Another example of the conflicts that occur when we move water from one basin to another, this one from here in New Mexico: Stella Davis in the Carlsbad Current-Argus talks about the negative reaction from folks in the Pecos River Basin to a proposal to build a pipeline to ship groundwater from the Fort Sumner …
This whole Up Front thing we’re doing at the Journal, with a rotating cast of writers doing front page columns on pretty much whatever amuses or intrigues them, is a bit of an experiment. My entry today was more experimental than usual, not sure if it worked entirely, but it was fun. The back story: …
From this morning’s newspaper, a piece about the Bosque Environmental Monitoring Program (sub/ad req). I’ve been hearing great things about BEMP for ages, and finally did what I should have done years ago, which is call up Dan Shaw, one of the program’s directors, and ask if I could come hang out and do a …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Teaching About Nature Around Us’ »
Because some things should be printed on paper and thrown on people’s driveways, in this morning’s paper I revisit Dianne Feisntein’s comments on the Rio Grande silvery minnow: Rio Grande silvery minnow, meet California’s delta smelt. Y’all have a lot in common. But perhaps not as much as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would have Californians …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: More on Feinstein and the Minnow’ »
From this morning’s Journal, the struggle to help a river get to its destination when it doesn’t really want to go there on its own (sub/ad req): RATTLESNAKE POINT — Without Jason Thibodaux’s help, the Rio Grande would have a hard time making it past this sediment-choked desert flood plain. Around a bend in the …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The View from Rattlesnake Point’ »
Following a trail of bread crumbs from James Lawrence Powell’s Dead Pool led me to the tale of Tom Udall’s trip down Glen Canyon with his dad as a boy (sub/ad req). Udall, now a U.S. Senator from New Mexico, is the son of former Arizona congressman and Kennedy-Johnson Interior Secretary Stewart Udall: Glen Canyon …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Udalls and Glen Canyon Dam’ »
My obsession with Albuquerque’s plumbing continues with today’s column (sub/ad req), a look at what’s in the stormwater running off of Albuquerque and what the various agencies, primarily federal and local, are doing about it: After a good rain, the concrete channel that collects rainwater from much of Albuquerque has the dirty-brown look of a …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Stormwater Quality’ »
From this morning’s Albuquerque Journal, a story (sub/ad req.) about new research suggesting that, in the past, the jet stream moved north and what is now the southwestern U.S. dried out when the world was warmer: For 45,000 years, the drips built stalactites and stalagmites in Fort Stanton Cave. The minerals in the rocky deposits …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Drying of the Southwest’ »
From today’s newspaper, the U.S. House has approved legislation ratifying the settlement of two longstanding northern New Mexico water rights cases (sub/ad req.): The U.S. House of Representatives approved two northern New Mexico water agreements Thursday, a step toward allocating the region’s water rights and providing nearly $300 million in federal funding for water projects …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: Northern NM Water Deal Advances’ »
Rio Grande, Alameda New Mexico, Jan. 17, 2010 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Like much about New Mexico, the Rio Grande is modest, but it has its charms. The bike is a great tool for the study of geography, because it allows you to cover sufficient ground to make generalizations, but at a sufficiently slow speed …