2024 Detailed Agenda (w/ Abstracts and Presentations)

1. What changes in ecosystem function is your organization most concerned about?

2. The mission of the Collaborative Program is as follows:

The MRGESCP provides a collaborative forum to support scientific analysis and implementation of adaptive management to the benefit and recovery of the listed species pursuant to the Endangered Species Act within the Program Area, and to protect existing and future water uses while complying with applicable state, federal and tribal laws, rules and regulations.

What is the importance of considering ecosystem management for the mission of the Collaborative Program and for your organization?

Ondrea Hummel, Tetra Tech, Inc.

Like many arid southwestern riverine systems, the Rio Grande in New Mexico has had many anthropogenic influences over the past 100 years that have changed both the physical form as well as the related function of the system.

Within the central portion of the Rio Grande in New Mexico (call the Middle Rio Grande) various agencies, partners, stakeholders and other interested parties have worked individually and together to implement restoration and enhancement projects with the goal of sustaining existing quality habitat and increasing a ‘mosaic’ of habitat types similar to those that historically occurred.

Restoration techniques focused on working within the current system where flows are managed and water rights are spoken for. The river can still meander within the floodplain between the levees but is limited by water quantity in the system. Therefore, efforts focused on features that would ‘bring the bosque to the river’ and ‘allow the river to do the work.’

The presentation will review a number of restoration efforts implemented throughout the Albuquerque Reach of the Middle Rio Grande and beyond, as well as discuss lessons learned.

Stephen Zipper, SWCA Environmental Consultants

The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) has been involved in the design, construction, evaluation, and monitoring of habitat restoration sites in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) since 2003. The MRG historically had an extensive spring-time floodplain that supported a large biodiversity in the largest cottonwood gallery in North America, known locally as the “bosque”. Seasonal flooding of surrounding communities, like early Albuquerque, prompted the construction of hundreds of miles of levees and steel jetty jacks during 1930-1960 that confined the river channel, effectively delinking the river from its historic floodplain. From 1918 to 2001 (~80 years), the maximum channel width of the MRG was decreased by about 82%, from about 3,000 feet to less than 500 feet. In 2003, a Biological Opinion directed federal agencies to conduct habitat/ecosystem restoration projects in the MRG for the benefit of endangered and native species, including the Rio Grande silvery minnow (RGSM). In 2004, The Habitat Restoration Subcommittee of the MRG Program developed a Habitat Restoration Plan, funded by the ISC. As one of ten Program Partners, the ISC has funded and supported 264 of 427 projects that involve habitat restoration in the MRG. Studies by the ISC of these restoration sites have led to significant findings about RGSM use of floodplains for spawning, egg and larval nursery habitats, and spring-time refugia. These findings have importantly influenced water management in the Rio Grande and strategies to help conserve the endangered RGSM. In 2023, the ISC is planning on revisiting selected restoration sites to evaluate their efficacy as native species habitats as part of an adaptive management framework.

Esteban H. Muldavin, Natural Heritage New Mexico, University of New Mexico

We present the New Mexico Riparian Habitat Map (NMRipMap) as a publicly available resource that provides a comprehensive wall-to-wall, fine-scale view of the composition, cover, and structure of riparian and wetland vegetation within riparian corridors along New Mexico’s perennial streams and rivers including the Middle Rio Grande (MRG). It was a collaboration between Natural Heritage New Mexico (NHNM), New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF), and Region 3 of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). There is an associated three-tiered legend to help support applications at different thematic scales from the general to specific and is based on the US National Vegetation Classification standard. The map was built using one-meter NAIP aerial photography from 2016 - 2020 along with LiDAR imagery from 2015 - 2020. Analyses of these imagery sets provides a measure of vertical vegetation structure critical to assessing habitat characteristics that are important to wildlife. It is a polygon-based map built using object-based eCognition software combined with image classification using Random Forests analysis of a training data set comprised of 1,500+ field plots. The machine generated output was edited and refined using GIS analysis and photo interpretation. The minimum map unit polygon size is 2.5 acres (0.10 ha), and the operational map scale is 1:6,000. In 2022-23, the entire map was reviewed for inter-watershed consistency and differences in content and themes were reconciled across all years based on 2020 imagery resulting in a final Version 2.0 Plus that is available at https://nhnm.unm.edu/riparian/.... We discuss how NMRipMap is related to the other mapping efforts in the MRG (Hinke and Ohmart, and the National Wetlands Inventory), and how the map can serve a wide variety of applications in wildlife habitat management, wetland and riparian restoration, and conservation planning to support Threatened and Endangered species recovery efforts.

