Publication

Middle Rio Grande Ecosystem: Bosque Biological Management Plan

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Crawford%20et%20al._1993_Middle%20Rio%20Grande%20Ecosystem%20Bosque%20Biological%20Management%20Plan.pdf

Date: 1993/10/01

Author(s): Crawford C., Cully A., Leutheuser R., Sifuentes M., White, L. Wilber, J.

Publication: Biological Interagency Team Report, 294 p.

Abstract:

New Mexico's Rio Grande and its riparian forest, the "bosque," were for centuries central to the region's culture and development. Now, despite their importance in the past, the river and the bosque are being impacted by the effects of management and development accommodating needs of the region's growing human population. As a result, some of the last great cottonwood stands, trees that are the integral components of native biological communities, are now confined to the banks of a highly controlled and physically altered river. River dynamics on which the native communities depend have been changed so much that these communities are no longer able to sustain themselves. Compounding the problem are introduced species such as salt cedar and Russian olive that are steadily replacing the aging native trees. Other factors, including a managed water table level in the floodplain, a reduced amount of wetlands, and a fragmented bosque, have also disrupted the original dynamics of the river and the riparian zone. Clearly the ecosystem is stressed.

The Bosque Biological Management Plan was created to mitigate that stress in the Middle Rio Grande Valley from Cochiti Dam to San Marcial and to send a message to resource managers and decisionmakers that a new approach is needed. The plan's purpose is to determine conditions and to recommend action that will sustain and enhance the biological quality and ecosystem integrity of the Middle Rio Grande bosque, together with the river and floodplain that it integrates. Here, the term "biological quality" refers to the diversity and abundance of native species in particular, coupled with the environments and ecological processes that support them. "Ecosystem integrity" refers to the capacity of the ecosystem to return to an organizing, selfcorrecting state following major disturbance.