Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Albuquerque's Environmental Story
Approximately
two to three miles from downtown Albuquerque and Old Town, nature lovers can
walk in a woodland containing one of the most magnificent remaining stands of
Rio Grande cottonwood trees in the world. These 50- to 100-foot trees form the
canopy of the bosque, the green ribbon that threads north-south between the
Rio Grande and the riverside ditch slightly east of it. Easy access to this
urban forest is found at New Mexico Park and Recreation Division's Rio Grande
Nature Center, which opened in 1982.
The center, and the 166-acre preserve of which it is a part, are the product of a cooperative effort by Albuquerque and the state to reestablish and protect fragile riparian habitats that formerly abounded along the river. In addition, the center was developed to provide a rich education and passive recreational resource for people. A 100-acre site of bosque land has been leased from the Middle Rio Grand Conservancy District to provide nature trails to the river, wildlife habitat, and study areas.
The nature center and preserve concept was a dream shared by many citizens and public officials beginning in the late 1960s. For decades, the river was seen primarily as a source of water for agriculture and as a flooding threat to be countered. This led to extensive drainage, reclamation, and channelization. The area between Socorro and Cochiti lost 9,000 acres (25% of the state's total) of cattail marsh in this period.
Management of the river went unchecked until 1969, when the Bureau of Reclamation proposed chopping down all the trees along the river because, it was felt, they consumed too much of the water that might be better utilized for irrigation. Opposition to this plan coalesced in the 1969 Rio Grande State Park Plan and the City Edges Study, both of which embodied the concept of the river's educational, ecological, and recreational, as well as agricultural, value. By 1976, the city of Albuquerque purchased the 177-acre tract known as the Rio Grande Nature Center, and in 1980, the state leased 38.8 acres for development of a Visitor's Center, a pond and wetland area, and a pedestrian access trail to the bosque and the river. The most recent step toward permanent preservation of the river and bosque was taken when the Rio Grande Valley State Park, from Sandia Pueblo in the north to Isleta Pueblo in the south, was authorized by the 1983 New Mexico legislature.
A visit to the Rio Grande Nature Center has been characterized as a trip to "Albuquerque's Nature Oasis" (New Mexico Magazine, February 1984). The imaginatively designed interpretive building where most visitors start their adventure was created by architect Antoine Predock. He tried to minimize impact on the environment and to highlight the importance of the river on our lives from a natural, historical, and social point of view. Visitors to the center should allow time to study the instructive exhibits. They interpret a wide range of subjects including the geological history of the area, pond succession, habitats and food webs, to mention a few. Perhaps more important, sufficient time should be earmarked to just sit in the library overlooking the pond, and enjoy watching turtles, muskrats, perhaps a snake, and a variety of land and water birds go about their normal routines unaware of the presence of humans. Redwinged blackbirds, grebes, the kingfisher, mallards, wood ducks, Canada geese, and - possibly - a heron might be seen or heard.
A third pond, constructed in 1995, offers a new educational dimension of the Center's programs. Called the Discovery Pond, it provides opportunities for a hands-on approach to nature, where visitors may conduct water tests, view aquatic life under the microscope and study aquatic life up close.
The variety
of migratory wildlife in the Nature Preserve has increased over the years as
the bird community in the central flyway has discovered the riparian wetlands
that are the Nature Center ponds. The three ponds have been generously stocked
with sago pond weed, deep water duck potato, elodea, ducks meat, three square
rush, and hard stem bulrush. These plants, selected to provide a cover and food
source for the water birds, have been richly supplemented by large growths of
cattails. To keep the mosquito population in check, Gambusia fish have been
stocked in the pond. The Rio Grande Nature Center has been designated a New
Mexico Watchable Wildlife site.
The most rewarding way to spend time at the Rio Grande Nature Center, of course, is to go outside and walk the trails. Here, all five senses should be called into play. Not to be overlooked is the sense of wonder, which, in some ways, is even more important than the cognitive yearnings about flora, fauna, water, and ecology.
The walk to the bosque and river traverses a foot bridge over the riverside drain which, at times, moves more water than the river itself. Once a mighty river draining southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, the Rio Grande has lost much of its former size and power. Its water is diverted and reused dozens of times before it reaches its final destination, the Gulf of Mexico.
