Canadian River: Alamita Canyon

Canadian River Canyon, NM, 2021 This planting of willow, cottonwood and Gooddings willow within the Canadian River Canyon follows years of previous restoration efforts along the river. Rio Grande Return has been involved in restoration along the Canadian River beginning in Mills Canyon with a 2019 planting project, followed by another round of planting in … Continue reading Canadian River: Alamita Canyon

Bosque del Apache

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, San Antonio, NM, 2021 2021 removal of salt cedar and Russian olive from 362 acres of palustrine emergent wetland, floodplain forest, and floodplain savannah, including screwbean mesquite wet meadow. Restoring this habitat will provide important forage and habitat for the waterbirds, shorebirds and raptors of the Bosque del Apache. Salt cedar and Russian olive trees … Continue reading Bosque del Apache

Redondo Meadow

Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM Goals of this project include improving alluvial fan function and wet meadow/wetland health, mitigating fire impacts, stabilizing the degrading channel, improving water quality, and re-establishing and protecting riparian vegetation. Funding for this work was provided by The Nature Conservancy and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and was … Continue reading Redondo Meadow

State Land Office: Rio Grande Bosque

Bernalillo County, NM This extraction of non-native trees is a continuation of previous years of restoration efforts along the west side of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque aimed at removing non-native species, restoring native vegetation, and increasing ecosystem resilience to fire disturbance, flood, disease, and other climate change related impacts. Using an excavator, we removed … Continue reading State Land Office: Rio Grande Bosque

Canadian River: Mills Canyon

Kiowa National Grassland, NM Phase 1, 2019 One of our biggest planting areas from 2019 below the iconic Shiprock formation. The cottonwood and willow are exploding with vigor, thanks in part to a beaver dam just downstream of this site. Photo taken 8/23/21. This massive revegetation project was completed in partnership with NM Department of … Continue reading Canadian River: Mills Canyon