The Forgotten Reach

Below El Paso, the Rio Grande enters a stretch so often dry that it has earned a name: the Forgotten Reach, roughly 200 miles from the last irrigation district near old Fort Quitman down to Presidio, where Mexico’s Río Conchos joins and revives the river. Upstream dams and diversions have cut flows here by more than 70 percent, and without seasonal floods, salt cedar and giant cane have crowded out native cottonwoods and tornillos.

Inside Climate News reported in 2024 on scientists and advocates who believe local restoration efforts could be scaled up to bring flows back. This reach is a quiet reminder that the river is one body: what is taken upstream is missed below.

Sources: Holding out hope on the drying Rio Grande (Inside Climate News)