Small Fish, Small Farms, Common Goals

The sound of the water flowing through the pipes greeted me as I walked the ditch of our Polvadera farm.

Redwing blackbirds rose from the willows, bumblebees moved amongst the sunflowers, the slight breeze rustled the leaves of the cottonwoods, making ripples through the sudangrass. No genetically engineered crops in sight. Harmony on the farm.

My peaceful thoughts were interrupted as I glanced down and noticed a minnow flush through the pipe. Yikes, a minnow or perhaps some sewage from Rio Rancho.

Do I really want to know what is in this water? I do know that the Rio Grande is the livelihood of countless humans, plants, animals and insects, and irrefutable evidence states that this river is dying, overused, drying up, wasting away.

So, is it possible to continue to provide New Mexico with quality produce and keep the farming tradition alive? And is it possible to keep the minnows from extinction?

Yes, and it all starts with our common goal of saving this precious resource, the Rio Grande. With such a worthy goal there is no point in battling each other. I am a farmer and I am an environmentalist. I would not be farming if I did not care about the land.

Turning off the water to the farms is not an answer and not an option. Most farmers can ill afford to lose a single crop. One lost crop could mean ruin, forcing the farmer to sell their land.

Once the farm is sold, the price of the land skyrockets, and the water rights are purchased by a computer chip company. Companies, which to my knowledge, produce no edible products.

Farmers can save water by farming the soil. Creating good soil structure starts by adding plenty of organic matter. Organic matter breaks down into various compounds including different forms of humus.

Humus can hold the equivalent of 80 to 90 percent of its weight in water and humus can be destroyed by working soil that is too wet. Soil that is rich in humus is more drought-resistant.

Good soil structure is required to conduct moisture upward from reserves in lower soil layers. Healthier soil leads to better water retention.

The soil structure needs lot of work on our farm, yet I still only water every 3-4 weeks. By improving the quality of our soil we can water less often, leaving more water for the river.

The Rio Grande Silvery Minnow may or may not be suffering from low water flow in the river. It may be suffering from predatory fish such as catfish, trout and bass.

The larvae of the Silvery Minnow could be a meal for the mosquito fish, which eats the similar-sized larvae of the mosquito. Another question is whether or not this is the only species of minnow living in the Rio Grande.

The only way to identify the Silvery Minnow is by looking at its jawbone. Studies of this fish have been limited to just a few; hence maybe there are more questions than answers.

Obviously, not nearly enough research has been done. In order to protect this fish we need to increase our knowledge of this type of minnow.

Saving the minnow is one step towards saving the river, which brings us back to our common goal: preserving this precious waterway.

Solving this dilemma as New Mexicans, locally, not nationally, is another step in the right direction.

In the coming months there will be many ideas of how to better use the Rio Grande while preserving its ecosystem. I hope the common goal of saving this river will be in the forefront of everyone’s thoughts.

We have destroyed too much of the Rio Grande and the Bosque already. Without farmland, not only do we lose local food crops, but we lose much of the wildlife that relies on this open space. Without the minnow it is just one more sign that the river will soon be gone.

The Rio Grande community, which we are all a part of, deserves more than a slow death. It deserves our respect, our stewardship and our gratitude for giving much more than it receives in return.

Both for farmers and fish, we owe it to the river to keep it flowing.