The difficulty we find ourselves in is not due to the fact that the present drought is impossible to imagine. It could not be predicted, but its eventual occurrence was assured. We are caught with minimal plans to deal with an event sure to occur. Whereas for earthquakes the occurrence is not susceptible to probability …
A group* of my Colorado River collaborators has put together what we hope can be a useful set of foundational principles as the basin states and federal leadership search for a path toward a negotiated agreement for post-2026 Colorado River management. They’re based on a number of key premises: The Colorado River Compact will remain …
The Western Water Assessment, a federally funded research and outreach group based at the University of Colorado, sent a note to its stakeholders yesterday informing us that the new administration’s plans to eliminate large swaths of federal climate spending include WWA’s primary funding source: We know that it can be hard to keep track of …
Continue reading ‘Wrecking Ball Report: Western Water Assessment’ »
Via Laura Paskus: The Middle Rio Grande began drying on April 15, and on Monday more than 18 miles were dry south of Albuquerque. We should expect poor conditions to expand in the coming weeks and months — and plan accordingly. Historically, the Rio Grande experienced snowmelt-driven spring pulses, which spurred fish like the endangered …
Continue reading ‘Rio Grande drying in central New Mexico’ »
Work to avoid being somebody who discourages others from sharing their thoughts. – Simon Willison
It’s easy to take for granted the accounting innovations in the Colorado River governance regime’s 2007 guidelines, which have governed river management and the upstream-downstream relationships between the upper and lower basins. “Intentionally Created Surplus” (ICS) is now part of the lexicon, and the idea behind it shows enough promise that it’s at the heart …
Continue reading ‘On the Colorado River, doing the accounting with care’ »
It’s red sidewalk crack poppy season in Albuquerque. It’s a weird ecological niche, but Papaver rhoeas, the common corn poppy (it has a bunch of other names) seems to have mastered the sidewalk cracks in my neighborhood. Sciency people call it an archeophyte, a species that arose in its modern form in an evolutionary dance with humans. …
Continue reading ‘It’s red sidewalk crack poppy season in Albuquerque’ »
Crews monitoring New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande reported yesterday (April 14, 2025) that the river’s still flowing past the San Marcial railroad bridge. Just downstream of the bridge, the USGS gage dropped to zero flow yesterday morning. We’re at the pivotal moment when the fact that you have to go out and look, and finding …
Continue reading ‘New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande: Not Dry Yet!’ »
My Utton Center colleague Rin Tara and I spent the day out in the field yesterday, a visit to River Mile 60 at the bottom end of New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande. (Disclosure: We took bikes, but “out in the field” sounds fancier than “on a bike ride.”) The trip was fodder for a piece …
Continue reading ‘New Mexico’s incredible shrinking Rio Grande’ »
“Everybody keeps hoping that the only way we’re going to really rebuild storage is if we have another ridiculous, gangbuster year like 2023,” said Jack Schmidt, a watershed sciences professor at Utah State University and Director of its Center for Colorado River Studies. But, he continued, “that’s highly unlikely.” Via Anastasia Hufham in the Salt …