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A proposal is being explored that could create a new state park in Doña Ana County, providing better access to Slot Canyon and the Rio Grande.

This story was originally published by the Guardian  as part of their two-year series, This Land is Your Land, examining the threats facing America’s public lands, with support from the Society of Environmental Journalists, and is republished by permission. Imagine the world without its most famous rivers: Egypt without the Nile, or London without the Thames. In Las Cruces, New Mexico, residents don’t have to envision the West without the Rio Grande – it runs dry in their city almost every single year. But this isn’t its natural state. Isaac Melendrez, who was born near Las Cruc...

But this isn’t its natural state. Isaac Melendrez, who was born near Las Cruces in 1934 and contributed to an oral history of the Rio Grande, remembered swimming in the river with his family as a child, while throngs of birds soared overhead. During the rainy season, the river’s floodwaters sounded like trains. Now? “It’s shrunk just about as much as it can,” Melendrez said. “I don’t know what else they can take from it.” In the past, the Rio Grande would run through Las Cruces for the irrigation season from February to October. But last year, the river didn’t flow until Mar...