ISSUE 12-18-21 WILDLIFE WILL SOON HAVE CONTINUITY OF HABITAT IN BOSQUE PRESERVE

 That effluent would provide a perennial four to five million gallons a day.

The sewage treatment plant has operated with a discharge permit to send effluent to the river through a pipeline that runs along the flood control channel.

A grader, two front-end loaders and dump trucks worked the riverbank area  between the Jones channel and the river in mid-November to create two paths for stormwater to follow on its way to the river. During major storm events when large quantities of water are pouring through the arroyo, the water would be directed more or less immediately to the river, while during lesser storms, the water would go to a more meandering, distributive channel.

Once the earthwork is completed, trees and other vegetation will be planted, probably in early spring.

Destruction of bosque habitat in 2008-10 from clearing of vegetation along the Corrales Riverside Drain (“Clear Ditch”) and east of the levee triggered intense interest in setting safeguards against future loss.

Over the summer of 2008, three different efforts were under way to bring wildlife needs into consideration when projects such as fire hazard reduction and Riverside Drain maintenance were proposed.

Two of the plans were submitted to the council September 9, 2008. One was a draft by Findley. The other which incorporated the Findley plan was developed by Anita Walsh, a strong opponent of the clear-cutting done along the Riverside Drain that spring.

A third, even more detailed, plan was produced by the Corrales Bosque Advisory Commission (CBAC).

The Findley draft for a management plan was mostly in outline at that time, and was based on a vegetation classification map similar to one produced in 1984 by two biologists, V.O. Hink and R.D. Ohmart.

Findley recommended an attempt be made to “assign acceptable use categories for each vegetation type. Some types might be ‘hands off under all circumstances.’ Some might be ‘limited alteration allowable for specific purposes’ (such as wetland creation). Some might be ‘limited clearing allowable if demonstrably critical for public safety.’”

The Village’s Corrales Bosque Preserve Ordinance No. 234 states  that the designated bosque is “to be protected in order to preserve its natural character for the use and enjoyment  of the residents of the village in such manner as will leave it unimpaired for future use and enjoyment in its natural and protected condition.”

Villagers were dismayed at the habitat loss that occurred in the bosque and along its western perimter this past spring. (See I Vol. XXVII, No. 2, March 8, 2008 “Clear Ditch Tree Cutting Stirs Villagers’ Protest.”)

In the aftermath of the public outcry that spring over the excessive clearing that had taken place, then-Village Councillor Sayre Gerhart suggested that a wildlife habitat plan be developed for the preserve. Findley agreed to work on such a plan.

The Rio Grande Conservancy District  (MRGCD) board of directors got a presentation on the Bosque Advisory Commission’s Habitat Management Plan February 13, 2012.

Bosque commissioners had sought such an opportunity for months. (See Corrales Comment’s nine-part series of articles starting Vol.XXVIII, No.7, May 23, 2009, “Bosque Preserve Habitat Plan Now Available”)

Management responsibility for the Corrales bosque had been contentious  for decades. On more than one occasion, the MRGCD attorney had fired off brusque legal challenges to Village proposals affecting district property which includes irrigation and drainage ditches and basically all of the riverside forest.

Village government has never claimed ownership of the bosque which it dedicated as a nature preserve in 1986.  But over the decades, MRGCD officials have concurred with Village proposals that the land be protected from abuses, that the municipality provide police and fire protection to the territory and that recreational and environmental values be enhanced.

The 2010 Habitat Management Plan, largely developed by Bosque Advisory Commission’s then-chairman, David Worledge, established what the community’s goals were for the preserve; it outlined fire protection measures and habitat improvements, and recommended restrictions on activities that would compromise those objectives.

Since its earliest years as an incorporated  municipality, Corrales has maintained a desire to manage and insure protection of the woodlands along its eastern fringe. Corrales Ordinance 61, dated November 18, 1975, noted that the Village’s annexation of the bosque had approval from the MRGCD and from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

That ordinance refers to the Conservancy District’s resolution on March 11, 1975 that concured with the Village’s annexation.

But MRGCD has repeatedly asserted that Village officials have no authority to pass ordinances that apply to district property without its expressed consent. That potential conflict intensified when the Village Council passed Ordinance 234 on October 23, 1990, “preserving and protecting the Corrales Bosque Preserve; prohibiting and making unlawful certain activities in the Corrales Bosque Preserve;…”

For the most part the “Corrales Bosque Preserve Ordinance” simply outlawed activities that the Conservancy District wanted to discourage anyway, such as littering, dumping, setting of fires and unauthorized excavations, and allowed the Corrales police department to enforce those laws.

In most, if not all, cases any Village-imposed restrictions were accompanied by legal terminology that said those rules in no way constrained the MRGCD and its crews from conducting their activities.

The 1990 ordinance said, for example, that “Law enforcement officers, fire department and emergency rescue unit personnel, authorized agents and employes of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, and other authorized officers, agents and employees of the federal, state and local governments, acting within the scope of their duties, shall be exempt from the provisions of Section 6-13-2” spelling out prohibited activities.