Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration: New Funding, and a Hard Lesson

The Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project has spent years partnering with landowners and ditch companies to heal the river through the upper San Luis Valley, one reach at a time. In January 2025, a $24.97 million federal award was announced for headwaters conservation and habitat work: about $18 million for Colorado projects such as the Alamosa Riverfront Restoration and Lower Conejos River work, and about $7 million for restoration on the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico.

The path of restoration is not always smooth. In February 2026, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed a large fish kill below Del Norte after a 7.2-mile stretch of the river was dried during construction of a canal diversion and headgate project; biologists estimated three to five years for the fishery to recover. Both stories belong to the river’s honest record, and both ask the same of us: care, patience, and attention to the whole living system.

Sources: $24.97 million to support Rio Grande headwaters conservation (Alamosa Citizen via Coyote Gulch) · Large-scale fish kill on the Rio Grande (Alamosa Citizen via Coyote Gulch)