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Watershed
Santa Fe River & Watershed
Stretches of the Santa Fe River are some of the community’s most lush parks. In Santa Fe, the river is in fact the most direct link between districts four, three, two, and one with downtown Santa Fe, including the Railyard District, by alternative means of transportation.
A Living River
- A living river is one that supports life and is the clearest expression of a healthy watershed. Life depends on water, and water in a high desert environment is perhaps the most valuable resource
- A living river in a high desert environment is a corridor that carries ephemeral flows (dependent on variable weather patterns)
- Between intermittent flows, refuge pools in a living river are critical to the survival of biological organisms (like fish, birds, and insects)
- A living river in this highly variable environment is also subject to flood regimes that create the conditions under which many plant and animal species reproduce, including New Mexico’s most important riparian tree, the cottonwood
- In an urban setting, a living river’s flood regime must be balanced with a municipality’s need to protect the community from floods
- If connected to its watershed (including an urban community’s storm water system that encourages infiltration), a living river may be a perennially wetted corridor on which plants roots depend, in which animals take refuge, and from which humans draw sustenance and enjoyment
- A living river has a bed and banks of dirt in which plants roots can grow and is accessible to passersby, since the distance between the river bank and river bed is not too great
- A living river that experiences regular, if intermittent, flows, that has a wetted bed, and that supports a healthy plant community resists down-cutting and severe erosion
- A living river needs room to meander as the nature of rivers is stability in lateral mobility, which is possible in limited reaches of the Santa Fe River
- A living river connects varied ecological communities as it connects diverse human neighborhoods
- A living river provides a rich environment for children’s play, for youthful exploration of the outdoors and serves as open space that links neighborhoods and parks and places of work
- A living river is a refuge for all in the community—free of trash and illegal activity
- A living river is a treasured resource cherished by its community
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