Michael Scialdone and Max Wade, Pueblo of Sandia and Galloping Goats

For the Middle Rio Grande Valley (MRGV), the 20th century was a time of intense efforts to channelize the Rio Grande. Dams, particularly Cochiti Dam, added incision on top of this channelization and moderated the hydrograph. While it varies by reach, this means overbank flooding, even if it can occur, no longer serves its role of burying and redistributing vegetative debris. For managers in the MRGV, this adds to the constant challenge of dealing with the buildup of fuels.

Max Wade, owner of Galloping Goat Grazing, was looking to expand opportunities for his goat herd to be used in weed control and fuels reduction. Todd Haines, then at NM State Forestry, partnered with Max and was able to get “targeted grazing” as a suitable method for these purposes under the State’s pricing agreement. It worked out that the Pueblo of Sandia was able to host a demonstration site in 2021 that led to a year-long contract on the Pueblo. NM State Forestry just provided funding to extend targeted grazing on the Pueblo to the end of State FY2025.

The goats have been targeted at areas abundant with elm and especially tumbleweed. The goats really like the elms and will eat the tumbleweed at all stages (green or drying out). Max is making sure that the goats are meeting nutritional needs through this diet and will discuss this. Sandia benefits by having areas cleared of non-native fuels. There is an element of seeing if the grazing can aid a burn scar that, over a decade later, still only grows tumbleweeds. It is still too early to tell. What is certain is that goat grazing is a viable tool for fuels reduction. Through movable fencing, it can be targeted, adding to its potential benefit in the bosque ecosystem.

Natalie Nunez, Unity Environmental University

Historically, flooding events in the Middle Rio Grande have helped to manage accumulated fuel load. With fewer flooding events today, the fuel load accumulation in this area increased with more woody debris and leaf litter. This increased fuel load could have an impact on the quality of habitat for species that rely on native cottonwood canopy for nesting. This project investigates the influence of fuel load in the Middle Rio Grande on cottonwood canopy, which provides nesting habitat for raptors and the endangered yellow billed-cuckoo. Through a partnership with Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program, this project will collect current data between October 2023 and November 2023 on woody debris trends that contribute to fuel load in the bosque. Stick nests surveys will also be conducted and plotted on a map to visualize where nests were observed in relation to areas with high fuel load. This map will also be used to determine where favorable canopy habitat occurs for yellow billed-cuckoos and the proximity of those areas to high fuel load to provide guidance on areas which would benefit from fuel load management intervention. It is expected that areas with favorable nesting canopy may be near areas of high fuel load as a denser area of canopy trees like cottonwoods produce increased amounts of woody debris and leaf litter.

Smriti Chaulagain, University of New Mexico; Tetra Tech, Inc.

Due to prolonged drought and engineered structures (dams), river systems are at higher risk of degradation. Riparian vegetation and river geomorphology are continuously changing. The change in river hydrology, geomorphology and riparian vegetation have cascading impacts on other ecological aspects of the river corridor system. This study performed a spatiotemporal analysis of the riparian vegetation and the river morphology using Google Earth Engine (GEE) by implementation of the machine learning techniques (random forest). The study was done along Middle Rio Grande, located at New Mexico, USA. We used normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the land cover classification for determining the change in vegetation cover and river morphology using Landsat images (1984 to 2020) collected from Landsat 5, 7 and 8. The trends of NDVI showed the increase in vegetation cover even with persistence drought due to presence of groundwater dependent vegetations such as cottonwood. Similarly, the formation of new stable island, narrowing of the channel are some major observations and change in channel. These long-term observations provide insights into the riparian ecosystem dynamics under the stress of drought providing valuable information for ecosystem management in arid and semi-arid environment.

