Environmental Flows

eflows-report-cover-jpeg_page_01.jpg2025 Environmental Flows Workshop Report

A selection from the 2025 Environmental Flows Workshop Report's Introduction: 

The term environmental flows means different things to different people. For example, environmental flows might refer to the science underpinning instream flow recommendations; or environmental flows might refer to the tools used to legally allocate water to rivers; or it might most broadly refer to the question, “how much water does a river need to stay alive?” Workshop presentations and discussions covered all these topics and others.

On May 1st, 2025, the Utton Transboundary Center, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and Western Resources Advocates, hosted a one-day workshop on environmental flows in New Mexico. The workshop was held at Albuquerque’s Rio Grande Nature Center in the floodplain of the Rio Grande. Over the course of a full day, individuals representing nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), state and federal agencies, universities and others reviewed the status of environmental flows in the state, shared experiences working with tools to promote flows for the environment in New Mexico and discussed future opportunities to expand the scope and scale of the practice.

20250501_142203.jpgParticipants meeting on the grounds of the Rio Grande Nature Center
while at the 2025 Environmental Flows Workshop.

Authors and Acknowledgements

Authors

Adrian Oglesby
Anjali Bean
Martha Cooper
David Pílz

Utton Center Staff

Adrian Oglesby
Rin Tara
Claire Conrad
Sairis Perez-Gomez

Utton Center Student Research Assistants

Katherine Walton
Vanessa Springer

Workshop Participant Acknowledgements

Thank you to all who attended the 2025 workshop. It would not have been a success without your many contributions. Thank you: Aiden Manning, Amelia Barrow, Andrew Hautzinger, Anjali Bean, Aron Balok, Barney Austin, Bob McCrea, Brian Richter, Casey Ish, Colleen Cunningham, Dagmar Llewellyn, Eliza Gilbert, Elle Benson, Emily Wolf, Grace Haggerty, Jack Marchetti, Jill Wick, Karen Menetrey, Kelli Goodpasture, Kristina Fisher, Laura Paskus, Martha Cooper, Pam Horner, Patrick McCarthy, Paul Tashjian, Peter Russell, Quinn Martine, Rex Meyers, Steve Harris, Toner Mitchell, Tricia Snyder, Tucker Davidson, and Tyler Lytash.