noticed for months. It smells of life. Wet soil, algae, vegetation rotting anoxically in the wet.

The Rio in monsoon season, 2012, just south of Las Cruces

The river before 1916
I think of the discussions of restoring flows for wildlife. Before 1916 and the construction of Elephant Butte Dam, the river flowed freely through the Mesilla Valley. It was a wild river, something like the Nile one imagines before Aswan High Dam, but without the tame expectations of consistently enriched fields.

In moments of heavy rainfall, the Rio Grande would radically change its course, swallowing houses, bursting through carefully cultivated fields and carrying away crops. Drowning people and animals. In dry times there was little relief. There was no way to save much water for irrigation through a difficult spell. Yet, this is the river the wild things knew.

The taming of the river made a far different agriculture possible. Crops grew with little fear they might wash away. Acequias stayed in place and were little damaged from year to year. Houses stayed put. The towns grew. In dry years, the stored water made all the difference.

Challenges to the river today
Even now, with the reservoirs hovering little above historic lows (lows like the massive 1950's drought), wells supplement the water allocated on the river and keep agriculture functioning. The eight acre-inches of river allotted to farmers is not enough for crops. But ever-deeper wells and pumps make growing possible. Pecans, for example, need three or four acre-feet every year, and they get it. With prices for pecans booming with Chinese demand, irrigating the trees makes financial sense.

Elephant Butte Reservoir Levels from 1915 to 2015. Graphic produced by and from data on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation site: http://www.usbr.gov/uc/crsp/GetSiteInfo

On our recent bike ride, heading back toward Mesilla from the river, the damp smells remain, as we pass flooded pecan orchards. Then, as we approach the edge of town, the faint, desert smells replace the moisture in the air.

On a satellite map, the valley is a narrow thread of green running through the dun-yellow around it. The mountains east and west of the valley, thousands of feet higher, call the rain down on themselves. They, too, look green and abundant from the sky. Both greens may be deceptive. Both depend on precipitation patterns that are changing, and possibly changing for the long-term.

Predictions of a southwest mega-drought suggest that the reservoirs may often remain at least as low as they are now. Changing patterns in snowpack, for example, may increase the length of the dry season. The number of fires and stress on plants are likely to increase while water supplies falter.

Wild animals using the lower New Mexican Rio Grande are those who can currently survive a mere 70-day run of water every year. The river bed is dry most of the rest of the year. Some species are gone or endangered because of low water levels or other habitat threats.

The humans, too, are challenged. The expense of farming increases as more electricity or fuel is needed to pump from the aquifer. Some wells fill with sand as neighbors pump heavily, causing deep cones of depression at levels where the aquifer was once always full. Up in Hatch, chile production is threatened by the aquifer's salty water.

Running more water down the river is complicated. Not just by how little is available in the reservoirs, but also by obligations to Texas and Mexico. No more surface water can legally be allocated to farming without shorting neighbors to the south. Texas is challenging New Mexico in court, saying that groundwater pumping in the Mesilla Valley is impinging on Rio Grande Compact water that is due to Texas.

Water could be released down the stream at different times of year to help certain wild species, but with total water available so low, that might not make much difference. Moreover, more water would be lost to evaporation and absorption into the river bed if the release were more than once a year. This year alone, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District estimates that 30% or more of the water it runs in the river will be lost. The drier the year, the more dessicated the riverbed and the more it soaks up before sending water downstream.

Some flow of the river, of course, contributes to recharging the local aquifers. For the purposes of what they send on to Texas, though, engineers can only count what they can measure. And they measure dam levels, velocity in canals . . . but not water entering or being pumped from the aquifer.

The whole system is connected, with above- and below-ground flows being closely intertwined. For the humans, they are both accessible. For the rest of the fauna and for the flora, though, it is surface flow that matters most.

If drought continues, it is difficult to see an effective solution that grants water to both humans and wildlife. Adequate water even for humans alone may come into question over a long enough span, as with predicted mega-droughts. The aquifer, while very deep, is not limitless, and depends on surface replenishment.

The future of the Rio Grande as a wild river, as an agricultural river, is uncertain. A willingness to look for new ideas and new modes of using water will be increasingly important as the 21st century progresses.

Pecan orchards in the northern Mesilla Valley

Farm-land in the Mesilla Valley south of Las Cruces: where the city leaves off, the farm-land begins.  All of the deep green is pecan orchards. Doña Ana County, home to most of the Mesilla Valley, harvested 25,000 acres of pecans in 2013. The county is also a substantial producer of milk, cotton, and chiles.

Losing Ice, Losing Livelihoods: Climate Change in the Bering Strait

We know that rapid warming in the Arctic is harming polar bears. How is affecting the people who live there?

