Southwest Rivers

Rivers are the arteries of life in our arid landscape. Many activities threaten to dry up and pollute our rivers. Forest Guardians' river campaigns focus on ensuring that rivers have rights to their own waters and that the diverse plants and animals that depend on these waterways are protected. We work to reform archaic and wasteful agricultural practices, change dam management to mimic natural flows, limit new urban uses of water, protect clean waters and clean up polluted ones and inspire people and communities to reconnect and restore to our vital life-giving waterways.

The Rio Grande: A Once and Future Great River

The mythical Rio Grande is the cultural and ecological lifeblood of our region. Today this Great River is in dire straights, primarily because there are too many straws—agricultural, municipal and industrial—tapping its limited supplies. As a result, many of the more than 400 species of fish and wildlife are in danger of extinction.

Forest Guardians is working to reform federal and state policies, agricultural and municipal water practices and build a new culture that respects and values the Rio Grande as a living river. Read about our recent success..

Agriculture Water Use: The Key to Living Rivers

The foundation of western water is built on two fundamentally flawed premises. The first is the notion that any drop of water left flowing in a river is wasted. The second is that the majority of water diverted from western rivers is used to flood irrigate water intensive crops, primarily alfalfa, to provide forage for a livestock-centric agriculture.

Our river reform efforts seek to establish two principles to remedy this flawed paradigm. First, we are working to establish the right the rivers must have rights to their own waters and that instream flows are a legitimate use of water. The second principle we are working to assert is that the water intensive agriculture –both because of the crops grown and methods used—is incompatible with a healthy western culture that values its river and healthy agriculture that stewards its water. At Forest Guardians, we believe that we can not protect large rivers in the West and create adequate flows for native wildlife and habitat unless we confront the paradigm of water use in the West that allows for water to be used inefficiently, wastefully and irresponsibly on water intensive crops. Read Diverting the Rio Grande, a report..

Preventing Pollution to Waterways

Delivering on the promise of the Clean Water Act—that all streams and rivers are safe enough for swimming and sustain native fish—continues to be one of Forest Guardians highest priorities. We must keep clean waters clean while working to restore polluted waterways. Unfortunately, diffuse sources of pollution from a wide range of activities have polluted more than half of New Mexico’s streams, causing violations of state and federal water quality standards. Forest Guardians has initiated a series of lawsuits that seek to enforce the Clean Water Act, supported agency actions and sought reforms in policies that seek to upgrade standards and halt further pollution.

Our Clean Water Project also continues to draw connections between public health and ecological integrity of our waters. In a major victory for human health and endangered fish, New Mexico adopted, for the first time ever, stringent criteria for the highest priority toxic pollutants. Rivers such as the Rio Grande, which not only provide habitat for endangered fish but are also relied upon for drinking water, will be cleaner as a result. Read more..

Confronting the Legacy of Dams

Though the era of big dam building by the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is largely over, the damaging legacy of these dams is alive and well. One of the biggest threats to healthy rivers are dams. Dams destroy river and floodplain habitat in three ways: first by modifying the natural hydrology, second by reducing flows as waters are diverted, and third by flooding river habitats. Many western rivers are on a slow and steady path to ecological collapse because of the continued effects of dams on river ecology.

Forest Guardians is working to ensure that dams throughout the Rio Grande basin are managed significantly better such that water releases mimic natural flows, thereby restoring some of the natural dynamism of river ecosystems. In addition, we believe some dams should come down and, if necessary, replaced by other structures that allow for water diversion and for rivers to be re-connected.

For specific questions about our conservation efforts, contact Jim Matison, River Restoration Director.