Lousy start to the 2023-24 snowpack year on the Rio Grande

Three months into the 2023-24 water year, we have our first early look at what sort of runoff to expect on the Rio Grande in the coming year, and it doesn’t look great. The January NRCS median forecast for March-July runoff is 42 percent of “normal” at Otowi, the critical forecast point where the Rio …

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New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande 2023 Review

This was a big flow year on New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande, but weird, in ways that highlight the challenges we face. Flow in the River Total flow into New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande Valley (measured at Otowi) sits at 1.26 million acre feet with two more days’ flow to go, so round it off …

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Closing in on a post-2026 Colorado River management deal (some terms and conditions may apply)

The news out of last week’s Colorado River Water Users Association is that, behind the scenes, a deal is taking shape with the potential to bring Colorado River Basin water use into balance with water supply. The deal would eliminate the “structural deficit”, and creates a framework for a compromise over the Upper Basin’s Lee …

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Jardins du Nouveau Siècle

One of the first books Bob Berrens suggested I read when we began working together was Voltaire’s Candide. This has come in handy. Candide is a bit of a romp, a picaresque in which our hero has all kinds of horrifying misadventures before settling down to tend his garden. Il faut cultiver notre jardin. Our …

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‘So Far, So Good’ for the Colorado River Watershed in 2023

An Inkstain guest post from Jack Schmidt, crossposted with encouragement from the Utah State University Center for Colorado River Studies By Jack Schmidt | December 7, 2023 In Summary By the end of November 2023, storage in the reservoirs of the Colorado River watershed had been reduced 1.73 million acre feet from the high of …

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Inkstain mailbag: Why “Ribbons” plural?

Alert reader T texted a question: Why “Ribbons” vs “Ribbon”? I can’t wait to read all about it. Thanks, T! The title of our forthcoming book* Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of a Modern American City comes from a passage in the strange and wonderful book The Desert by John van …

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Ribbons of Green: A water book? A city book?

I have devoted an inordinate amount of time over these last few months thinking about two things: finishing the book, and dreaming about the dreamy freedom of my life after we handed over the manuscript to the University of New Mexico Press. The book work, finishing the manuscript of Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande …

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Ribbons of Green: the Spandrels of Duranes

I’ve been fiddling with some of the maps we’ll be using for our book Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of a Modern American City, trying to think about how to use this 1888 topographical map of Albuquerque and its surroundings. It may work best unadorned – a river, a railroad, and …

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How Albuquerque learned about the Endangered Species Act listing of the Rio Grande silvery minnow

The Rio Grande silvery minnow is kind of a big deal in understanding 21st century management of New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande. So it was hilarious to me to look back at the initial public announcement of its 1994 Endangered Species Act listing. The community first learned of it on page C6 of the Aug. …

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New Mexico’s Rio Grande Compact debt is likely to grow; El Vado Dam won’t be fixed for a long while yet; we might see a lot more Middle Rio Grande Valley farmers paid next year to fallow

Finishing the new book has thrown me into a time warp. We’re about to hand in a manuscript for a book that traces a century and a half of the evolution of Albuquerque’s relationship with the Rio Grande, leading up to now. But the now of the act of writing (November 2023) is different from …

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