In fall 2007 I was freshly returned from Niger, in West Africa. Sunbaked and as tan as a child of northern Europeans gets, I was ready to return to the North. My memories of the difficult Nigerien hunger season in 2005 were still fresh, and I returned to a United States whose news media seemed to have been revolutionized in my absence.

Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth had suddenly transformed the invisible topic of climate change into a very public and prominent issue. Or, at least, the transformation seemed sudden to me, after a three and a half year absence from the U.S.

The combination of news media focus and my own awareness of the effects of climate change in Niger meant that I went to my new job in Alaska's Bering Strait primed to hear global warming stories. And global warming stories I found.

I went to teach science in a very small school. I arrived on Little Diomede ready for what my new principal described as another Peace Corps experience. What I found was in many ways not at all a reflection of my agricultural, low-tech existence for much of my time in Niger. Yet, the stories of changing climate had many echoes of those I heard in Niger.

Some of the stories I heard in Niger included the disappearance of the seasonal pond that had brought fishing and irrigation water to the village. The millet harvests on higher, drier ground were gradually diminishing. Rains were even more erratic. The devastating hungry season in 2005 was partly from lack of rain, partly from locusts, partly from poor coordination of resources.

On Little Diomede, there were more stories of water, but here most noticeable in the sea ice, not rain. Sea ice was freezing in later each fall. Declining sea ice means disappearing opportunities.

For some time, a major form of transportation to the island has been by small planes in the winter. Planes could land only when the sea ice was solid enough to bulldoze a runway down it. Less winter ice means increasingly difficult transport to and from the island in the winter. Especially when the helicopter goes out of service, as happened last winter. Dentists, scientific researchers, mail, replacement machine parts and more all travel by plane.

At least as importantly, though, the ice serves as hunting ground in the winter months. Residents of the village hunt seals, walrus and occasionally whales on the ice (They are one of only a few communities legally permitted to hunt whales). They fish for crab from holes in the ice.

Traditionally, the diet, shaped by the sea and supplemented with summer's greens and berries, was all that was available to those living in the village. It was highly nutritious. As among other cultures like the Pima in Arizona, the addition of processed foods has brought the island some health problems. Many families still work hard, though, to maintain a highly subsistence-based diet.

As the ice season shortens, hunting and crabbing become more difficult. The chance to acquire food during the winter is limited by the warmer seas.

Compared to other Alaska native communities, Little Diomede is doing fairly well.  Shismaref is quite literally washing away. Newtok is flooding and eroding. Thinning sea ice threatens Kivalina's livelihoods. And despite plans noted on government websites and carefully developed by communities, funding for moving these villages to safe ground is not materializing.

Little Diomede is much better off than these communities that desperately need to evacuate. Nonetheless, Little Diomede's opportunities are changing. A tiny community whose subsistence depends heavily on sea ice. Yet whose transportation and heating depend on fossil fuels.

As climate change accelerates, the Arctic environment is becoming increasingly challenging for the humans who live in many of its communities. The future of communities like Little Diomede is uncertain.

Wildflowers and Drought

I was searching the desert wildflower blog for much of the month of March. I was hoping to spot when and where to find wildflowers decorating New Mexico for my parents' visit last week. 

The wildflowers were as few and far between as the blogs seemed to suggest, however. No New Mexico wildflower posts appeared until late in the month, and then only for the far southwestern section of the state. Even drought-stricken California had more posts this year. Exploring the southwestern corners of New Mexico, we did not find much either.

Although things may be looking up for New Mexico this year, with the past water year coming out at 111% of normal across the state (averaged out), it may not be doing much to make up for the long-term drought. Snowpack in most places is still clocking in below the median, and in a few places comes out far below average.

The lack of snowpack is in line with the predictions for rising temperatures and decreasing precipitation in the Southwest. The San Augustin Basin looked dry last week. My dad's memories of southern New Mexico in spring in the 1960s were, he said, a lot greener. Then again, it may just be a little early for spring that high up.

Pronghorn Antelope in the San Augustin Basin near the Very Large Array in late March.
Photo credit: ©Cathy Day

Generally, what we found for wildflowers seemed to line up pretty well with the wildflower blog. We did not see a lot of cactus or other wildflowers in bloom most places we went in our tour of the southwestern part of the state.

We did hit it lucky with a few specimens in the San Francisco River basin, however.

Desert Star? Photo credit: ©Cathy Day

Fringed Gromwell (Lithospermum incisum)
 Photo credit: ©Cathy Day

Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)
Photo credit: ©Cathy Day

The drought continues to affect a lot of New Mexico. It is certainly still having noticeable effects in the Mesilla Valley. With Elephant Butte Reservoir still below 20% capacity, we are not seeing any water in the Rio Grande as it runs through Las Cruces. 