Thomas Archdeacon, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The study of reproductive phenology through ovarian development can help answer a wide range of questions in the management of imperiled species. For fishes, baseline reproductive timing information may be used to guide water management strategies to enhance recruitment or stimulate spawning. The peak of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow spawning is generally the middle of May and has been inferred from the appearance of larvae and eggs in the river. Our specific objectives were to document the reproductive and spawning seasons of both wild and hatchery-stocked female Rio Grande Silvery Minnow through macroscopic and histological examination of ovarian tissue to improve water management decisions. We used a series of monthly to weekly tissue collections made from late winter through early autumn to describe the reproductive cycle of both wild and hatchery-reared Rio Grande Silvery Minnow collected from the Rio Grande. The proportion of spawning-capable females was very low before April and after mid-June. The highest proportion of spawning-capable females occurs during the month of May. A corresponding peak in regressing females follows in July and August, with most females in the regenerating phase by July. We observed very little differences between hatchery-stocked and wild fish and between two different release seasons of hatchery fish. Instead, inter-annual variation among years was more significant and likely reflected environmental conditions. Water management decisions should consider the intended effects (stimulate spawning or enhance recruitment), the reproductive readiness of the population, and antecedent environmental and water storage conditions to achieve the desired management outcome.

Paul L. Tashjian, Audubon Southwest

The Rio Grande Basin Study in New Mexico is a WaterSMART-funded initiative led by the US Bureau of Reclamation and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. The Basin Study aims to develop management resiliency strategies for the Rio Grande in New Mexico under climate warming scenarios. As part of this effort, water-use “sectors” are quantifying water needs that will be placed into tradeoff models and tools. The Non-Governmental Organizations Sectoral Committee of the Basin Study is embracing this opportunity to quantify environmental flow needs and associated feasible targets for the Rio Grande Basin.

The NGO Sectoral Committee effort is a reach-scale quantification process largely focused on aquatic and aquatic-dependent species within the Basin. The six reaches examined include segments of the mainstem Rio Grande and the Rio Chama within central and northern New Mexico. Environmental flows are quantified based on the needs of targeted indicator species coupled with local hydrologic and geomorphic information. Flow recommendations will focus specifically on the parts of the hydrograph critical to the long-term viability of the indicator species, including low flow, monsoon peak flows, and spring runoff peak-timing-duration. Additionally, the environmental flow quantification effort will put forward augmentation actions that will be required to realize reach-specific flow targets within modern flood control and water supply realities, as well as the most critical opportunities to prioritize for when these targets cannot realistically be met.

These draft hypotheses will be vetted through a peer-review workshop, scheduled for the summer of 2024 – and will be memorialized into a document that will both serve as a primary chapter in the Basin Study as well as a stand-alone directory. We will be seeking engagement with the peer review process, including ecologic, hydrologic, geomorphic, water quality, water management and cultural expertise.

Andrew Hautzinger, Valencia Soil and Water Conservation District

Changes to climate, land and water management, and vegetation have dramatically increased the frequency and severity of wildfire events throughout the western U.S., constituting an immediate threat to the riparian ecosystems of the Middle Rio Grande. Underlying this threat is a highly flammable and dense riparian understory (Webb et al. 2019), lack of flood events capable of removing understory fuels, and a rapidly changing climate that is fostering a hotter, drier future (Garfin et al. 2013, Garfin et al., 2014). The danger and immediacy of this threat is underscored by recent wildfire events that have severely burned parts of the MRG (e.g., the Big Hole Wildfire of April 2022).

MRG managers, practitioners and citizens are seeking applied, practical guidance to address three key needs: (i) how to respond effectively after a wildfire has severely burned a river’s bottomland plant community; (ii) how to identify a diversity of native bottomland plant species that are better adapted to future climate conditions; and (iii) how to develop and implement strategies that will reduce the severity and impacts of future wildfire occurrences to native bottomland ecosystems. VSWCD is teaming up with partners to address these challenges, and District Director Andrew Hautzinger will provide an overview of these efforts.

