True West Magazine
The Courageous Life and Death of Oliver Loving
In 1867, beneath a bluff a few miles from Carlsbad, New Mexico, two Texas cattlemen one of them a trail-hardened 52-year-old, the other a 23-year-old roughneck were fighting for their lives, surrounded by a marauding party of Comanches. If recorded at all, such an event would have been no more than a blip on the historical calendar of the American West, but this one and its aftermath turned out to be one of the most amazing examples of courage, loyalty and sheer grit in all the annals of the frontier.
Weekly Fishing Report: May 5, 2021
Spring fishing conditions are underway in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
Streamflows are rising, especially in the Chama River above El Vado Lake. Lakes are warming up but still cold enough for trout to be cruising the shallows looking for food. Warmwater species like smallmouth bass and walleye are becoming more active. Insect hatches are happening, particularly the caddis hatch on the Rio Grande.
New Mexico State Parks are open to all visitors. Overnight camping is still by reservation only. Call 877.664.7787 for reservations. It is beneficial to check the state parks website for conditions at individual state parks when planning a trip to one of them: emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/FindaPark.html.
As drought settles in, public officials focus on little stuff
Sherry Robinson
When the governor addressed the Economic Forum, a business group, one inevitable question was about water. A developer didn’t think the Legislature had done anything for water, and nothing happens without water, he said. The governor referred vaguely to options, but she didn’t really answer the question.
Considering how grim the news is – the paltry snowpack, the shrinking reservoirs, the dire predictions – we might have seen some thoughtful new policy or creative legislation this year, but we didn’t. Water was an afterthought.
The only water bill passed and signed was HB 200. It does an about face on the controversial Gila River diversion project and invests the remaining $80 million in water infrastructure projects for southwestern New Mexico.
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More U.S. Rivers Deserve ‘Outstanding’ Designation
The Little Cimarron River runs through Colorado’s Uncompahgre Wilderness. Rivers in wilderness areas throughout the state are protected as Outstanding National Resource Waters and preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Bob Wick
BLM
In many American communities, rivers irrigate the farms that feed families, quench people’s thirst rivers are the source of more than two-thirds of the drinking water in the U.S. sustain wildlife habitat, and provide an economic boost for communities. Yet only a very small portion of those waterways are protected from threats ranging from pollution to damming, which would wreck the water’s natural flow.
Laura Paskus
By early April of 2018, the state s largest river, the Rio Grande, had already dried south of Albuquerque.
As much of New Mexico faces exceptional drought conditions, the Interstate Stream Commission authorized its chairman to ask the Department of Interior for financial support.
The commission approved delegating that authority to commission chairman during its meeting on Friday.
The chairman will work with State Engineer John D’Antonio to request funding for both long-term and short-term drought relief.
The short-term relief could be something like assistance for farmers, said ISC Director Rolf Schmidt-Peterson.
“Help them make it through this year so that the economic impacts are not so severe that they can no longer farm,” he said.