Water seeping into the open drains around the ditch creates a very different, contrasting habitat to the desert so close at hand. Mosquitoes, dragonflies, water striders, and many other insects find a home in an otherwise inhospitable desert setting. Aquatic plants such as cattails, watercress, and willows grow abundantly, and these food plants draw muskrats and insects. Toads and frogs come to feed on the insects. Cattails, incidentally, are an excellent source of food for many animals. They look like green onions, can be peeled, and taste like cucumbers.
Many plants commonly encountered along the river banks also occur along the drainage ditches. The willow, for example, anchors the bank against erosion, provides nesting sites for some birds and food for beaver and other small mammals. Within the bosque, several other trees are found. The key to understanding where vegetation is found in a bosque is the water table. As the level drops below the point at which a lake and its vegetation can be sustained, marshes appear. A lower water table produces a salt grass meadow. Down a little farther, the salt grasses recede and willows appear. Then, finally, the taller varieties of willow, and Russian olive, tamarisk and cottonwoods take over. If the water table were to drop suddenly, the cottonwoods would be stressed, and mistletoe would appear on their branches. Eventually the cottonwood would die out. This is an important consideration when river channelization and water reclamation are discussed.
Although the Rio Grande cottonwood trees grow close together and form a tall canopy that makes it difficult for any under-story plants or ground cover to grow, several other species of trees can still be found along the trail in considerable profusion. The most common in this part of the bosque, the gray-green Russian olive, is not native to this area. It was brought to the Southwest by early Spanish settlers in the late 1600s. It adapts well to a variety of habitats and occurs both as low shrubs and taller trees. Its cluster of tiny, milky blossoms attracts swarms of bees and hummingbirds during the early spring and provides forage for other birds, including Canada geese. The thickets formed by the roots and trunks of the Russian olive are excellent cover for Gambel's quail and other ground birds. The "pits" of the olive used to be called "river dates," and can be made into a tasty jelly.
The tamarisk is another introduced species. It was brought in from the Black Sea by farmers who thought these trees, also called salt cedars, could extract salt from brackish water, making it fresh. As is so often true of introduced species, the tamarisk spreads profusely, especially in areas where drained marshes created the conditions in which this species can flourish.
On the ground under the trees, a thick layer of coarse litter - accumulations of twigs, leaves, and bark - can be seen. Under natural conditions, periodic fires and floods keep the accumulation controlled. When fire and flooding no longer occur naturally, the litter can pile to more than a foot, bringing with it the increased danger of uncontrolled fire that burns very hot and can kill all the trees.
Cottonwoods, softer than most deciduous trees, are self-pruning. Their limbs, large and small, frequently break off, leaving large brush piles scattered along the forest floor. As small branches pile against a large limb, they create excellent dens for a variety of wildlife including rock squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, mice, skunks, lizards, snakes, and birds. Hawks and owls may perch in higher trees watching for a movement of the small mammals in the brush, and hawk nests are visible in the high branches of the cottonwoods throughout the bosque.
The walk through the woodland trails eventually leads to the river bank, whose solitude and seclusion make downtown Albuquerque's proximity seem quite impossible. This is a good time and place to pause, sit quietly, and perhaps visualize this very spot 50 to 75 years ago when the river rushed rather than trickled down and was a daily part of many people's lives, not a refuge to which urbanites might make an annual pilgrimage to recharge weary batteries.
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"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
- Aldo Leopold, Sand County AlmanacAldo Leopold, the guiding light of modern environmental preservation, had a significant connection to Albuquerque where he lived and met his wife and true-love Estella and, in 1918, served as Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce where he led the effort for the creation of what would later become the Rio Grande Valley State Park. To honor his vision and commitment to conservation, the City of Albuquerque was proud to dedicated a riverside wildlife loop trail to Leopold's memory in 1998.
(The Aldo Leopold trail adjoins the Paseo del Bosque trail to the west and begins just slightly north of the Rio Grande Nature Center bridge.)
(Up to Section I, Back to Fitting the Pieces Together, On to Experiencing Albuquerque's Open Space)