John Fleck
@jfleck.bsky.social
Writer in Residence, Utton Center, University of New Mexico School of Law. Writing a book about the Rio Grande and the making of Albuquerque. People pay me for sentences - "a curious guy with good typing skills".
As a Supreme Court settlement forces New Mexico to reduce water use on the Rio Grande, local stakeholders are seeking a collaborative solution. My latest in @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/1907202...
The Clock Is Ticking for New Mexico to Cut Rio Grande Water Use - Inside Climate News
For now, the state is counting on voluntary cuts among vegetable and pecan farmers. But that might not be enough.
insideclimatenews.org
The information world PageRank created was a pretty nice one in a lot of ways. It also was not a natural law. It was created by humans, ruined by humans, and will be replaced by humans. We can try to participate in that or we can sit it out.
On tending our gardens - fun switchup from our usual schtick, my podcast co-host Rin Tara in conversation with me about the new book Ribbons of Green: www.buzzsprout.com/2465964/epis...
15: John Fleck on Tending the Middle Rio Grande Garden - Water Matters!
In this week’s Water Matters, John Fleck switches from the host’s chair to the guest’s chair (it’s really the same chair) as co-host Rin Tara sits down with him to talk about the new book he and Bob B...
buzzsprout.com
The last time Lake Mead and Lake Powell had this little water in them combined, Lake Powell didn't exist yet. Meaning all the water was in Lake Mead. Harrowing stuff. www.inkstain.net/2026/07/a-gr... via @jfleck.bsky.social
A grim Colorado River milestone
On Sunday, the Colorado River passed a grim milestone. Total combined storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell dropped to a historic low. It was my Wilburys colleague Jack Schmidt who noticed the miles…
inkstain.net
There are growing indications that large, intense, & perhaps record-breaking mid-atmospheric high pressure system (aka a "heat dome") will develop somewhere between Rockies & Central Plains by mid-Jul. This could bring a widespread & severe heatwave across much of the U.S.
Currently 85 miles of river drying on New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande. a) That's a lot. b) We literally pay people to go out and look at the river every quarter of a mile (? I think this is the right spacing. ?) to see if the river is dry. What a weird job.
“When you’re in a community, and you want to try to understand the nature and the structure of the community, you can always start with the water,” says author @jfleck.bsky.social @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/2606202...
A New Book Tells the Story of Albuquerque Through the Rio Grande - Inside Climate News
In “Ribbons of Green,” John Fleck and Robert Berrens examine the institutions that turned a rural valley into modern Albuquerque. Their new history comes as the city contends with a drying Rio Grande.
insideclimatenews.org
I interviewed author @jfleck.bsky.social for @insideclimatenews.org about his new book "Ribbons of Green." We talked about why this history matters. "Right now, in Albuquerque, we’re at a very similar juncture to where we were 100 years ago," Fleck said. insideclimatenews.org/news/2606202...
A New Book Tells the Story of Albuquerque Through the Rio Grande - Inside Climate News
In “Ribbons of Green,” John Fleck and Robert Berrens examine the institutions that turned a rural valley into modern Albuquerque. Their new history comes as the city contends with a drying Rio Grande.
insideclimatenews.org
My 06/21/26 postcard features a cormorant we found perched on a sun-bleached log at Tingley Beach. Standing motionless above the water, it seemed completely at ease, watching for fish with a calm, attentive gaze. #Albuquerque
Bookshop.org is amazing because they build software for public good without accepting compromise: it has to be every bit as good as the alternatives. So I regret to inform that if you excitedly pre-order a friend’s book, Bookshop will happily let you do that repeatedly without a warning 😂
It’s telling that even @jfleck.bsky.social is burning out in Colorado River Basin dysfunction & is turning his “attention to the local level, which is where the problem solving responsibility seems to rest right now.” Gulp. 🚰🚱🥃🔫🌊
Coyote Gulch@coyotegulch.bsky.social · 2mo ago#ColoradoRiver Basin – new report from my colleagues on the implications of running on empty -- John Fleck (InkStain.net) #COriver #aridification coyotegulch.blog/2026/06/09/c...
