Protect the Rio Grande – revive America’s Great River
A River Stretched Beyond Its Means
The third-longest river in the United States, the Rio Grande is vital to the history of the desert southwest. It is, literally and figuratively, the lifeblood of the region. Like any living thing, the Rio has a pulse. When that pulse dies, those who depend on the Rio as an ecological, cultural, and economic engine suffer.
The Rio’s pulse is dwindling for a variety of reasons. People take more water from the river than the river has to give, something that archaic water law continues to allow. Dams and other infrastructure, meant to stretch water supplies further, inhibit the river’s snowmelt-driven spring flows. And climate change spells disaster for the Rio and those who depend on it.
Studying and restoring the Rio’s flows; tearing down dams and other obstacles that sabotage these flows; and rethinking water storage will help to revive America’s Great River. The Rio has no time to lose.
What We’re Doing
Let It Flow
Restoring flows to the Rio Grande
We are advocating for a long-overdue study of flows necessary to protect landscapes, geology, recreational opportunities, and fish habitat in the Rio Grande gorge from the Colorado-New Mexico state line through Taos. Read our vision.
Tear It Down
Remove or modify dams and other obstacles to flow
We are litigating to ensure that unnecessary infrastructure—including dams, levees, and other man-made obstacles—does not prevent large-scale restoration of the Rio and its vast floodplain in the Tiffany Basin south of Socorro, New Mexico. Read the release.
Rethinking the Rio
Reconsider water storage in the river
In a recent report, we found that 50,000 acre-feet (in a dry year) and 85,000 acre-feet (in an average year) of water could be conserved if the water stored in the river’s low-elevation reservoirs was instead stored upstream. This would provide significant flexibility to connect river flows when the river needs water the most. Read the report.
How You Can Help
Help revive and restore rivers and all the species that depend on them! Be a guardian for rivers by joining the conversation, learning about current issues, and making your voice heard. Together, we're a powerful force for nature.
Rio Grande Waterkeeper
A purposeful partnership between WildEarth Guardians and Waterkeeper Alliance, Rio Grande Waterkeeper protects and restores flows in the iconic Rio Grande to ensure life is sustained throughout the Basin for generations to come.
Photo: Adriel Heisey
WildEarth Guardians
WildEarth Guardians works to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West.
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance and its member organizations work to protect swimmable, drinkable, and fishable waterways throughout the world.
Recent Stories From Rivers
Rio Grande: A photo essay
Javier Gallegos traveled from northern New Mexico to El Paso, Texas documenting the ecological impacts of the drying Rio Grande, but also capturing the ways that humans connect with this artery of life
This is not a moment; it’s a movement
WildEarth Guardians’ 2021 annual report shows how we wielded patience and relentless persistence to make seismic shifts
This is not a moment; it’s a movement
WildEarth Guardians’ 2021 annual report shows how we wielded patience and relentless persistence to make seismic shifts
This is not a moment; it’s a movement
WildEarth Guardians’ 2021 annual report shows how we wielded patience and relentless persistence to make seismic shifts
Rivers Press
Downstream communities push for rejection of water export proposal in San Luis Valley
Groups call on Douglas County Commission to nix proposal to pipe groundwater to Colorado Front Range
] Read more >The simple, big reason Colorado’s rivers are drying up
Icy beads of water are beginning to form and flow off the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado. As the droplets merge into tiny trickles, they are pulled on vast journeys to the rivers who carry them to the sea.
Read more >Writers Gone Wild
From the howling lobos to the silent native Gila trout, the endangered animals that live in the Gila Wilderness are among its best-known inhabitants; the lumbering pines and the rushing rivers take a close second.
Read more >
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