We will see what this El Niño year brings to New Mexico. So far, things are still looking pretty dry, despite some winter rains.

How can we help counter global warming?

In working with the students in my environmental studies class a few weeks ago, I realized how many of them were unsure about how we should go about constructively reacting to global warming.   They all had ideas about how we as individuals can reduce our footprints, but many had trouble seeing how to change the larger system.  All of us who are concerned about the effects of global warming experience that struggle.  I think it is important to remember though, that there are many actions we can take that will help turn the tide and decrease our global carbon emissions.  I start with the personal, but if you are ready to move beyond that and take more action, I also offer suggestions for larger scale action.

Personal actions

Starting with your personal actions is important.  What each of us does affects how much carbon is released into the atmosphere.  Also, changing your own habits can make you more aware of some of the larger issues.  Where does your electricity come from?  Can you change that?  Do you have to drive a car to work?  Why?  Is there any way to change that?

There are a number of sites with recommendations on how you can change your own habits.  For example, this American Public Media site offers tips on everything from buying local and with less packaging to carbon-friendly entertainment.  The EPA also has some great recommendations on "What You Can Do" to decrease emissions.  What I especially like about the EPA site is that is goes beyond personal recommendations to considering education.  It offers suggestions for administrators as well as educators and students.

Ultimately, building houses that use passive solar systems and building cities that we can easily navigate without cars are key to making our home lives more carbon friendly.  Immediate changes can make a big difference, though:

• Buy less:  do you really need the newest gadget?  Can you do with fewer clothes?  Can you buy more food in bulk to decrease packaging?
• Choose different transport
• carpool
• take the bus
• ride your bike
• walk
• take the train instead of a plane on a longer trip
• Reduce home emissions
• turn down your thermostat (when it is cold outside) 
• update your home's insulation
• open a window instead of using air conditioning
• buy EnergyStar appliances when you update
• install compact fluorescent bulbs
• Choose food that you know has a lower carbon footprint:  Knowing how "your" farmer grows food is important.  Be aware of whether they minimize use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, that they grow close to your home, that they are not growing in a heated greenhouse but just using the power of the sun-- all of these make a difference.  Farmers markets are a great choice when they are in season, as are Community Supported Agriculture Systems.
• Recycle what you can

 

Beyond the personal:  What else can you do? 

Here is where many of us struggle the most.  The big changes really need to affect whole cities, states and countries, right?  What can I possibly do about that?

Education

Are your schools teaching about climate change and the positive actions we can take?  Ask teachers you know.  If they are not explicitly teaching about global warming, encourage them.  Go to school board meetings.  Discuss it with your child's teacher.  Write to the big textbook manufacturers.  For example, call the McGraw Hill customer service representatives and tell them you want to sample their best texts on climate change-- ask them what they have.  They just got rated a "green" company; do their books live up to that?  Organize a petition to encourage your school district or textbook manufacturers to improve.

Local government

Local governments in the U.S. have been among the most active in combating climate change.  The U.S. Conference of Majors has been taking action.  Mayors are working on decreasing their city's emissions while also preparing for more severe heat waves and rising oceans.  Cities like Seattle and Chicago are already changing practices.  Is your city taking part?  Write to your mayor's office if they are not.  Find out why.  Organize a petition to encourage decreased emissions.  Ask that city planning decrease the need to use a car-- one vital part of decreasing our carbon emissions.  Help make it happen.

State government

How do your state's policy makers measure up?  Are they helping to make long-distance mass transit possible?  Wisconsin's governor turned down funding for a major long-distance, high-speed rail system that would have linked Chicago to Madison to Minneapolis.  That is only one of many reasons that a major segment of the state has organized a recall election against him.  But it is an important one.  How our state governors and legislators prepare for climate change will have a long-term impact on our efforts to minimize emissions.

Shouldn't our U.S. governors be organizing the same way that the mayors are?  Write to your governor and to the National Governors Association.  Write to your state-level representatives.  Vote, organize petitions and make your voice heard.

National government

The United States is among the few developed nations that did not sign the Kyoto Protocol agreement that requires countries to limit their carbon emissions.  Countries in Europe are already making significant strides toward reducing emissions, with emissions reduced 17% over 1990 levels (see "Climate Change" under "Key Findings and Recommendations).  Why  has that not happened in the U.S.?  Hold your state's senators and representatives accountable:  Are they working to bring better climate policies to the table?  Will they encourage the country to participate in new rounds of climate talks?  Again, write letters, organize petitions.  Write to the President, too.

What else?

Do you have other ideas on how we should go about decreasing global warming?  I look forward to your suggestions!