Judge Orders Habitat
Declared For Minnow

SANTA FE, N.M. — In a decision that will result in major changes in water and land-use in New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande valley, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for an officially "endangered" minnow this month.

Judge John Conway ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the Rio Grande silvery minnow by March 22.

The decision ends more than five years of controversy in which the Fish and Wildlife Service did not designate critical habitat at the request of a Santa Fe-based environmental activist group, the Forest Guardians.

The designation of 170 miles of river from Cochiti Dam to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Dam ignores other areas of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Texas that are vital to the recovery of the species, according to John Horning of the Forest Guardians.

Forest Guardians and other activist groups say they plan to expand the habitat designation to other parts of the Rio Grande and Pecos River that once provided habitat for the silvery minnow and other fish and wildlife. The order comes on the heels of a 60-day notice of intent to sue filed by a coalition of environmental groups who claim that diversion dams, water management, levees and irrigation canals in the 170 mile stretch are endangering the minnow and the Southwestern willow flycatcher.

The State of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque and the City of Santa Fe are challenging the designation, claiming that the analysis of the economic effects of the designation failed to address numerous factors.

On Feb. 24, the State of New Mexico also attempted to intervene in the current lawsuit, a move that comes almost three years after Forest Guardians and Defenders of Wildlife initiated the lawsuit.