Only bollards can deliver this much happiness. #WorldBollardAssociation
Available from UNM Press, online retailers, and at Bookworks tonight for a book talk with the authors! www.unmpress.com/978082636968...
Happy Pub Day to John Fleck and Robert Berrens, authors of Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of Modern Albuquerque, which explores how Albuquerque built its environment to create a valley floor that its residents have come to adore and how, in a climate-altered world, we might keep it.
Oh whaddaya know, our video for “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds” is out. Directed by my old friend Tim Kirk (Room 237) — Tim Is the best and I love how this came together youtu.be/7PEJmPTIzqk?...
the Mountain Goats - Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by the Mountain Goats
youtu.be
One last gasp: www.inkstain.net/2026/05/2026...
2026-05-19: Federal managers increase release for the silvery minnow
Federal water managers yesterday (May 18, 2026) began pushing a pulse of water through New Mexico’s rapidly drying Middle Rio Grande to try to encourage the endangered Rio Grande silvery minn…
inkstain.net
May 18, 1980 | 8:32 a.m. The ground shudders. A M5.1 quake hits beneath Mount St. Helens. Weakened critically, the north face bulge collapses outward. Within seconds, a pyroclastic density surge bursts through the disintegrating slope. The clock strikes zero.
My 05/18/26 postcard is a fairy scene tucked into a yard along Solano, built against the base of a tree like a hidden doorway into another world. The tiny blue door, mushrooms, glass stones, and fairies transformed a patch of dirt into something that felt halfway between a garden and a storybook.
Looks like an orange slice in his right hand as he holds the bars with just his pinkie on that side.
classicretro@classicretro.bsky.social · 3mo agoMerckx at the Giro
Crossed the threshold yesterday from "pdf(s) on my hard drive" to "book in my hand": www.inkstain.net/2026/05/june...
June 2, Bookworks
I was sitting on the front porch early this afternoon with my eyes on the street when the postman come up the front walk holding a book-shaped package. I walked up to him, reached out, and held it …
inkstain.net
Friends of Inkstain John Berggren and Kevin Wheeler suggest a new widget for moving around Colorado River water that's one of those things that's got obvious advantages, it's simply archaic rules standing in the way: www.inkstain.net/2026/05/the-...
The Utility of Operationally Neutral and Flexible Conservation Pools in the Colorado River Basin
Nota bene: A guest post from friends of Inkstain John Berggren and Kevin Wheeler John Berggren (Regional Policy Manager, Western Resource Advocates) Kevin Wheeler (Principle, Water Balance Consulti…
inkstain.net
Ivo Pannaggi, My Mother Reading the Newspaper, c. 1922 https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135569
This is, as the kidz say, *load bearing*. bkwrks.com/event/2026-0...
Writing the Wild: John Fleck, Ribbons of Green: The Rio Grande and the Making of Modern Albuquerque
A local, independent bookstore in Albuquerque, NM since 1984. Bookworks offers new books, children's titles, gifts, and a variety of special events.
bkwrks.com
Sorry if this news screws anything up for anyone, but it turns out that rivers during the Cambrian period didn't wind as much as they do today pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulle...
Low sinuosity meandering rivers before vascular plants: Cambrian Tapeats Formation, Arizona, USA | GSA Bulletin | GeoScienceWorld
Abstract. A longstanding view is that rivers in pre-Silurian landscapes, prior to the colonization of continents by land plants, were braided and that
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
This is a perfect example of a fire where we should NOT risk human life to suppress. This area has seen lots of fire. This fire will probably clean up a bunch of heavy fuel from the W-B. Upwind of this fire are a whole bunch more fire footprints.
Grant Tosterud@granttosterud.bsky.social · 3mo agoA wildfire has been burning in the Gila since April 22. The lightning caused Hummingbird Fire is currently at 25 acres and growing because of severe drought and difficulty getting to the fire. It's also burning through the Whitewater-Baldy fire burn scar from 2012. #NMFire #NMwx
It’s so important to know your bollard history. #WorldBollardAssociaton
