Water Is Life
In the desert, rain is precious. By slowing the speed at which precipitation runs off the land, we increase water infiltration into the soil. This makes more water available for plants and animals and increases groundwater recharge - benefitting our protected area and the working ranches downstream.
Waters and Wetlands
Goal: To restore watersheds to their pre-European settlement functionality
At the confluence of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts, where annual rainfall is less than 12”, there is an area teeming with life. Before Europeans arrived, the San Bernardino Valley was the site of the region’s most significant ciénega (desert wetland) unique to the southwestern US and northern Mexico.
When Europeans settled the area about 200 years ago the pressures of grazing, farming, mining, and beaver eradication began to deteriorate the land. When monsoon rains came, the water cut large gullies into stream and river banks, which drained the wetlands.
Learning from the past, Cuenca is repurposing erosion control technologies used by indigenous peoples in northern Mexico to restore these historic ciénegas. The two main methods include: trincheras (small rock dams) and gabions (wire cages filled with rocks) to restore riparian areas on a watershed scale.
The result has been far more potent than we ever expected. We have slowed water runoff, kept soil in place, improved groundwater infiltration, increases riparian vegetation, and witnessed the return of wildlife.
With the soil acting like a sponge, it holds water and slowly releases it into streams and rivers providing a more reliable source of water for all that depend on it. While our work is ongoing, Cuenca is once again a place of flowing streams and verdant wetlands, an oasis in the desert.