Cetan Christensen, Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority

As a result of anthropogenic alterations in hydrology in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG), there is a notable decline in overbank flooding and hydrologic connectivity, which has resulted in degraded habitat for wildlife. Many efforts have been made to address the impacts to wildlife, specifically, for the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. Historically, MRG restoration sites for the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow have been designed for floodplain inundation at flows of 1,500+ cubic feet per second (cfs), though recent data suggests these flows are not being achieved at the necessary frequency and timing for the species. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s (Water Authority) Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP) Outfall Restoration Project (project) is a habitat enhancement project that uses recent hydrology to determine the appropriate design to create sufficient conditions of inundation for the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow.

The project design incorporates a novel overbank flow criterion for habitat development for the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow, that is reflective of modern hydrology due to climate change and current water management practices. The determination of the project design features was done by analyzing a USGS stream gage in the project area for the site hydrology and typical peak design flows. The results show that bank lowering must achieve inundation at flows of 900 cfs for the habitat requirements of the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow, which includes floodplain inundation for a period of 1-6 weeks during the May – July spawning period, and depths of inundation at 1.5 feet over the project area. The methods of analysis for the project design may provide an opportunity to adapt and improve function of future restoration sites in the MRG to better meet goals for management of the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow under modern hydrologic conditions.

Cait Rottler, Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.

Climate change is a growing challenge for land and natural resource managers in the Middle Rio Grande Valley. Climate data are readily available in the region for a variety of uses. Less available is information about using climate data effectively in decision-making. This presentation will begin by briefly introducing available climate data and suggesting available resources for understanding and applying them, including regional Climate Hubs and Climate Adaptation Science Centers. It will then provide examples of how climate change is being integrated into regional management decisions, using the State Wildlife Action Plan as well as the climate adaptation planning framework Bosque del Apache NWR has assisted in developing as examples. This talk is intended to encourage more widespread use of climate change information in the Rio Grande Valley by providing attendees with a better understanding of how climate information can be used, awareness of resources available to assist in its use, and on-the-ground examples of current use.

Martha Schumann Cooper, The Nature Conservancy

Rivers in the Southwest are stressed by climate change, diminishing water supply and the demands we place on them. Addressing this challenge – providing enough water for people and water for nature – requires us to think and work at scales that matter. In developing solutions, we must incorporate the underlying ecosystem processes that determine how – or whether - these systems function. Rivers across our state share some overarching similarities and challenges. In NM, TNC has focused our freshwater work on protecting and restoring flows of the Gila and San Juan Rivers, tributaries to the Colorado River. TNC’s Colorado River Program supports and amplifies conservation work across business unit and state boundaries, collaborating across the whole system. An on-going project that demonstrates the power of collective efforts is the Jicarilla Apache Nation water sharing project with NM ISC and TNC. Additionally, in partnership with the Navajo Nation and the San Juan Recover Program, TNC has applied for funding to designing an aquatic habitat restoration project. On the Pecos and Rio Grande TNC has engaged in other initiatives designed to have impact at scale and examine the underlying conditions contributing to management challenges. Looking at the work happening across the CO River Basin and New Mexico, we have opportunities to learn and adapt amidst increased water scarcity.

Thomas Archdeacon, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, New Mexico Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office

Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Hybognathus amarus (RGS minnow) is a small, short-lived cyprinid dependent on spring runoff for successful reproduction. Reducing the effects of drought and channel drying is important for 1) improving juvenile fish survival in successful recruitment years and 2) improving adult survival in years when recruitment is poor so that enough fish survive to spawn the following year. Currently, the species relies heavily on augmentation with hatchery-produced fish to compensate for years with low or failed reproduction. Development of novel management options to reduce the effects of drought and channel drying are important for preserving genetic diversity and the ability of the species to recover quickly from disturbances. Irrigation flow returns or irrigation infrastructure may be used to reduce channel drying. Optimizing limited amounts of water involves a tradeoff among delivery locations and delivery timing. We investigated how to prioritize locations to deliver limited water to benefit RGS minnow within a single irrigation season. We identified areas of higher RGS minnow relative abundance in the main channel where targeted return flows could improve the summer survival of RGS minnow. In the San Acacia Reach, the Socorro Hub area had higher abundance of adult RGS minnow; upstream of the Socorro Hub young-of-year RGS minnow were in higher abundance compared to surrounding areas. In some years, > 50% of stranded RGS minnow could have been protected with targeted flows that reduced drying by 25%. However, because RGS minnow are widespread, non-selective of perennial habitats, and have very low abundance in some years, small environmental flows may not be effective at increasing summer survival of a meaningful number of fish. Future analyses should quantify flow-habitat relationships and incorporate multi-year strategies to forecast the best uses of available water depending on expected flow conditions and life-stage targeted.

