In September, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stood at the edge of an agricultural field along the Rio Grande near Albuquerque, New Mexico, to announce the authorization of the Middle Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge—the nation’s newest urban wildlife refuge and the only one in the Southwest. Salazar was joined for the announcement by U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich, Bernalillo County Commissioner Art De La Cruz, local residents, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state, and representatives of The Trust for Public Land, which has been working for several years to protect the 570-acre farm formerly known as Price’s Dairy.
“It [will be] a place for people to come and connect with
the lifeblood of New Mexico—the Rio Grande,” Salazar told the gathering. “This will give young people a chance to get dirt under their fingernails and learn about the great outdoors.” The first urban wildlife refuges date to the 1970s, but
recently the Fish and Wildlife Service has stepped up efforts to create refuges near cities. In addition to protecting species, urban refuges play a key role in educating our increasingly urban population about the needs and benefits of wildlife. A 2011 FWS report, Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation, proposes partnerships to create ten new refuges near cities across America by 2015. In the 1950s, when the Price family started a dairy opera-
tion on this land south of Albuquerque, it was surrounded by other fields and orchards. Gradually industrial development invaded the surrounding landscape, until the dairy became a remnant and reminder of the area’s rural heritage. The Price family closed the dairy in 1996 and in 2000 began discus- sions with The Trust for Public Land about how it might be conserved rather than developed. While much remains to be done, the momentum toward
Kim Kurian Photography
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, center right, tours former farmland scheduled to become the nation’s newest urban wildlife refuge.
conservation has been building. Last year Bernalillo County committed $5 million to the estimated $20 million effort. And the Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the Middle Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge as a high priority for acquisition funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.