Stephanie Russo Baca and Casey Ish
Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District
On the Bosque in Albuquerque, New Mexico
October 29, 2024
A highway of yellowing cottonwoods signals the long lost touch of water. Amongst the blusters of wind, we are introduced to Stephanie Russo Baca, water lawyer and chair of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD), and Casey Ish, conservation program and special projects supervisor for MRGCD. They show us around part of Albuquerque’s well-loved Bosque, the woods that fan the edges of the murky Rio Grande. Casey describes how MRGCD strives “to do what the river can't always do by itself, which is to maintain a habitat feature” through the irrigation system that’s been in place for more than a century. Ditches, also known as acequias, spread water from the Rio Grande into the historic floodplain area, irrigating crops and farms throughout the valley.
Born from a now gone – or rather, extremely diminished – floodplain, the Bosque is home to billowing cottonwoods, a chorus of coyotes, and is a refuge for sandhill cranes. As we’re walking, we stumble upon a recent beaver dam installment created over the weekend: a fresh creek, morphing the sandy ground, rushing and bending, willows and reeds stand by in the flooded ground. Casey and Stephanie exclaim that beavers wonderfully, and thankfully, do part of the job of spreading water over the landscape. A stream of color washes over the intermittent grayness – the light blue of invasive Russian Olive trees, burnt fall colors, and the lime greens of grasses.
Thin, brightly orange Salt Cedar spreads like wildfire, bringing with it flames in recent times. Invasive Salt Cedar creates habitat for endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers, which makes for a difficult situation for MRGCD. “This gallery did not evolve to regenerate through fire, it evolved to be disrupted and regenerate through flood,” says Casey. Piles of sand and sediment on the banks of the Rio Grande demonstrate this fact.
Red or green? A long standing question in New Mexico, the chile capital of the world, and now a question I pondered myself as I stared into the hot pots warming up red and green chile. After our tour throughout the Bosque with Stephanie and Casey, Stephanie generously invited us into her home and little farm, feeding us a delicious homemade meal (thank you Stephanie!!) of burgers complete with beans, greens from her garden, and goat cheese from her goats. Over lunch, Stephanie talked to us about the complexities of water law, the cultural significance of agriculture in the Rio Grande rift valley, and the role of alfalfa in a water-diminished world.
by Antonia Prinster