Rio Grande

In New Mexico, spring is a time of rebirth, with wildflowers blooming across the high desert, cottonwoods beginning to bud, and snowmelt cascading from the mountains. It’s also a critical season for fish like the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow, which rely on influxes of cold water to reproduce.

Water dominated many news stories in New Mexico in 2024 as the state looks ahead to a drier future.

On Friday Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, announced a $60 million investment from the Biden administration for water conservation and drought resilience along the Rio Grande.

A lot of uncertainty on the outcome of any decision from the nation’s highest court regarding the river.

The details below can help you understand the logistics and arguments within the decade-long water lawsuit.

The decades-long battle between Texas and New Mexico over Rio Grande water rights will be heard at the Supreme Court next week. Source New Mexico’s Danielle Prokop told KUNM that this is the culmination of legal fights after drought shocked the region in the early 2000’s.

Homemade signs expressing concern for the ecosystem of Albuquerque’s Bosque have popped up where a thinning project is underway. In addition to questioning the harm to native plants, shade and habitats, some call for the city to pause the work and hold a community meeting. The head of the city’s Open Space Division says her team doesn’t plan to stop the thinning and is confident in its benefits, but encourages those with worries to reach out directly.

People have called the Rio Grande a main artery, delivering life-giving water to and through our arid state. But year-after-year we see the river continuing to dry – and the ecosystems, communities, and industries that depend upon it are drying up too. On the next “Let’s Talk New Mexico” we’ll discuss the poor health of the Rio Grande and what’s at stake as it shrinks.

Voters in New Mexico are increasingly worried about the growing water crisis in the West. That’s according to an annual poll gauging the concerns of voters across the region.

Let’s Talk New Mexico 6/3 at 8 am: The Rio Grande is swelling right now, but looks can be deceiving. Climate change is drying out this lifeline in the…