Coming up Friday: Listening to the Gila

More than four years ago, the Our Land crew visited the Gila River to report on plans to divert water from the upper reaches of the river. This diversion was part of a controversial plan to use millions of dollars in federal money for development rather than focusing that funding on restoration and efficiency projects. 

I’ve spent many years reporting on the proposed diversion for print, online, and radio outlets. I wrote about the river’s hydrograph, the history of water development in southwestern New Mexico, and its endangered species. I interviewed biologists, conservationists, farmers, politicians, and water experts, and went to tons of public meetings (where once, quite uhhh…memorably, a state official yelled at me). 

The 2019 Our Land segment was one of the last times I reported on the diversion. 

That’s because the project fell apart that year after the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior refused to grant an extension to project proponents and planners, who after spending five years and $20 million still hadn’t come up with a viable plan for the diversion. Once in office, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also yanked support for the project, but it was the Trump administration’s move that really killed the diversion. 

That 2019 Our Land piece, which you can still watch, holds a special place in my heart—and so it was pretty awesome to head back to the Gila this summer and revisit the river, including the stretch that would have been forever changed had the diversion been built. 

Our new show, which was funded in part by The Water Desk—a journalism initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism—will air on Friday night. For now, you can watch a sneak peek on YouTube or Instagram.

Thanks for reading—see you Friday night on New Mexico in Focus! 

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