John Fleck rightly points out elsewhere that the subject of water in New Mexico is frequently a front page topic at the Albuquerque Journal (as opposed to the more narrow subject of the Albuquerque bosque and the Mayor’s Vision).
There might have been a great disaster in Albuquerque a week ago. On the other hand, the bosque might have gotten the rejuvenating flooding it appears it will never get without managers hand-picking which segments will be so nurtured. We like to imagine the bosque is a strip of wilderness but it is really just an unkempt park. That’s OK. Central Park is a great park and couldn’t be more unnatural. Let the professionals do their jobs managing nature for our benefit.
The flood that wasn’t | ABQJournal Online
Authorized by Congress in 1960 and completed in the mid-’70s, Cochiti is one of the largest and arguably the most controversial dam in New Mexico. Its completion drowned farmlands, summer homes and culturally significant sites at Cochiti Pueblo, and seepage beneath the dam waterlogged remaining pueblo farmlands downstream. In addition, the way it altered the Rio Grande’s flows has caused lasting environmental problems downstream, depriving the riverside ecosystem of natural floods.
But on Sept. 13, it did the job we gave it when we built it, which was to protect the Middle Rio Grande Valley from flooding.