Happy New Water Year!
Whiplash.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Dry Gulch Pass
I took advantage of the break between Storm 2 and Storm 3 to wander the South Valley this morning. It was a great ride – lots of ditch banks, some weird urbanity (the Walmart parking lot where Frank Hubbell’s farm used to be, read our book to learn about the failed tobacco farming empire of …
Albuquerque, come see me talk “Ribbons of Green” at the Guild Sept. 25, 12:30 p.m.
My Utton Center posse is throwing a book launch party Friday (Sept. 25, 2026, 12:30 p.m.) at the Guild in Nob Hill. When we were conjuring up a title over the summer, we came up with “A conversation about the past, present, and future of Albuquerque’s Rio Grande,” which seemed to offer me lots of …
Making sense of the crazy outlier year of 2026
Updating my “drought and climate change” lecture each fall is a useful exercise – this year more useful than most. Much like the year itself, my slide deck is setting all time records for new data visualizations needed to make sense of the remarkable 2026. Update Great questions from the comments. (I love my commenters.) …
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Quoting Aristotle
Aristotle on the wisdom of Colorado River Compact litigation: Now, it is of great moment that well-drawn laws should themselves define all the points they possibly can and leave as few as may be to the decision of the judges…. [L]aws are made after long consideration, whereas decisions in the courts are given at short …
A river returns
My office mate and podcast hosting buddy Rin Tara had the good sense to pull out their phone and record some stuff while we were out at the Rio Grande Thursday, beneath the I40 bridge, waiting for the pulse flow to arrive. We had the good fortune to bump into Audubon’s Tucker Davidson when we …
Visualizing the 2026 Albuquerque pulse flow
Hitting “reload” and keeping track of six open browser tabs was making my head hurt – this helped. Back story here via Paul Tashjian, written as the pulse flow was getting underway: As I write, action is underfoot to combine water from the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and …
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Wooden bats
Turned into the Mount Calvary Cemetery heading home from my Sunday bike ride, stopped in the shade to cool off before heading up the hill, home. From across the street in Santa Barbara Park, I could hear the sound of a ballgame, chatter in a language that I understood even if it was not my …
A deep dive into the data on Lower Colorado River water use
Great new stuff from the Colorado River Wilburys – Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, and Rin Tara*: Reductions in Lower Basin water use during the last four years, including forecast use in 2026, are similar to the initial targets for Lower Basin shortages described in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Post-2026 …
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Chasing the water
At 2 p.m. Monday (Aug 31, 2026) the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, along with the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and Audubon Southwest, began releasing a pulse of water from Abiquiu Reservoir on the Rio Chama in Northern New Mexico as an experiment – what might a several day pulse of water do …