October 2025 – jfleck at inkstain
Archive of entries posted on October 2025| jfleck at inkstain
For the first time in more than a century, salmon have reached the headwaters of the Klamath River Basin, a milestone made possible by the removal of four major dams along the California–Oregon border. The event marks a defining moment for both environmental restoration and the communities of southern Oregon that depend on the river’s ...Continue reading ‘Salmon return to the Klamath headwaters’ »| jfleck at inkstain
In carrying out its treaty obligations with the Indian tribes, the Government is something more than a mere contracting party. Under a humane and self imposed policy which has found expression in many acts of Congress and numerous decisions of this Court, it has charged itself with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust. ...Continue reading ‘Administration proposes budget cuts for Tribal clean water initiatives’ »| jfleck at inkstain
The utility of a model is seldom in its ability to deliver a precise value but rather in whether it provides an improved understanding of a system that would not have existed in its absence. – Kevin Wheeler, Modeling to Support Water Management Negotiations| jfleck at inkstain
We identified fallowed land—an unplanted agricultural land parcel—as a key anthropogenic dust source in California. Specifically, we find that the Central Valley accounts for about 77% of total fallowed land areas in California, where they are associated with about 88% of major anthropogenic dust events. We also find that the geographic coverage of these fallowed ...Continue reading ‘Externalities of fallowing’ »| jfleck at inkstain
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Total flow to date on the Rio Grande at Otowi is the lowest since 1964. Otowi is the place where the river leaves the upper valleys and enters the canyons that lie at the head of the valley of Albuquerque, what we in New Mexico call the “Middle Rio Grande.” The graph shows total ...Continue reading ‘The driest year on New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande since 1964’ »| jfleck at inkstain
A bunch of odds and ends cluttering my brain, blog posts that are half written in my mind that are in the way: Quoting Luis Villa on accessing the open data commons We’ve been talking about o…| jfleck at inkstain
By Eric Kuhn, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Kathryn Sorensen, Jack Schmidt, and Katherine Tara As negotiators for the seven Colorado River Basin states rapidly approach Reclamation’s November deadline for providing a framework for a seven-state agreement for the Post-2026 Operating Guidelines for Lakes Powell and Mead, a larger threat looms. Reclamation’s recently released September 24-Month ...Continue reading ‘The 1922 Colorado River Compact is Now the Obvious Elephant in the Negotiating R...| jfleck at inkstain
Props to the artists who tagged the vacant Two Park Central Tower at Central and San Mateo in Albuquerque. I like to think Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer would approve. I noticed the art today while out on my morning dérive, walking and riding my bike through one of the weirder and more interesting neighborhoods ...Continue reading ‘The ungrievable and blockbuster art’ »| jfleck at inkstain
Enrique Romero joins Rin and I on Water Matters to discuss acequias and querencia. (This podcast thing is a blast!)| jfleck at inkstain
Deepening and widening of stream channels in the Southwest is a phenomenon that has taken place within the memory of men now living. It began at different dates from 1860 on and has progressed at d…| jfleck at inkstain
By Jack Schmidt,1 Anne Castle,2 John Fleck,3 Eric Kuhn,4 Kathryn Sorensen,5 Katherine Tara,6 While Colorado River Basin attention is focused on negotiating post-2026 operating rules, a near term cr…| jfleck at inkstain
Alternative blog post title: No Bad Days on the Bike In the picture above, you might be looking at the spot where the Air Force in 1957 accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on the mesa south of Albu…| jfleck at inkstain
NEAR THE CONFLUENCE OF THE RIO PUERCO AND THE RIO GRANDE – The broad delta where the Rio Puerco meets the Rio Grande in central New Mexico has never been a great place to live, though people …| jfleck at inkstain
Jack Schmidt Center for Colorado River Studies, Utah State University 14 July 2025 Water stored in the reservoirs of the Colorado River represents the account balance from which we draw water for u…| jfleck at inkstain
Alert Inkstain reader Rolf asked in the comments of last weekend’s post for a version of the above graph – number of days of low flow at the Central Avenue Bridge – with a thresho…| jfleck at inkstain
By John Fleck, Anne Castle, Eric Kuhn, Jack Schmidt, Kathryn Sorensen, and Katherine Tara As we await Friday’s (Aug. 15, 2025) release of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Colorado River 24-Month Study, …| jfleck at inkstain
WHIDBEY ISLAND – It’s a five minute walk to the beach from the place we’re staying on Whidbey Island. It’s a pebbly beach, not like the soft sands of Oxnard where I first met (and in one case…| jfleck at inkstain
But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee…| jfleck at inkstain
And what if it is love one is trying to understand, that strange unmanageable phenomenon or form of life, source at once of illumination and confusion, agony and beauty? Love, in its many varieties…| jfleck at inkstain
Formed in a series of volcanic eruptions between 1 and 2 million years ago, the Jemez Mountains dominate the cultural and environmental history of central New Mexico. For more than four decades, fo…| jfleck at inkstain
If you have ever been to modern San Marcial, New Mexico – or what is left of it – the notion of an 86-pound catfish requires some explanation. The spot where D.C. George hooked his reco…| jfleck at inkstain
University of Arizona economist Bonnie Colby on why the enduring opposition to water transfers out of agriculture goes beyond price: This is not surprising given third party economic effects when i…| jfleck at inkstain
With the latest Bureau of Reclamation model runs highlighting the serious risks posed by the declining reservoir levels that Utah State’s Jack Schmidt has been warning about, there are signs …| jfleck at inkstain
By Eric Kuhn, John Fleck, and Jack Schmidt On January 16th, the Bureau of Reclamation released the January 2025 24-Month Study. Based on the January 1st runoff forecast into Lake Powell, the projec…| jfleck at inkstain
