Audubon Research Ranch Grass Identification Workshop

From Sonoita Valley Grasslands

"The mission of The Appleton-Whittell Research of the National Audubon Society is to formulate, test, and demonstrate methods to rehabilitate and safeguard the bioregion, and provide assistance to citizens and policy-makers in the protection and stewardship of our native ecosystems, natural resources and quality of life." http://www.audubonresearchranch.org/

From Sonoita Valley Grasslands

Great Sand Dunes Vegetation Mapping

Merlin Enthralled (Richard Wilbur)

From GRSA

In a while they rose and went out aimlessly riding.
Leaving their drained cups on the table round.
Merlin, Merlin, their hearts cried, where are you hiding?
In all the world was no unnatural sound.

From GRSA

Mystery watched them riding glade by glade;
They saw it darkle from under leafy brows;
But leaves were all its voice, and squirrels made
An alien fracas in the ancient boughs.

From GRSA

Once by a lake-edge something made them stop.
Yet what they found was the thumping of a frog,
Bugs skating on the shut water-top,
Some hairlike algae bleaching on a log.

From GRSA

Gawen thought for a moment that he heard
A whitehorn breathe "Niniane." That Siren's daughter
Rose in a fort of dreams and spoke the word
"Sleep", her voice like dark diving water;

From GRSA

And Merlin slept, who had imagined her
Of water-sounds and the deep unsoundable swell
A creature to bewitch a sorcerer,
And lay there now within her towering spell.

Slowly the shapes of searching men and horses
Escaped him as he dreamt on that high bed:
History died; he gathered in its forces;
The mists of time condensed in the still head

From GRSA

Until his mind, as clear as mountain water,
Went raveling toward the deep transparent dream
Who bade him sleep. And then the Siren's daughter
Received him as the sea receives a stream.

From GRSA

Fate would be fated; dreams desire to sleep.
This the forsaken will not understand.
Arthur upon the road began to weep
And said to Gawen, "Remember when this hand

Once haled a sword from stone; now no less strong
It cannot dream of such a thing to do."
Their mail grew quainter as they clopped along.
The sky became a still and woven blue.

From GRSA

Hiking the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM

Wind River Ranch Restoration

A rolling country of grass hills cut by deep canyons, PJ and Ponderosa on the slopes, Box Elder and Cottonwood and Netleaf Hackberry and Willow in the wet bottoms. Here the high plains end and the Rockies begin, the jagged upthrust spires of the Sangres visible along the Western horizon. Eerily similar to the Front Range of Colorado, but entirely undeveloped.

The land is tot pristine; eroded gullies from a century of overgrazing everywhere cleave the land. "It is doubtful that the grass losses would have been as extensive or rapid in the absence of grazing, but the coincidence of climatic and grazing forces must have accelerated the pace of grass decline." An Ecological History of San Rafael and Red Rock Canyon Watersheds. Tony Bugess. Desert Laboratory. Department of Geosciences. University of Arizona. March 1995

"Biological invasions have been the major cause of species extinctions in conjunction with human activity worldwide." D'ANtonio and Vitorsek 1992. Annual Review of Ecology and Systems 23. 63-87.

From Wind River Ranch

AWF’s second project at Wind River Ranch brought out a large crew of excellent volunteers, ready to get their feet wet and hands dirty to seed and mulch and plant willow cuttings around newly created waterfowl ponds alongside the Mora River.

From Wind River Ranch

On Saturday, Ranch Director Brian Miller provided seeds and hay
for mulching around the pond’s upper edges for several feet in all
directions. The intent was to get growth going quickly for erosion control.

On Sunday, those willing and able to spend some more time at the
Ranch drove to another site to build rock structures in a canyon where previous bank-stabilizing rock work, in one spot, had allowed a beautiful field of colorful wildflowers to grow.

From Wind River Ranch

Special thanks to Craig Sponholtz and Steve Vrooman for their guidance and help. Much of the above text is from the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation's October newsletter.

Light on the Dunes

Impact of Summer Rains on Santa Fe River Restoration Project

Heavy rains in Santa Fe impacted erosion control restoration structures but most of the Guardian's plantings survived. This image shows the severe scouring around behind the post vanes which were designed to deflect floodwaters. Because of heavy rains draining off the compacted surface of the city of Santa Fe, flash floods came through here hard and fast, only months after the Wild Earth Guardian's Stream Team finished pole planting willows and cottonwoods along this stretch of the Santa Fe river just south of San Ysidro crossing.

