Rio Grande drying up earlier than usual, conservationists say

A portion of the Rio Grande near the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro has completely dried up.

“Drying up this early is a little out of normal but it's all related to our winter snow pack, we just didn't have it,” said Glen Duggins, a board member on the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.

Duggins says the Rio Grande has never been a continuously flowing river, but it doesn’t usually dry up until summertime, right before the monsoon rains set in.

The Conservancy intentionally started drying out part of the river to protect the endangered silvery minnow, so they can swim upstream in slow-moving water.

“We shut the water down, the dams, the diversion dams slowly, so the minnows will have time to swim upstream so that we will have time to capture as many as we can and move them upstream,” Duggins says.

With 99% of New Mexico in some sort of drought, conservationists say they hope the forecasted above normal monsoon pulls through.