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Rio Grande Floodplain

Ecoregion in NM

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Once containing a perennially flowing, meandering, braided river, the Rio Grande Floodplain ecoregion has undergone many human alterations to its landscape and hydrology over the past 400 years. The once-shifting Rio Grande had mosaics of riparian woodlands and shrublands along with a variety of wetland meadows, ponds, and marshes. The gallery forest, or bosque, of cottonwood and willow with understories of coyote willow, New Mexico olive, false indigo, and seepwillow depended on this dynamic system. A long history of irrigation and drainage canals, levees and jetty jacks, and upstream dams have altered river flows and narrowed and straightened the stream channel. Conversion to cropland, orchards, small rural farms and ranchos, and urban and suburban uses have also altered the region. Cottonwood and willow, dependent on spring flooding, have been widely replaced by invasive saltcedar and Russian olive.

— EPA

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