Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck.
Took the family (Mom, Dad and Lissa) to the Rio Grande Nature Center to see the new fish channel they dug for the Rio Grande silvery minnow. I went out Monday for the newspaper as they let the first water in, and wanted to go back to see it with water now flowing the full length.
It’s lovely, but I say so with reservations. It’s funded by money intended to help protect the minnow, which is an endangered species. The problem with this approach is that the minnow’s endangerment is an indicator of broader problems, but rather than address those broader problems (or simply accept them as unsolvable, another option available to the political and policy process), we’re devoting enormous resources in a very fish-specific way. That said, the folks involved in the fish rescue effort are terrific, motivated, interesting people, and their projects are exciting.
In this case, it involves bringing water back into the riverside woods, something that hasn’t happened for decades. Back in the day, flood stage would bring water through the trees all the time. Now, we have to dig a ditch for it.
But that’s all highbrow intellect and complex environmental ethics. Bottom line – water in the bosque, a cool thing, if you’re in Albuquerque you’ve got to go see it.
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Good story about the continuing return of the bosque to be more like what it used to be.