Restoring the Rio Grande

Rio Grande:Lifeline for over 500 vertebrate species

• 95 mammals • 345 birds• 95 amphibians

and reptiles • 44 native fish

Photo: Ken Stinnett

Elephant Butte Dam 1916

The status of native fish in the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and west Texas:

Gone (16):• shovelnose sturgeon• American eel• Mexican tetra• speckled chub• flathead chub• Rio Grande chub• Rio Grande silvery minnow• Rio Grande shiner• Rio Grande bluntnose shiner• phantom shiner• roundnose minnow• fathead minnow• gray redhorse• blue catfish• blue sucker• longnose gar (from NM)

Present (8):• gizzard shad• red shiner• river carpsucker• bluegill• mosquitofish• flathead catfish• smallmouth buffalo?• headwater catfish?

Rio Grande Campaign

Goal: to restore the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and west Texas to a functioning ecosystem which supports native plants and animals

Shovelnose sturgeon beaver

Rio Grande leopard frog

Yellow-billed cuckoo

Picacho Wetlands

Before Now

La Mancha Project Design

• Two connected ponds on 3 acres of privately owned land

• Inlet and outlet channels connecting to river at high flows

• Appropriate native plantings in floodway and around ponds

• Trail, signs and bench

A Living River

Photo: Ken Stinnett