La Orilla Restoration Project 2012

Information regarding the Habitat Restoration Project in the Bosque south of the La Orilla Channel (Fall 2012)

• The City of Albuquerque’s Open Space Division, in cooperation with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) and SWCA Environmental Consultants, has begun work on a large-scale habitat restoration project.
• This project is designed to restore habitat for the benefit of the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) on a 20-acre section of the Middle Rio Grande State Park in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.
• Habitat restoration entails creating an approximately 10-acre swale that will be dominated by native willows.
• An additional 10-acre buffer area will be planed with native riparian shrubs typical of the surrounding floodplain.
• The site is on lands that are owned and managed by the City of Albuquerque’s Open Space Division.
• The project, when implemented, will contribute to the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program goal of meeting the habitat restoration requirements as stated in Element S of the Reasonable and Prudent Alternatives in the March 2003 Biological Opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).