La Orilla Advocacy Project
This bilingual civic-action project documents reported filling and wildlife removal at the La Orilla waterway in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Review the evidence, examine official legal sources, find the appropriate public agencies, and use prepared complaint letters to request factual findings and agency action.
La Orilla Advocacy Project
A trash-filled ditch in Albuquerque, New Mexico became a refuge during drought for beaver, turtles, birds, and frogs. Heavy equipment began filling it while animals were still there. Community accounts say the animals were removed from their former home in the ditch and moved abruptly to the Rio Grande Nature Center and Tingley Beach, without publicly documented wildlife surveys, habitat assessments, qualified handlers, permits, or a humane plan; officials must now establish the full scope of the removal, species involved, responsible handlers, authorizations, and receiving-site approvals. One public Facebook post also says that at least one beaver has died: Brittany Walters states that a deceased beaver photographed near Paseo and Coors has the same tail notches as the live beaver the community had been trying to save. The animal's identity and the cause, timing, and circumstances of death remain unresolved. Other than the reported dead beaver, the current record contains no report of another animal death; however, there is no accurate way to verify that absence or assess how many animals may have been covered by soil or machinery before citizens intervened. Help demand an immediate accounting, proof of legal authority, and protection for every animal still at La Orilla.
The filling appears to have proceeded without publicly available evidence of a proper hydrologic survey, wildlife survey, habitat assessment, water-quality assessment, or review of impacts to connected waterways. Because the site is close to the Rio Grande watershed, it may threaten protected native species, including the Rio Grande silvery minnow, and may contaminate its habitat through changes to water quality, sediment, or runoff. This calls for field checks and water-quality testing.
As stewards of this environment, we cannot accept the attempted filling of a living waterway while animals remained in or depended on it, followed by pumping, drainage, and habitat destruction in a watershed that supports native species—all without publicly documented wildlife, habitat, hydrologic, or water-quality surveys.