Restoring the Rio Grande
Jun 08, 2015
Restoring the Rio Grande
Rio Grande:Lifeline for over 500 vertebrate species
• 95 mammals • 345 birds• 95 amphibians
and reptiles • 44 native fish
Photo: Ken Stinnett
Elephant Butte Dam 1916
The status of native fish in the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and west Texas:
Gone (16):• shovelnose sturgeon• American eel• Mexican tetra• speckled chub• flathead chub• Rio Grande chub• Rio Grande silvery minnow• Rio Grande shiner• Rio Grande bluntnose shiner• phantom shiner• roundnose minnow• fathead minnow• gray redhorse• blue catfish• blue sucker• longnose gar (from NM)
Present (8):• gizzard shad• red shiner• river carpsucker• bluegill• mosquitofish• flathead catfish• smallmouth buffalo?• headwater catfish?
Rio Grande Campaign
Goal: to restore the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and west Texas to a functioning ecosystem which supports native plants and animals
Shovelnose sturgeon beaver
Rio Grande leopard frog
Yellow-billed cuckoo
Picacho Wetlands
Before Now
La Mancha Project Design
• Two connected ponds on 3 acres of privately owned land
• Inlet and outlet channels connecting to river at high flows
• Appropriate native plantings in floodway and around ponds
• Trail, signs and bench
A Living River
Photo: Ken Stinnett