The Mimbres River in Grant County is getting some much-needed rehab to return it to conditions necessary to house two endangered native species — the Chihuahua chub and Chiricahua leopard frogs. This collaboration between the Nature Conservancy and the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, on Nature Conservancy property, includes significant but subtle excavation and planting along and in the river.

Wednesday morning, local Nature Conservancy representative Martha Cooper walked lengths of the nearly two miles of Mimbres River that meander through the organization’s land, alongside Game and Fish officials and their engineer on the project. At several places along the river, backhoes and bulldozers reshape banks of the river and dig pools to return the river to its conditions predating decades of increased flooding and sediment fill that have tainted the natural habitat of this endangered fish and frog.

The Nature Conservancy’s stretch of river already has some population of the chub and frog, due to not only it being part of the species’ historical range, but also its lush riparian areas. Cottonwoods, alders and willows shade the river and provide natural shelter for its fauna.

To mimic natural conditions, state contractor Brad Meyer, with Riverbend Engineering, is incorporating many of the existing trees they had to down in his designs for different beneficial features. In one area, Meyer liked a fallen cottonwood right where it was, but for a few needed modifications. It was too thick and would have caused too severe a drop from the upstream and downstream levels on either side. So, crews cut it in two for a “double waterfall” feature.

“So, instead of a fish barrier, you have smaller fish pools for the chub,” he said.

In various other places, Meyer and his subcontractors have installed unassuming but carefully planned bundles of rock and root balls from surrounding trees. These help control erosion and silt deposits, encourage the river to meander, slowing flows, and provide cover and habitat for the chub.

The fish isn’t getting all the love, though, as subcontractors have flattened banks of the river and excavated planned pools down to where the soil is moist. Those will fill from the bottom as well as catch some water from high flows and provide a perfect habitat for the leopard frog.

Why is this work needed? As with so many things here, it comes down to fire and water.

Wildlife populations in the rivers of this region have been hit hard in recent years after the devastating floods that follow the huge forest fires — most often caused themselves by years of fully suppressing small, beneficial fires. The Chihuahua chub and Chiricahua leopard frog are no exceptions.

“The chub pretty much got whacked out by the Silver Fire and the subsequent flooding,” Cooper said, wading through the Mimbres on Wednesday. In a press release explaining the project, Cooper painted the picture more viscerally — “Imagine weighing two grams — less than a dime — in the face of racing floodwaters with nowhere to go.”

Game and Fish fish biologist Bryan Ferguson takes part in an annual monitoring program in the Mimbres for the chub each October. He was also responsible for removing chub from this stretch of the Mimbres as the project has progressed.

“The numbers fluctuate, of course,” he said. “But post-fire, it looked like there just were no chub in the river.”

There is a population of the Chihuahua chub in the Dexter fishery with which river populations are bolstered when need be.

Aside from the immediate flush of the river, Cooper said the floods — and the presence of a gravel quarry upstream — have deposited tons of sediment into the river. That “simplifies” the river, according to Cooper, wreaking havoc on native populations dependent on the river’s unique natural traits.

“If the little bugger only lives in this area, we better make it nice,” said Mike Sloane, chief of fisheries for Game and Fish.

Sloane said he was happy with all the progress made on the project, especially since it had only taken a week and two days.

The project is funded through Game and Fish using grants and reimbursements from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Cooper said that funding is essential since the New Mexico chapter of the Nature Conservancy likely wouldn’t have been able to fund the project itself.

“Each state chapter has to raise its own money, so each chapter tends to reflect the economic situation of the state it’s in,” she said. “This would have never happened. It would have been impossible without their help.”

Sloane said the project on this particular property — 630 acres the Nature Conservancy owns with the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department — matched the criteria for the federal grants and Game and Fish’s goals for the two species perfectly.

Benjamin Fisher may be reached at [email protected] dailypress.com.