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Presentation to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016

PDF Version of a presentation made to the Forest and Watershed Health Coordinating Group/Drought Task Force Watershed Management Subcommittee, April 15, 2016

Story and photos by Sarah Keller for the Intermountain West Joint Venture, March 2017

A businessman and former state legislator, Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry may seem an unlikely advocate for the Rio Grande. But with a new proposal in hand-and a personal commitment to make the river a part of his daily life-the Republican mayor is making waves.

River otters have been successfully reintroduced to other NM rivers. If the Mora River is similar to these systems, then the biomass & production rate of fish and crayfish will sustain the min. river otter dietary requirements.

At Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge there has been considerable decrease in water storage within the soil, a lower water table, and the loss of critical riparian and ephemeral wetlands due to extensive alterations to the river which accomodated agricultural needs of the past.

Video from Intermountain West Joint Venture

In June, Audubon New Mexico completed a reader-friendly brochure on environmental flows restoration. Titled "Hanging in the Balance: Why our rivers need water and why we need healthy rivers," it includes information on environmental flows, the economic benefits of health rivers to New Mexico, and an overview on a recent EPA-funded study about which rivers in the state are most in need of environmental flows restoration. The brochure also details two collaborative projects currently underway as well as recommendations for restoring elements of natural flow patterns to New Mexico's rivers.

There's a movement afoot in the acequia community to keep water flowing for traditional uses. While it doesn't necessarily relate to environmental flows, the environmental community may find inspiration-or at the very least, better understand rural communities, the challenges they face, and their attempts at protecting the waters flowing through acequias and ditches.

Despite intensive efforts to reintroduce beavers into areas where they are severely reduced in numbers or eliminated due to over-harvesting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, beavers remain sparse or or missing from many stream reaches. In this study, beaver dams mostly occurred at sites that were not grazed or where there was some alternative grazing management, but were mostly absent at sites within Forest Service cattle allotments. Results indicated that cattle grazing influenced the relation between vegetation variables and beaver presence. We recommend that beaver restoration will require changes to current livestock management practices.