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Healing a Dysfunctional Watershed, New Mexico
The Rio Puerco (Dirty River) lives up to its name in western New Mexico where it contributes 30% of the sediment load to the Rio Grande, one of the West's most important rivers. One of the reasons so much sediment washes down the Puerco is that much of the crumbly clay soil within its watershed is bare, making it susceptible to massive erosion. The Quivira Coalition, an environmental group based in Santa Fe, came up with the idea of tackling this difficult problem with some of the same methods that the Tiptons and Terry Wheeler have used so successfully on even more difficult areas. (See Success Stories 1 & 2) The idea was to restore an especially devastated area as a demonstration project and then to offer the community the skills to spread this success across the watershed, improving the area's ecology and its economy. The most logical site for a demonstration was an abandoned copper mine in the Senorito Creek drainage near the rural town of Cuba, NM. The owner of some private land effected by the mine, Aparcio Gurule, was interested in hosting a demonstration.
At the end of its second year the project needed a patron to enable it to finish the year’s work. At that point EcoResults! was able to secure a sponsorship for the Cuba Project from Teva Sandals. That sponsorship enabled the restoration to complete its second season and provided a successful kickoff for EcoResults’ unique approach to supporting restorative and sustainable stewardship of ecosystems in the American West. Sign me up to support this Restoration in Progress! Related Success StoriesFrom Mine Waste to Grassland, Arizona Other Restorations in Progress Restoring
an Extinct Marsh, Nevada
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O. Box 61613, Santa Barbara, CA 93160 • (805) 964-5788 • info@ecoresults.org
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grant from the USEPA was secured and restoration started in 1999. The
seed was sowed, the hay was spread, and the cattle went about their business
of building soil and creating the conditions for plant germination and
growth. When rain, the final ingredient, came the land responded.
At
this point the ongoing part of the project is the educational part. EcoResults!
is participating with the Quivira Coalition to gather support to conduct
a series of workshops, for rural land managers along the Rio Puerco, in
the techniques used to restore the mine site. The overriding goal of this
effort is to equip the culturally diverse agricultural community of the
Rio Puerco watershed with a land management system that creates environmental
health in the form of a watershed that is less barren and more resistant
to erosion which contributes less pollution to the lower Rio Grande drainage.
By so doing this project creates a higher quality of life for all residents,
human and otherwise, not only in the vicinity of Cuba, but all the way
down the Rio Grande.