Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

10,000 fish dead as irrigators take full allocations
Contact: Jen Pelz, (303) 884-2702, jpelz@wildearthguardians.org

ALBUQUERQUE,N.M.—The Rio Grande dried for nearly20 miles through Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in central NewMexico earlier this month killing over 40 adult and 10,000 young fish whileirrigators continue to siphon water from this ecologically critical reach ofthe river. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released these statistics as apart of its August report detailing its rescue and salvage activities for theRio Grande silvery minnow.

“Suckinga river dry to irrigate alfalfa in the desert is not a sound strategy forrecovering a critically imperiled species,” said Jen Pelz the director ofWildEarth Guardians’ wild rivers program. “The only way to break the downwardspiral of the minnow and improve the health of the river is to keep the riverflowing and connected.”

TheService listed the Rio Grande silvery minnow as endangered in 1994. However,despite the increased protections, the population has declined precipitously tolevels lower than existed at the time of listing. This is due at least in part tothe 2003 political compromise that led to the current management of the river andallows the Rio Grande below Isleta diversion dam to dry each year from June 15to October 31. This section of the river provides the best habitat and is wherethe majority of the population is found.

Thesekey reaches of the river (south of Albuquerque) have dried (with the exceptionof 2008) each year since 2001 due to the significant diversions by the MiddleRio Grande Conservancy District. During the most extreme year, the river driedfor up to 68 miles (40 percent) of the minnows designated critical habitat. Theentire critical habitat for the minnow totals 157 miles between Cochiti Dam andElephant Butte Reservoir.

Thelack of late-season flows in the Rio Grande deprives the next generation of silveryminnow (the young-of-year) habitat to support their growth and development. Theriver drying has proven to negate the efforts of water managers earlier in thespring to generate a large peak flow to cue spawning in the minnow because mostof the fish die before the end of the irrigation season.

“Thepattern is obvious, when the river dries, the minnow population plummets,”added Pelz. “It’s time to let science and not politics determine how the riveris managed and prioritize measure necessary to ensure survival and recovery ofthe species.”