Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program. Adaptive Management Plan Version 1

The Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Collaborative Program (Program) is a partnership for the purposes of protecting and improving the status of endangered species in the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) of New Mexico while simultaneously protecting existing and future regional water uses. Two species of particular concern are the Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus) (silvery minnow) and Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) (flycatcher), both of which are Federally Endangered.

This is Version 1 of the first Adaptive Management (AM) Plan for the Program. It provides a framework for conducting Program activities to deliberately and explicitly reduce management uncertainties. Based on an assessment of the building blocks for AM in Section 1, it identifies a preliminary example AM design in Section 2 and takes this example through the remaining steps in the AM cycle. A more prescriptive Version 2 will take more time to develop, and a process featuring both policy/management and technical roles is recommended for the Program to move to Version 2. It involves a systematic simulation and evaluation of alternative sets of actions, exploring what will best meet the Program‟s goals and concurrently reduce critical management uncertainties under a wide range of possible future conditions. The result would be an accepted and scientifically defensible AM design to be implemented, monitored and evaluated. It also suggests that an AM pilot be considered in the near term, to be done in parallel with the process of developing Version 2.