rio bosque wetlands park

mom.  most of the park was actually mexican territory until in the mid 30s, the river got channelized.  this left about 275 acres under U.S. control.  over time, they added more, getting up to it's current 372.  they always thought about making it a wetlands, but it didn't crystallize until 1997.  the building of a canal along side the river required to city to make for the loss of wildlife habitat.  they decided to use the park for that.  so basically, the park went from desert to wetland, and is still getting greener with time.