From Santa Fe River update after the summer rains

The holes we augered in sandstone for the pole plantings are now clearly visible.

From Santa Fe River update after the summer rains

The trees held and look beautifully green now in late summer. In a few years this dry wash will be a lush riparian forest.

From Santa Fe River update after the summer rains

Restoration at Coolbroth (Hell's Gate) Fire

From Forest Fire at Hell's Gate,

"The chainsaw work that took place recently on the Coolbroth site was in
response to the erosion issue and debris slide that closed the Coolbroth
road, following the storms in August. Trees were fallen, in contour with
the slope, in an effort to stabilize the hillside and avoid any further
slides that would impact the road. While the road will require some
further maintenance, it's been determined that the hillside has been
stabilized and should withstand any further storms. The treatment was
targeted in just those areas that were thought to be a threat to the road.
The remaining area will remain untreated, in order for the natural
ecological post fire processes to take place."

Kent W. Smith
Acting District Fire Management Officer

San Francisco Restoration Weekend -- Sep. 12

From Gila National Forest

"To my mind these live oak-dotted hills fat with side oats grama, thse pine-clad mesas spangled with flowers, these lazy trout streams burbling along under great sycamores and cottonwoods, come near to being the cream of creation." Aldo Leopold 1937.

From Gila National Forest

This landscape that so enthralled Leopold was where the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Madre kiss, where the plants and animals of the Neotropics mingle with those of the Nearctic, where jaguar and grizzly hunted the same ridges, where elk and javelina browsed and rooted cheek to jowl, where northern goshawks took thick billed parrots on the wing. Southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, northwestern Chihuahua, and northeastern Sonora are a landscape of wonder, beauty, and wildness--and mind-boggling biological diversity.

From Gila National Forest

Comment on "Friendly Invaders", New York Times

Carl Zimmer writes in a recent New York Times piece "Friendly Invaders", that invasive species might not actually be that bad for ecosystems. He bases this interesting argument on new research from Dov Sax, at Brown. Dr. Sax has published a paper in TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution that argues, based on statistics, that invasive species, particularly plants, contribute to diversity rather than denigrate it. "Effects of exotic species on evolutionary diversification."

"Exotic species invasions create almost ideal conditions for promoting evolutionary diversification: establishment of allopatric populations in new environmental conditions; altered ecological opportunities for native species; and new opportunities for hybridization between previously allopatric taxa...Our review indicates that, although the well-documented reductions to biodiversity caused by exotic species might outweigh the increases resulting from diversification, a complete understanding of the net effects of exotic species on biodiversity in the long term will require consideration of both."

Aldo Leopold said, "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering". But unfortunately for this machine metaphor, unexpected results can also arise from adding new, self-propagating parts. Dr. Sax urges science to remain unbiased in evaluating the cumulative impacts of invasive species, and statistically it may well be true that many invasives, particularly plants, do no harm and should be given their "green card" (e.g. Dandylions Taraxacum offiniale), if not honorary citizenship (e.g. Cleome serrulata). However, based on my personal experience, other introductions have perhaps the greatest potential to harm ecological systems. Some examples:

Buffel Grass in Tucson : this is a no-holds-barred fight for the very existence of the Sonoran Desert. This invasive threatens the extinction of hundreds of species and even our "way of life".

Tamarix in New Mexico: while not threatening extinction of the cottonwood bosques that line mid and low-elevation streams, is responsible (combined with anthropogenic disturbance) for degraded ecosystems throughout the American Southwest. The complex web of riparian corridors that sustains delicate desert and upland ecosystems cannot be repaired without bringing Tamarix under control.

Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout : threatened by interbreeding and habitat loss from non-native invasives. See, e.g. Comanche Creek Restoration Project.

Observations of soil erosion and retention in a Colorado Pinon/Juniper woodland

watch where you step
moss grows on the ground, sheltered by the slim shadow of this dead juniper
Marked keypoint (this is where sediment slows down), breakpoint, and contour line in this micro-drainage. The primary force structuring this topography is erosion, but the plants are not pedistalled. The slope is 1-2%.