The Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited is asking Trout Unlimited National to recognize the Upper Pecos Watershed as a priority water in New Mexico. That ask is written into our 2026-2031 Strategic Plan, adopted by the board on February 11, 2026, alongside a commitment to Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout recovery “with particular emphasis on the Pecos watershed” and a target of ten Pecos watershed conservation activities by the end of 2031. The designation target year is 2027, so the case gets built this year and next.
On Wednesday, September 9, that work gets a boost. Bryan Ferguson, Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Biologist with the New Mexico Department of Wildlife (NMDOW), speaks at our September board meeting at Hervé Wine Bar in Santa Fe. Social hour starts at 5:00, he speaks from 5:30 to 6:00, and the board meeting follows at 6:00. This is not a speaker slot we filled to make an evening interesting. It is the state’s own cutthroat biologist walking our membership through the condition of the watershed we are asking National to prioritize.
Why the Upper Pecos
The upper Pecos is the second most popular trout fishery in New Mexico, drawing more than one million angler days a year. Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout historically occupied the whole upper Pecos basin. Twelve conservation populations remain there today. Enormous public use, and a native fish reduced to a dozen holdout populations in its own home basin.
The recovery work is real and underway. Restoration on Willow Creek near Tererro, a Pecos tributary of about five miles, began in 2020 with a fish passage barrier and the removal of nonnative fish. Two Pecos strain projects are in progress on upper Pecos tributaries. Mora Creek and Panchuela Creek are both named by Trout Unlimited as places where cutthroat restoration is not yet complete, and until those projects go in, the Pecos strain lacks the redundancy it needs to absorb the environmental shifts coming.
What Bryan Ferguson is covering
He agreed to an outline in four parts:
- Where Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout stand in New Mexico, and the conservation work behind that status
- The cutthroat populations of the Pecos watershed
- The Pecos restoration projects underway now
- The Pecos strain broodstock
That last pair is the part to listen closely to. A priority water proposal is stronger when the chapter making it can speak accurately about which projects are in the ground, which are queued, and where the fish that stock them come from. Thirty minutes with the biologist who works on them is the shortest route to that.
Can I bring a guest?
Yes. The evening is for chapter members and their guests, and it is free. If you have a fishing partner who cares about the Pecos, or someone who still asks what a cutthroat trout is, bring them. The events room upstairs at Hervé holds a limited number of people, so please RSVP by Saturday, September 5 and tell us if you are bringing someone.
How to come
- Wednesday, September 9, 2026
- Hervé Wine Bar, second-floor events room, 139 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe
- Social hour 5:00, talk 5:30 to 6:00, board meeting 6:00
- Free. Members and their guests
- Dinner afterward for anyone who can stay
RSVP by Saturday, September 5, on the event page: https://truchastu.org/event/social-hour-board-meeting-all-members-welcome-3-2/
Questions? [email protected].
If you want to do more than listen
A designation is a piece of paper. What earns it is work in the watershed, and TU does plenty of it: exclosure repair and willow planting on Chihuahueños Creek in the Jemez, and the Willows and Wild Trout project on the Rio San Antonio, now in its fourth year. Our guide to getting your hands dirty for Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout is the practical version. Member Michael Altherr’s visit to the Upper Rio Cebolla watershed is worth twenty minutes if you want a sense of what this country looks like from the ground.
The Pecos is drinking water, irrigation water, native trout habitat, and the place a lot of us learned to fish. The Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited is making the case that it deserves to be treated as a priority. Come hear the science behind that case on September 9.
