After many years of grappling with water shortages, citizen leaders in the village of Costilla could be forgiven for throwing in the towel on their quest to see their Rio Costilla return to a living state. Most of the year, one can survey the surrounding hills and mountains and find evidence of the existence of water somewhere. Not in the creek, unfortunately. Indeed, the gurgling of ditches constitute a reminder of how it once flowed, before the climate warmed and beavers took up residence.
As is the case through most of the summer in Costilla, when there’s no water in the river, a town can have difficulty seeing into the future.
The thing about beaver systems is (not to mention streams where water is managed as though through a spigot) that seeing the stream itself can also become difficult. Beaver dams lift the water table, causing jaras and cottonwoods to proliferate. Below water diversions, dewatered streambeds fill in with willows, essentially choking it. This is what has happened in the lower Rio Costilla.
Seeing his town’s river become almost impenetrable to citizens interested in simply restoring the Costilla as a living river, Steven Deherrera and fellow water leaders feel that cleaning the river corridor—cutting back vegetation and removing debris—will hopefully alert northern New Mexicans to what’s being lost.
“The truth is, it takes work to keep your home river going,” Deherrera says.
On a day in early July, the Questa Vida summer campers swung through Costilla to help the village’s stream advocates open this Rio Costilla channel. The camp school bus pulled up to Deherrera’s headgate, and out poured about 15 kids, ready to do battle with a jungle of jaras. The camp leader, Daniel Hutchison, chainsawed through the brush, which the kids then hauled out of the channel and stacked on the bank. Within a few hours, 100 yards of the Rio Costilla had been cleaned. The brush pile grew into a mountain.
As one might imagine, the Costilla bosque roared with the laughter and friendly smack talk of hustling children, who worked steadily but safely, taking frequent water breaks as the hot sun demanded. The high point of the day came around lunchtime, when one of the campers spotted a small rattlesnake curled up in the shade of a cottonwood tree. Everyone came to look, keeping a respectful distance from this reptile that—a youngster like themselves—meant no harm. The critter eventually slithered away, and the kids went back to work.
Witnessing children so fully consumed by their inclination to play is always good for the soul. There’s something optimistic about it, perhaps a belief that anything is possible as long as you’re having fun. There’s a serious aspect too. Immersed in their natural outdoor habitat, the Vida crew seemed committed to adventure and discovery. I am certain that their experiences with the rattlesnake and the hard work of cleaning the Rio Costilla will develop into knowledge as those kids grow up, though they may only remember the fun.
