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Ribbons of Green
The Rio Grande and the Making of Modern Albuquerque
By John Fleck and Robert P. Berrens
Published by UNM Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
The first combined social and ecological look at how institutions in New Mexico intentionally built the Rio Grande Valley through the heart of Albuquerque to create “natural” corridors of green spaces in a modern American city.
Dry one year, overflowing the next, the Rio Grande has sustained its arid valley for millennia. In Ribbons of Green, John Fleck and Robert P. Berrens seek to understand twenty-first-century Albuquerque’s relationship with the Rio Grande by exploring the social and ecological interactions that describe how this high-desert city developed astride a capricious river. In every phase of the Duke City’s history, living with the Rio Grande posed problems that required collective action by its stakeholders to irrigate, build river crossings, drain the valley’s floor, and protect residents from flooding.
These collective decisions ultimately changed the course of the river, resulting in intentionally designed “ribbons of green” that dominate today’s cityscape. The Rio Grande in turn altered the collective psyche of Albuquerque. For many residents, the city’s bosque is their only interaction with nature, but these green corridors are very much a human creation. Ribbons of Green 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.
Dry one year, overflowing the next, the Rio Grande has sustained its arid valley for millennia. In Ribbons of Green, John Fleck and Robert P. Berrens seek to understand twenty-first-century Albuquerque’s relationship with the Rio Grande by exploring the social and ecological interactions that describe how this high-desert city developed astride a capricious river. In every phase of the Duke City’s history, living with the Rio Grande posed problems that required collective action by its stakeholders to irrigate, build river crossings, drain the valley’s floor, and protect residents from flooding.
These collective decisions ultimately changed the course of the river, resulting in intentionally designed “ribbons of green” that dominate today’s cityscape. The Rio Grande in turn altered the collective psyche of Albuquerque. For many residents, the city’s bosque is their only interaction with nature, but these green corridors are very much a human creation. Ribbons of Green 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.
Product Details
- Publisher: UNM Press (June 2, 2026)
- Length: 296 pages
- ISBN13: 9780826369697
Raves and Reviews
“An exhaustive look at the people and policies that made the city of Albuquerque, where the Rio Grande is both the backbone and the bane of the city. Fleck and Berrens describe in detail how people used the river to build this modern city in the desert Southwest.”
– Kathleen Kambic, coauthor of The Design Competition in Landscape Architecture: Pedagogy and Practice
“Ribbons of Green tells the evolving story of how people interact with and influence the Middle Rio Grande Valley, highlighting the complexities and the ways in which various communities came together to solve ecological challenges.”
– Mary Harner, professor of biology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney
“Envisioning the Rio Grande’s future in a warming world means reckoning with the past. Fleck and Berrens delve into the historic systems and rules that shape the river as it flows—and sometimes dries—through Albuquerque today. And they help us all consider the collective action river governance requires.”
– Laura Paskus, author of At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate
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Book Cover Image (jpg): Ribbons of Green
eBook 9780826369697
