New Book: 'Reining in the Rio Grande: People, Land, and Water'

I just learned from friend Elaine Hebard that Reining in the Rio Grande: People, Land, and Water, has been published by the University of New Mexico Press. The authors are Fred Phillips, G. Emlen (Em) Hall, and Mary Black.

Phillips is the world-renowned hydrologist who heads the hydrology program at New Mexico Tech. Black has has worked as an anthropological linguist, editor/writer, and librarian for the University of Arizona and as editor of Southwest Hydrology. Hall (shown below) is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico and a former colleague of mine. Hall also wrote the acclaimed High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River.

From the book's WWW site:

The Rio Grande was ancient long before the first humans reached its banks. These days, the highly regulated river looks nothing like it did to those early settlers. Alternately viewed as a valuable ecosystem and life-sustaining foundation of community welfare or a commodity to be engineered to yield maximum economic benefit, the Rio Grande has brought many advantages to those who live in its valley but the benefits have come at a price.

This study examines human interactions with the Rio Grande from prehistoric time to the present day and explores what possibilities remain for the desert river. From the perspectives of law, development, tradition, and geology, the authors weigh what has been gained and lost by reining in the Rio Grande.

 

Enjoy!

 “Until I came to New Mexico, I never realized how much beauty water adds to a river.” – Mark Twain

Comments

[Eric Perramond]

Beaten to the punch yet again. You have quite an underground network!