Profound anthropogenic changes have exacerbated that, and in many places there has been ecosystem collapse, with more in the offing. The Rio Grande has long been overused and abused, sometimes referred to as the “Rio Sand.” The early 20 th-century humorist Will Rogers called it “the only river I know of that is in need of irrigating.” Because it’s in an arid part of the world, its existence and the life it supports are already on a knife’s edge. This year, the river has been hit by unprecedented drought, and the lower Rio Grande, the border between Texas and Mexico, is now dry for hundreds of miles. But as agriculture and municipal use took more of the water, the river’s flow became intermittent, and by the mid-1900s only 20 percent of its flow reach the mouth. The Rio Grande was once a perennial river, though marked by periods of extreme drought and dotted by dry stretches. Subscribe to the E360 Newsletter for weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Wildfires have been coming earlier and more often, and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “historically unprecedented warming is projected to increase during this century.” NEVER MISS AN ARTICLE
The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire burning this year is the largest in the state’s history. In the past century, the average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees F, with a notable increase in the number of extremely hot days and warm nights. New Mexico, like much of the West, has been in the grips of unusually hot and dry weather for 20 years. Increasingly, the Rio Grande’s fate is tied with the impacts of climate change. “We’re past the point of easy answers,” she says.įlowing out of the Colorado Rockies, the Rio Grande streams from south-central Colorado through New Mexico and on to form the boundary between Texas and Mexico, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico nearly 1,900 miles later. The concern of Snyder and others is that much of the Rio Grande River - already greatly compromised by channelization, dams, and irrigation - is on a trajectory to disappear and take out the bosque forests, fish, and other creatures that live in it and along it. The number and scope of wildfires are also increasing sharply New Mexico’s ongoing Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire has now burned 315,000 acres. Now, as a megadrought has descended on the West, the most severe in 1,200 years, the flows are at crisis levels.Īnd to make things even more uncertain, the drought is accompanied by an aridification of the West - a prolonged drying that scientists say may become a permanent fixture in the region. The water was apportioned to farmers and other users at a time when water levels were near historic highs. Southwest, from the Colorado to the Gila. The story of the Rio Grande is similar to that of other desert mountain rivers in the U.S. Experts predict the Rio Grande will dry up completely all the way to Albuquerque this summer for the first time since the 1980s.
Though the river this day is high and a rich chocolatey-red color, water levels are historically low and dropping precipitously. Hiking through the emerald green canopy of the bosque, or riverside cottonwood forest, near downtown Albuquerque, Tricia Snyder, an advocate for WildEarth Guardians, believes zero hour has arrived for the Rio Grande.
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