NM Senators Ask Park Service to Study Valles Caldera

In a press release last week, sentors Bingman and Udall have asked the National Park Service to study the possiblility of making the Valles Caldera National Preserve part of the NPS.  This, combined with the ongoing GAO audit of the preserve should provide the impetus to get some serious changes made in the operation of the preserve.

Gila Trout Catch a Flight to Mora.

It’s still a tenuous existence for Gila trout. Even thought they were downlisted from “endangered” to “threatened” a couple years ago, there are still so few populations that fish need to be helicoptered out to avoided the ash flows resulting from wildfire.

A couple years ago, fish from the Whiskey Creek lineage were quickly transported to another creek under threat of wildfire.  Hopefully, a sustainable replicate population of the Whiskey Creek fish can be established, or that population may be lost.

Year Round Water for the Santa Fe River

At today’s Santa Fe River Festival, Mayor David Coss and County Commissioner Harry Montoya jointly announced that the parties have come to an agreement that when the Buckman Diversion comes on line in 2011, the county will donate water to the Santa Fe River.

The diversion is expected to provide the county with 2,000 acre feet per year.  With expected demand, the couty believes that it can donate 1,000 excess acre feet per year to the river on a temporary basis.  Maybe for as long as 10 to 20 years.

While not a permanent solution, at least this is a start to building returning a real recreational fishery to the river.  1,000 acre feet should provide a base flow to the river in times when the city and teh water utility have let the river run dry.