Before And After - Corrales' Romero Road Fire

In June, 2012, a fire broke out in the riverside bosque in Corrales, NM.


Left: The Rio Grande River at Corrales' Romero Road bosque access. The Sandia Mountains loom in the background.

Here is a picture of the river in the bosque at the end of Romero Road in August, 2010.

The river here is showing signs of retrenchment, with the water running about three feet below the bank on the opposite side. This retrenchment process likely started with the completion of Cochiti Dam in 1974, which arrested the yazoo-making process of silt deposition. The dam has only a 100-year lifetime, so this retrenchment likely isn't permanent.

The bank has been here long enough that Russian Olive Trees have had a chance to grow to maturity in the middle distance - that has got to be at least ten years!

Note how narrow the gap across the river, and prone to spreading fire from flying sparks.

Here is a series of new pictures from October, 2012. This picture is from the west side of the river, near where the fire started.

The view across the river.

Lots of dead trees on the opposite side of the river, on Sandia Pueblo land, where most of the damage was done.

In principal, cottonwood trees can germinate readily here, but ONLY if the land is flooded first. That's unlikely to happen these days, so unless somebody decides they want the cottonwoods back, it's not going to happen.

Pretty views, though!