Well I’ll Be Dammed

The Chiricahua Mountains of Southeast Arizona, part of the Coronado National Forest, were previously one of the most arid parts of the United States.

These mountains are home to sky islands, isolated mountains covered with forest and biodiversity, giving way to arid deserts below.

The area below, known as “cienegas” or desert marshes, have been eroded over time due to cattle farming.

Now Laura Norman and her team are working to restore them as part of the US Geological Survey.

For once, this isn’t some crazy technology out of a sci-fi movie. They’re using a solution nature already figured out.

Normally, intense rainfall runs down the watershed, flooding the environment and causing erosion, which depletes the aquifers as less water is able to travel down through soil.

What’s the solution? According to this team, it is Natural Infrastructure in Dryland Streams (NIDS)—the scientific term for dam-like structures.

Rather than completely block and hold water, these structures slow the water down, similar to a beaver dam or rocks and logs blocking up a creek.

Typically built out of a bunch of rocks contained within a wire mesh, structures like the gully plug, gabion, and rock dam slow the rate of water by more than half.

This allows more water to soak into the ground, develop soil, and recharge the aquifer.

One study near the Sonora portion of the US-Mexico border studied the effects of gabions, a type of NIDS structure, on vegetation.

Over 12 years the researchers compared the effects of treated waterways to untreated waterways, seeing a higher Normalized Difference Vegetation Index used as a proxy for plant biomass.

In this same time they built 46 loose-rock wire gabions and one check dam.

Treated areas maintained their biomass, even in times of drought. Untreated areas would have plant die-off as precipitation decreased.

It turns out, the best restoration efforts are nature’s own solutions.

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This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 13. Watch the full episode here!

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