San Francisco River

About the San Francisco River

• The San Francisco River enters New Mexico from Arizona near Luna and leaves the state again downstream of Glenwood.1
• In New Mexico the river flows past Reserve and past Glenwood before leaving the state just downstream of Glenwood.1
• Senator Martin Heinrich has called the San Francisco, together with the Gila, 'among the last wild, free-flowing rivers in the Southwest,' and both rivers are included in the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act that he and Rep. Gabe Vasquez introduced in Congress; the river also provides critical habitat for the federally threatened spikedace and loach minnow.23

This report follows 159 miles (256 km) of the San Francisco River, all within the San Francisco watershed segment. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 2,801 square miles. Named tributaries joining it here include the Dix Creek, Tularosa River, Blue River, Centerfire Creek and Mule Creek. 5 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1910 to 2026.

From the archive: NHDPlus river network, WBD watersheds, NHD waterbodies, TIGER urban areas and the report's gauges.

From the headwaters down

Each watershed segment in order, with last week's flow rated against the same week in 1991–2020.

1. 1

   Segment 1: San Francisco

   404 cfs last week much above normal, 42 dry days this year.

   Median conductance 432 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 157% of normal.

Culture

• The Glenwood area lies within the historic territory of Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Victorio and Geronimo, according to the New Mexico Tourism Department.4

Habitat

• The spikedace and loach minnow, two small native fish listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1986, have federally designated critical habitat spanning the Gila, San Francisco and other regional rivers across Catron, Grant and Hidalgo counties in New Mexico.3
• The Gila trout, spikedace, loach minnow, Chiricahua leopard frog and southwestern willow flycatcher are all federally threatened or endangered species that depend on the aquatic and riparian habitat of the Gila and San Francisco watersheds, according to the New Mexico Environment Department.1
• The Wild Gila River coalition describes the Gila headwaters, including the San Francisco River, as the largest network of natural streams in the Southwest and one of the largest undammed headwater watersheds remaining in temperate North America.5
• The 2011 Wallow Fire crossed into New Mexico near the town of Luna and left fire debris at every San Francisco River monitoring site, affecting the river's water quality during that summer's monsoon flows, according to a New Mexico Environment Department survey.1

Reservoirs

From the archive: National Inventory of Dams (USACE) and the reservoir registry.

Water users

• The U.S. Forest Service manages about 92% of the San Francisco River watershed, with under 1% managed by the Bureau of Land Management and about 7% in private ownership.1
• Reserve and Glenwood both sit along the San Francisco River in this sparsely populated part of southwestern New Mexico.14
• Under the 2004 Arizona Water Settlements Act, New Mexico had the option to fund new water projects in Catron, Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties, including a proposed dam and reservoir on the San Francisco River in Weedy Canyon between Reserve and Alma; that dam was dropped from the project's 2019 redesign to cut costs.6

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Catron): 19,410 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Public water systems beside the river

Reserve Water Works

State Engineer's public water systems layer (service areas within 2 km).