Posts by Laura Paskus

“I like to call [the Gila River] a reference river, a place that we can come and learn how rivers used to work before they were dammed and over-diverted and dewatered,” says Martha Cooper, Freshwater Director for The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico. Certainly, in New Mexico, we put our rivers to work. We treat…

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. …