Martinique J. Chavez, Department of Watershed Sciences & The Ecology Center, American Southwest Ichthyological Researchers

Unfettered movement among habitats is crucial for fish to access patchily distributed resources and complete their life history, but many riverscapes in the American Southwest are highly fragmented by dams. The federally endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus, RGSM) persists in a fragmented remnant of its former range (ca. 95% range reduction), and its movement has not been extensively quantified. The overall goal of this study is to document and better understand the movement ecology and patterns of RGSM. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags in hatchery-reared RGSM with stationary and mobile PIT tag antenna systems to detect and track movement patterns across time and space. We used a mark-recapture approach and developed a multistate model to estimate transition probabilities of RGSM among fragmented reaches. We detected 36.8% of released RGSM (n = 37,215) making at least one movement. We found RGSM to be highly mobile and documented individuals moving farther distances than ever previously recorded. Individuals moved a mean total distance of 12.2 river kilometers (rkm) over the course of one year, with a maximum total distance of 106.0 rkm. Overall, RGSM demonstrated higher downstream transition probabilities than upstream; however, individuals released in the winter season had higher upstream transition probabilities than those released in the spring season. Notably, we documented a total of 198 unique upstream passages through a diversion dam that is not equipped with a formal fish passage structure. As indicated by the high number of repeated detections over the study period, as well as our high redetection rate, the efficacy of our study design to detect and quantify RGSM movement metrics can help define the spatiotemporal scale of recovery efforts and ultimately maximize resource efficiency by directing these efforts where they are most likely to benefit RGSM.

Megan Osborne, University of New Mexico

Human water use combined with a recent megadrought have reduced river and stream flow through the southwest United States. Reductions in snowmelt runoff and increased extent of drying collectively threaten the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus). This species is subject to boom-and-bust population dynamics, under which large fluctuations in abundance are expected to lower estimates of effective population size and erode genetic diversity over time. Monitoring genetic effective population size has been widely advocated in conservation programs because it is an important predictor of adaptive potential. Until 2022, the trajectory of genetic diversity (including allelic richness, heterozygosity, and effective population size) in Rio Grande Silvery Minnow was measured annually using nine microsatellite loci and a mtDNA gene. In 2023, microsatellite markers were replaced by a Genotyping-in-Thousands by sequencing (GT-seq) panel containing 283 loci distributed throughout the genome. We used the GT-seq panel to genotype samples from 1987, 2000-2012, 2015-2023; spanning a period of almost four decades and characterized by dramatic fluctuations in population size. Population declines associated with drought (2012-2014) and augmentation-assisted recovery resulted in notable shifts in allele frequencies across the time-series. There were periodic increases in inbreeding metrics and reduced heterozygosity in some years. Mitochondrial DNA sequences recovered from NextRAD data (1999-2018) revealed reductions in mitochondrial diversity associated with this multiyear population bottleneck. Between 2016 and 2022, allele frequencies were stable; reflected by larger effective population size estimates. In 2023, linkage disequilibrium effective population size declined. The panel includes a sex-specific marker, revealing roughly equal sex ratio in the wild population across the time-series.

Kate Tillotson, Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.

Declines in the abundance and diversity of pollinator communities represent an important challenge, with the potential to alter the structure and function of natural ecosystems. Species with ranges that stretch throughout New Mexico and the Middle Rio Grande Valley such as Morrison Bumblebee (Bombus morrisoni) and the Large Marble Butterfly (Euchloe ausonides ausonides) have been petitioned for listing with the Endangered Species Act due to declines in population. However, state listing for pollinators is limited or absent and pollinator species within the Middle Rio Grande Valley that are imperiled are likely underestimated. Many pollinator species have been understudied due to their diversity, rarity, the restrictive nature of their range, or their reliance on specific host plants. As a result, interest in mitigating these losses through adaptive management is increasing both for individual species and whole pollinator communities. Here, we review the current state of the science for monitoring pollinator populations and quantifying their response to alterations in land management. Methods continue to evolve in recent years, and we comment on the experimental design and statistical considerations involved in pollinator monitoring. Lastly, we discuss recent advances in environmental DNA methods which show strong potential for complementing traditional surveys and improving our understanding of pollinator species occupancy and habitat associations.

