The recently completed barrier on Alamitos Creek suffered a major setback in early August when the creek was hit by major flooding.  According to Arnold Atkins, the flood washed out the gabion structure after filling it with dirt, rocks, and debris from upstream, diverting the entire creek, which is still in flood, through the hole in the gabion and down the native creekbed into the La Sierra Acequia a few hundred yards downstream.
This barrier was put into place to protect a population of pure Rio Grande cutthroats …

If you haven’t had a chance to fishing Comanche Creek in the Valle Vidal, you owe it to yourself to get up there.  TU spent $100,000 installing a barrier and working with the state and federal agencies to restore the native Rio Grande cutthroats in the stream.  It’s now been a year since the the cutts have been reintroduced and I’m glad to report they are doing well.  The biggest factor may be the removal of the overwhelming number of non-native white suckers from the stream.  There are fish holding …

TAOS, NM — Sportsmen commended U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan Tuesday for introducing legislation in the House of Representatives to permanently protect 236,000 acres of prime hunting and angling habitat along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico.
The measure, a companion to the Río Grande Del Norte National Conservation Area Establishment Act sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman and co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall in the Senate, would protect an area of public land surrounding the Wild and Scenic-designated Rio Grande …

Over the last few weeks, some very serious and completely untrue allegations have been leveled at Trout Unlimited here in New Mexico regarding the San Juan and New Mexico House Bill 51, which failed in the New Mexico Legislature last month after it ran out of time in the short legislative session.
It is obvious to those of us who fish the river that the San Juan has been in decline over the last decade and is in serious need of restoration efforts. Because of this decline, last year TU …

The annual Gila Trout Recovery Team meeting was held on December 17th in Albuquerque. This is a meeting where all the agencies and NGOs that work on Gila trout gather to review the work of past year, and the work plan for the next yer is laid out. There were several interesting items that came out of this year’s meeting that I’d like to share with you.
Regarding restoration efforts on the core conservation populations, the biggest project over the past several years has been the recovery of the …

TU’s conservation framework defines the biological imperative of the work of protecting the highest quality habitat for wild and native fish, and reconnecting that and other habitat to other areas through restoration.
This framework’s social imperative is to assure that our efforts endure
and are sustained over time.
Protect:
Form partnerships with sportsmen, conservationists, land trusts and state and federal agencies to protect public and private lands from unwise development. Protect generic integrity of native fish and engage national efforts to protect imperiled stocks.
Reconnect:
Lead campaigns to promote water conservation and maximize instream flows. …

Over the past 7 years various organizations andagencies have come together to help restore Rio Grande cutthroat trout (RGCT) habitat along Comanche Creek. Here is a chance for you to contribute to this important effort.
If you can’t come Friday, still come on Saturday. Rio Gande cutts are in the stream once again for fishing. Free camping is available.
Details and registration with Quivira Coalition here:
http://quiviracoalition.org/Workshops___Events/index.html
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The first segment of the large Rio Costilla project was completed today as the  NM Department of Game and Fish, the federal agencies, and volunteers from TU stocked out the first batch of Rio Grande Cutthroat.  Kevin Reilly participated in the stocking, and hopefully he’ll have some pictures next week.
TU has contributed over $100,000 and countless hours to this project.
Here is the press release from NMDGF:
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It’s still a tenuous existence for Gila trout. Even thought they were downlisted from “endangered” to “threatened” a couple years ago, there are still so few populations that fish need to be helicoptered out to avoided the ash flows resulting from wildfire.
A couple years ago, fish from the Whiskey Creek lineage were quickly transported to another creek under threat of wildfire.  Hopefully, a sustainable replicate population of the Whiskey Creek fish can be established, or that population may be lost.
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Lots of information is flying around about the San Juan below Navajo Dam these days. Unfortunately, almost none of it is grounded in hard scientific data.
Before anyone takes action on the San Juan, a science-based study needs to take place to determine what is changing about the river and what steps might be prudent to correct those problems.
I think pretty much everyone who has watched the San Juan over the last decade would agree that the river is changing. Is that change the result of oil and gas development and …