Rio Grande Bosque
Fires and encroachment notwithstanding, recent events have given scientists and local residents alike hope for positive change in the bosque's future. By garnering national attention, funding has been obtained to clear invasive exotic species from large sections of the bosque. Where possible, levees and other flood control devices along the Rio Grande are being removed, to allow the river to undergo its natural cycle. Also, over the last decade, a program known as Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP), started by Dr. Cliff Crawford of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has gathered value data that monitors the change in ecological factors within the bosque. This data is invaluable to better understand where the future of this ecosystem is heading.
Most importantly, heavy precipitation in the spring and summer of 2005 doubled the flow in the river, scouring invasive species off sandbars, stirring up sediments, and overflowing the banks in many places. Much of the Southwest had experienced upwards of 4 inches (100 mm) of rain above average by June. Scientists hope this may be an early sign of the end of the drought that has long plagued the region. In the bosque, this trend means moist, nutrient rich soil that the cottonwood seedlings need to take root and more habitat for the endangered silvery minnow and Southwestern willow flycatcher.
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“I hear ... foreigners, who would boycott an employer if he hired a colored workman, complain of wrong and oppression, of low wages and long hours, clamoring for eight-hour systems ... ah, come with me, I feel like saying, I can show you workingmen’s wrong and workingmen’s toil which, could it speak, would send up a wail that might be heard from the Potomac to the Rio Grande; and should it unite and act, would shake this country from Carolina to California.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)