Aubrey Harris, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Engineer Research and Development Center-Environmental Laboratory

Since the early 1900s, the US government and state-level agencies throughout the southwest have invested ambitiously and prolifically on large-scale engineering projects to mitigate risks due to alternating conditions of drought and flood. These approaches included construction-intensive methods, particularly building dams, levees, and river channelization. The combination of these structures met design goals to reduce flood risk by reducing inundated areas and improving river conveyance. However, the impacts to sediment supply and homogenization of water discharge have generated a geomorphic response that has impacted riparian ecosystems. Channel narrowing, floodplain disconnection, and streambed erosion have been common in these heavily engineered semi-arid river systems.

Due to increased prioritization of ecological function and cost of recurring maintenance challenges, government activities have shifted from hardened river infrastructure solutions to engineering with nature, habitat restoration, and channel maintenance. However, in contrast to hard-engineering projects, habitat management faces challenges in demonstrating longevity, engineering effectiveness, and quantifying habitat quality improvement.

This presentation characterizes the geomorphic change that has occurred in one of these highly engineered river systems, the Rio Grande, and how observed trends impact assumptions about restoration effectiveness and project scales. We present an alternative framework to assess long-term restoration efficacy within the context of geomorphic change. The intention is to increase project resilience and effectiveness. We discuss challenges to innovation in over-allocated and highly engineered river systems, while also demonstrating how such alternatives have economic potential and reduce liabilities by reducing recurring maintenance and improving ecological function. This work was presented at the 2023 Sediment Hydrology Federal Interagency Conference and funded by the US Army Corps’ MRGESCP.

Ari Posner, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

This presentation will elaborate a method to use hi-resolution 2D hydraulic modeling and a long-term hydrologic record to evaluate the area of wetland under existing conditions, and that will likely develop after implementation of a bank lowering, side channel, embayment, or other excavation type project. This will help to identify possible mitigation areas as required by Section 404 of the CWA. Predicting the extent of wetlands that will occur in the future is a very difficult task and requires a combination of scientific investigation and professional judgement. The strategy outlined is based on regulatory guidance provided by the Army Corps of Engineers and represents a quantitative assessment that can be used to inform decision-making.

Natalie Nunez, Unity Environmental University

Historically, flooding events in the Middle Rio Grande have helped to manage accumulated fuel load. With fewer flooding events today, the fuel load accumulation in this area increased with more woody debris and leaf litter. This increased fuel load could have an impact on the quality of habitat for species that rely on native cottonwood canopy for nesting. This project investigates the influence of fuel load in the Middle Rio Grande on cottonwood canopy, which provides nesting habitat for raptors and the endangered yellow billed-cuckoo. Through a partnership with Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program, this project will collect current data between October 2023 and November 2023 on woody debris trends that contribute to fuel load in the bosque. Stick nests surveys will also be conducted and plotted on a map to visualize where nests were observed in relation to areas with high fuel load. This map will also be used to determine where favorable canopy habitat occurs for yellow billed-cuckoos and the proximity of those areas to high fuel load to provide guidance on areas which would benefit from fuel load management intervention. It is expected that areas with favorable nesting canopy may be near areas of high fuel load as a denser area of canopy trees like cottonwoods produce increased amounts of woody debris and leaf litter.

Smriti Chaulagain, University of New Mexico; Tetra Tech, Inc.

