STATUS OF NEW MEXICO’S RIVERS Existing Data Panel

Aquatic Species and Water Quality – Stephanie Carman, NMDGF & James Hogan, NMED

Riparian Area and Upper Watershed Condition – Susan Rich, EMNRD

Geomorphic Function and Surface-Connected Aquifers – Shann Stringer, Tetra Tech

Agro-Ecosystem Condition and Climate/Drought Vulnerability – Brian Hurd, NMSU

San Juan River

West Fork - Gila River

Salt Creek - Tularosa Basin(WSMR OPSEC Oct 2004)

Water Quality and Supply

• Agricultural uses

• Domestic uses

• Industrial uses

Biodiversity

Hydrologic Function• Flood attenuation

• Drought mitigation

• Nutrient cycling

• Water purification

Recreation

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our

children. You must give to the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

— Chief Seattle

Chama River Rio Grande Basin

Healthy ecosystems have evolved in response to natural flow variations.

An Altered Streamflow Effects the Chemical and Physical Structure of a River

March 2005

July 2005

Gila River

Mancos River San Juan River Basin

When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come. - Leonardo DaVinci

San Antonio RiverRio Grande Basin

175 Aquatic Vertebrate Species of Greatest Conservation Need

Western Painted Turtle

Interior Least Tern

479 Vertebrate Species

Mexican Gray Wolf

Meadow Jumping MouseCosta’s Hummingbird

Aberts Squirrel

Sandhill Crane Northern Leopard Frog

Status of Native Fish

CanadianPecos

Grande

Tularosa

Mimbres

San JuanGila

Zuni

Na

tive

Fis

h S

pe

cie

s

0

10

20

30

40

Extirpated/ExtinctFederally ListedState ListedState SGCNstable

Intermittent Flows

Rio Grande at the San Marcial Bridge

Rio Nutria and the Zuni Bluehead Sucker

Arizo

naNe

w M

exico

Rio Nutria and the Zuni Bluehead Sucker

Middle Rio Nutria Current Habitat

Upper Rio Nutria Historical Habitat

Pecos River Diversity

Rio Grande shiner

flathead catfish

Pecos bluntnose shiner

gray redhorse

Plains killifish

blue sucker

Pecos River Hydrograph

Rio Nutria Zuni River Basin

Water is the principle, or the element, of things. All

things are water. - Plutarch

New Mexico Environment Department Clean Water Act 303d Assessment

Temperature

Rio HondoPecos River Basin

Gila River

Sedimentation

Mancos River San Juan River Basin

Rio de las Vacas Jemez Mountains

Black RiverPecos Basin

... the time has also come to identify and preserve freeflowing stretches of our great rivers before growth and development make the beauty of the unspoiled waterway a memory. - President Lyndon Johnson