Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

The Arizona Riparian Council meets yearly to discuss contempory issues in riparian restoration and resource management. This year we were lucky enough to tour Date Creek on the OX Ranch and Date Creek Ranch, and observe their various range management techniques, as well as discuss an assessment tool used to evaluate the sucess of their management.

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

The tool is called the Rapid Stream Riparian Assessment (RSRA) protocol. We discussed its applicability to Date Creek. Several of the issues that were raised were familiar from working with CNHP's Wetland Assessments: accuracy versus consistency, and what a number score really tells us about the present and future condition of an ecosystem.

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

What we are looking for in an assessment is quantitative, repeatable data for trend analysis, using a minimum of effort or professional training. The RSRA features sections on Water Quality, Stream Form, Riparian Vegetation, Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat, and Aquatic (fish) Habitat. It is focused on evaluating how well an ecosystem provides for wildlife.

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

Floodplane connectivity, or ratios of bankful to flood stage, are important measures of hydrologic function. High flows that flood over a large vegetated area better recharge Groundwater, Dissipate Energy (prevent scouring action), Leach Salt, Deliver Nutrients, and Establish Seedbeds.

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

The continued probably-natural disturbance of riparian areas might cause problems in assessments that focus on condition rather than process. The streams we witnessed, while averaging 3 out of 5 for most indices, was certainly recovering, with no major obstacles (invasive species, poor management) to prevent an eventual 5 out of 5 score, barring future natural disturbances.

From Arizona Riparian Council at Date Creek

I advocated a protocol based on ease of restoration. Quantitation would be done using dollars, rather than an arbitrary scale. Thus, a stream that needs $1,000,000 restoration could be compared to a stream like Date Creek that could, with no further inputs, recover completely.

Buffel Grass Removal from Tucson Mountain Park

"The Sonoran Desert Weedwackers started in 2000 as a small group of committed individuals whose objective was to remove non-native fountain grass and buffelgrass from the washes and roadsides of Tucson Mountain Park, a 27,000 acre Sonoran Desert natural preserve a few miles west of Tucson. Since that time, the Weedwackers have become well-known in the invasive weed management community for their successful removal of tons of invasive grasses from the Tucson Mountain Park. Areas where dense buffelgrass was removed in 2001 now support native grasses and wildflowers. "

http://www.aznps.org/invasives/weedwackers.html

Diversity vs. Richness

Species richness is proportional to productivity, spatial heterogeneity, habitat (island) area, succession stage, frequency of disturbance.

Cautionary: (feeding animals) Tuttle, 1979. Status, causes of decline, and management of endangered gray bats. Journal of Wildlife Management.

What kind of "diversity" do/should we value? Leaving aside direct and indirect economic value. Hawksworth, 1994. Biodiversity: Measurement and estimation. Philosophical Transactgions of the Royal Society of London. Series B.

How many species? May 1990 Philosophical Transactgions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. : How do we estimate the extent of our uncertainty?

La Jencia Grassland Restoration Pilot Project

In an effort to control erosion at La Jencia Ranch, native upland (facultative wet) grasses and forbs were seeded around the leading edges of headcuts.
Plot 1.

Plot 2

View of erosional gully.

Grasses
Purple Three 5%
Side-oats grama 30%
Indian Ricegrass 16.25%
Galletia 10%
Western Wheatgrass 20%

Wildflowers
White Prairie Clover 7.5%
Purple Prairie Clover 5%
Rocky Mountain Beeplant 1.25%
Prairie Sage 2.5%
Scarlet Globemallow 1.25%
Prairie Coneflower 1.25%

plus saltbush (plot 1) and winterfat (plot 2)

Notes from End of Field Season Final Report

Notes used to prepare my End of Field Season Final Report on the Upper Rio Grande Headwaters Wetland Project for Colorado Natural Heritage Program:


Detail:

Buffel Grass Removal at Saguaro National Park

Before:

After:

Buffel Grass is an invasive species that threatens to choke and burn out the Saguaro cactus and Sonoran Desert ecosystem. It looks somewhat like fountain grass, which is also a noxious invasive in our area:


For more photos, click here.