Due to prolonged drought and engineered structures (dams), river systems are at higher risk of degradation. Riparian vegetation and river geomorphology are continuously changing. The change in river hydrology, geomorphology and riparian vegetation have cascading impacts on other ecological aspects of the river corridor system. This study performed a spatiotemporal analysis of the riparian vegetation and the river morphology using Google Earth Engine (GEE) by implementation of the machine learning techniques (random forest). The study was done along Middle Rio Grande, located at New Mexico, USA. We used normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the land cover classification for determining the change in vegetation cover and river morphology using Landsat images (1984 to 2020) collected from Landsat 5, 7 and 8. The trends of NDVI showed the increase in vegetation cover even with persistence drought due to presence of groundwater dependent vegetations such as cottonwood. Similarly, the formation of new stable island, narrowing of the channel are some major observations and change in channel. These long-term observations provide insights into the riparian ecosystem dynamics under the stress of drought providing valuable information for ecosystem management in arid and semi-arid environment.

Thomas Archdeacon, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The study of reproductive phenology through ovarian development can help answer a wide range of questions in the management of imperiled species. For fishes, baseline reproductive timing information may be used to guide water management strategies to enhance recruitment or stimulate spawning. The peak of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow spawning is generally the middle of May and has been inferred from the appearance of larvae and eggs in the river. Our specific objectives were to document the reproductive and spawning seasons of both wild and hatchery-stocked female Rio Grande Silvery Minnow through macroscopic and histological examination of ovarian tissue to improve water management decisions. We used a series of monthly to weekly tissue collections made from late winter through early autumn to describe the reproductive cycle of both wild and hatchery-reared Rio Grande Silvery Minnow collected from the Rio Grande. The proportion of spawning-capable females was very low before April and after mid-June. The highest proportion of spawning-capable females occurs during the month of May. A corresponding peak in regressing females follows in July and August, with most females in the regenerating phase by July. We observed very little differences between hatchery-stocked and wild fish and between two different release seasons of hatchery fish. Instead, inter-annual variation among years was more significant and likely reflected environmental conditions. Water management decisions should consider the intended effects (stimulate spawning or enhance recruitment), the reproductive readiness of the population, and antecedent environmental and water storage conditions to achieve the desired management outcome.

Saul Ortiz Tena, University of New Mexico and Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program

The channelization of the Rio Grande, along with climate change, has changed the riparian ecosystem into a declining corridor that is a fraction of what it once was. BEMP (Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program) provides opportunities for students of all levels to experience monitoring efforts firsthand to aid in managing this ecosystem. During the summer of 2023, we monitored a recent burn scar and two reforestation projects. At the burn scar, complete canopy defoliation provided a new landscape for exotics, primarily Russian olive and saltcedar. Understory cover is of concern as there is little to no vegetation regrowth, even after two years. Another concern is the lack of canopy trees returning; Siberian elm was not observed and the cottonwoods were barely coming back as resprouts. The reforestation efforts saw varying degrees of success; the two sites observed were pole planting projects, where the students assessed success. It was noted that cottonwoods were performing better in relation to their proximity to the river, completely dying off at 60m from the river and gradually doing better towards the banks. The planted cottonwoods were not faring well, which may be indicative of further monitoring needs or a need to change how projects are implemented.

Jonathan AuBuchon, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Historical flooding and sedimentation on the Middle Rio Grande created dynamic adjustments necessitating numerous flood control projects, including placement of levees to laterally constrain the river, to make the land arable and safeguard the surrounding communities. While the planforms of historical channel locations from as early as 1918 have been mapped, the impact of sequential deposition patterns, especially regarding grain size, on the movement of groundwater is not as well known. Current active channel locations are known to consist of coarser material than their correlated floodplain deposits, so it is probable that a similar distribution of grain sizes lies in the historical channels that are now buried under much finer deposits. The correlation of coarser sediment deposits and the historical channel locations was investigated by evaluating drilling logs along the existing levee systems in Albuquerque and a geospatial database collected during the 2019 spring-snow melt runoff that identified locations where levee integrity problems existed. Preliminary findings suggest that 2019 locations that had seepage related levee problems were correlated with active channel locations from 1918, 1935, and 1949. While not as strong a correlation, a little over half of the 2019 locations were correlated with coarser material present at the elevation of the current riverside drain and/or active channel locations. While the evaluation was focused on a flood control nexus because of the observable links, it does suggest an increased groundwater connection through coarser sediment deposits along historical active channel locations. While more research is warranted, a restoration feature focus on historical active channel locations may be worth the consideration, potentially improving soil moisture and groundwater connectivity that are listed as areas of uncertainties for the conceptual ecological models for endangered species.

