A bosque ( ) is a type of gallery forest habitat found along the riparian

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s of stream and river banks in the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. It derives its name from the Spanish word for ' woodlands'.

Setting

In the predominantly arid or semi-arid southwestern United States, a bosque is an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

-like ribbon of green vegetation, often canopied, that only exists near rivers, streams, or other water courses. The most notable bosque is the -long ecosystem along the valley of the middle

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

in New Mexico that extends from Santa Fe south to El Paso, Texas. One of the most famous and ecologically intact sections of the bosque is included in the

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge ( ) is located in southern New Mexico. It was founded in 1939 and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a favorite spot to watch the migration of the sandhill cranes in th ...

Flora and fauna

Common trees in the bosque habitat include mesquite, cottonwood,

desert willow ''Chilopsis'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species ''Chilopsis linearis''. It is known commonly as desert willow

, and desert olive. Because there is often only a single canopy layer and because the tree species found in the bosque are generally deciduous, a wide variety of shrubs, grasses, and other understory vegetation is also supported. Desert hackberry,

blue palo verde ''Parkinsonia florida'', the blue palo verde ( syn. ''Cercidium floridum''), is a species of palo verde native to the Sonoran Deserts in the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico.

, graythorn (''Condalia lycioides''), Mexican elder (''Sambucus mexicana''), virgin's bower, and Indian root all flourish in the bosque. The habitat also supports a large variety of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.biodiversity at the interface of the bosque and surrounding

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

ecosystems. Certain subsets of vegetative association are defined within the Kuchler scheme, including the ''

Mesquite Bosque Mesquite Bosque is a vegetative association within the Southwestern United States, under the Kuchler scheme of plant association categories. Geography The Mesquite Bosque association occurs in the Sonoran Desert, with mesquite (''Prosopis'' sp ...

''. The bosque is an important stopover for a variety of migratory birds, such as ducks, geese, egrets, herons, and

Sandhill Cranes The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on t ...

. Year-round avian residents include Red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, American kestrels, hummingbirds, owls, woodpeckers, and the southwestern willow flycatcher. Aquatic fauna of the bosque include the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Mammalian residents include desert cottontail, white-footed mouse, North American porcupine, American beaver, long-tailed weasel,

common raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of . ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

, and bobcats.

Restoration

Ongoing efforts to undo damage to the bosque ecosystem caused by human development, fires, and

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

in the 20th century. Where possible,

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

s and other flood control devices along the Rio Grande are being removed, to allow the river to undergo its natural cycle. Since 1996, Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) of the University of New Mexico has worked on habitat restoration and ecological monitoring within the bosque, as well as raising awareness of the ecological importance of this habitat through educational outreach initiatives.

References

External links

Save our Bosque Report (.pdf) Fire commander: Bosque’s urban area presents challenge
{{coord missing, New Mexico Forests of the United States Habitats Natural history of New Mexico Riparian zone

Setting

Flora and fauna

Restoration

See also

References

External links