Adrian Oglesby, University of New Mexico Utton Transboundary Resources Center

The Middle Rio Grande Conservation Action Plan (MRGCAP) is based on a collaborative planning process initiated by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and Natural Heritage New Mexico at UNM in 2015 with many collaborators assisting original planning and review process resulting in a “Framework and Status Assessment” report for MRG riparian ecosystems in 2019. The purpose of the plan is to help resource managers, Pueblos, and others working in the Middle Rio Grande gain a greater understanding of the status and direction of key conservation targets within the following Rio Grande riparian and aquatic ecosystems: riparian and wetland communities, native bird habitat and wildlife corridors, native fish communities, and values of ditch and drain habitats outside the main corridor. Since 2019, we have updated the trends analysis by major reach, which suggests that strategies could be developed that lead to further improvements within the ecosystem. With help from a myriad of generous contributors, we are now incorporating more recent research, monitoring, modeling, and analysis of the landscape context that the conservation targets depend upon, plus predicted future conditions under climate change resulting in a guidebook for our work. Our vision is that by having a pulse on the Middle Rio Grande as whole through this reiterative planning process will constructively inform the work we all do. Look for opportunities in 2024 to contribute to, review, and comment on the guide.

Michael Van Laeken, Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.

There is currently an industry-wide lack of empirical data to measure the environmental co-benefits provided by the restoration and maintenance of regionally appropriate sustainable vegetation within local ecosystems. To help address this data gap, WEST has developed rapid assessment methods that can be integrated into the Society for Ecological Restoration’s (SER) Ecological Recovery Wheel framework to measure and communicate changes in environmental co-benefits and monitor the progress of a project towards achieving restoration success. These assessment methods offer a simple, practical, inexpensive, and scientifically defensible approach to aid in monitoring restoration success and understanding co-benefits. WEST is currently field testing and refining these methods, collecting data at a number of projects across the US. These pilot studies are providing quantitative and qualitative data on baseline conditions and ecosystem health and functions. After restoration, we will compare baseline conditions to interim and post-restoration conditions to assess whether ecosystem health and function has been maintained or has improved as a result of the project and project restoration initiatives. Data collection for these metrics involves ecological assessments and surveys, including a combination of desktop analyses and rapid field surveys, to efficiently generate consistent data at a pre-determined frequency for each project. For easy communication with project stakeholders, data will also be reported using an interactive data visualization tool. The tool is designed to display project-specific metrics alongside environmental co-benefits for pre-, interim, and post-restoration site conditions. Interim and post-restoration monitoring of a project’s natural resources can provide empirical data which supports the use of certain sustainable restoration strategies. Continued monitoring offers environmental co-benefits to local ecosystems within and adjacent to projects, resulting from restoring and maintaining sustainable vegetation. WEST’s work integrating rapid assessment methods with the SER Ecological Recovery Wheel also acts as a case study that can be used broadly to help inform robust, efficient, and affordable monitoring efforts, including efforts in the Middle Rio Grande.

Carolyn Ronning, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

The Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (LCR MSCP) is a habitat based conservation program where uncertainty is an unavoidable component of creating and managing species habitats. The Federal and non-Federal partnership was created to balance the use of the Colorado River water resources with the conservation of native species and their habitats. The program works toward the recovery of species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act. It also reduces the likelihood of additional species listings. Implemented over a 50-year period, the program accommodates current water diversions and power production, and will optimize opportunities for future water and power development along 400 miles of the Colorado River by providing Endangered Species Act compliance through the implementation of a Habitat Conservation Plan. The LCR MSCP addresses uncertainties and changed conditions through an adaptive management approach that allows conservation measures to be adjusted over time based on the results of monitoring and research. Adaptive management provides a greater measure of certainty that Habitat Conservation Plan goals for covered species are achieved over the long-term. The process gauges the effectiveness of existing conservation measures, proposes alternative or modified conservation measures as the need arises, addresses changing and unforeseen circumstances, and ensures conservation measures are implemented in a biologically effective and cost efficient manner.