BISBEE ” Whitewater Draw near McNeal is a big attraction for winter tourists who come to see the thousands of Sandhill Cranes and other water fowl in the shallow desert lake and surrounding wetlands.
 Beatrice Richardson/Wick News Service Ruth Evelyn Cowan, owner and project manager of the NI Ranch, talks about her Hay Mountain Watershed Rehabilitation project during the Coronado RC&D Annual Meeting at the Double U Ranch recently. |
To that end, four ranchers from the Dragoon Mountains to the Mule Mountains have been working over the past three years to not only protect the sensitive area by reducing sediment that washes down the mountains and across the plains every monsoon, but help reduce the erosion on their ranchlands. The project was to build numerous rock dams across washes on their ranches, which not only collect sediment on the back side of the dam for re-vegetation of grasses but heal the erosion-scarred landscapes. The stacked rocks are held in place by re-bar and hog wire wrapped around them.
The project was funded in part by grants from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the USDA and the Arizona Department of Agriculture and involved ranch owners Jack and Linda Telles of the 9,920-acre Double U Ranch in Gleeson, Dennis and Deborah Moroney of the 22,000-acre 47 Ranch in McNeal, Fred Davis of the Davis Ranch in Tombstone, and Ruth Evelyn Cowan of the 15,000-acre NI Ranch in Tombstone.
Fifth-generation rancher Cowan said, “This was the simplest, easiest and least expensive project ever. But, it was the hardest to complete.”
Cowan used Arizona Department of Corrections inmate labor from the Douglas Prison. “They work harder than volunteers.”
Still, things went slow on the NI Ranch, mostly due to the weather and equipment breakdowns. She eventually finished her rock dams thanks to three teams working at different spots.
“We discovered the project worked, but it was a bear,” Cowan continued. “You know, when things go to hell in a handcart, there are those people around who really, really help you out.”
Cowan was referring to the folks at the National Resource and Conservation Service, and in particular the coordinator in Willcox, Donna Matthews, who helped extend the time limit on the project and helped her write the grant for funding. “If something came up, they just rolled with it. I would never have been able to do this without the NRCS staff and the ADEQ.”
One of the cost-saving methods they tried to use was mining rock from their ranches. That proved to be a time-consuming, back-breaking job that only slowed the projects. Instead, they opted to buy rock from quarries to move from wash to wash.
Dennis Moroney explained that he had several areas of active erosion at his ranch in the foothills of the Mules. Thanks to a Arizona Department of Agriculture grant, he was able to install 496 rock dams across his ranch with the help of prison labor. He said the best time to build the dams was in June, long past any frost or ice which can affect the structure.
Oddly, he added that the state was concerned that in the future his rock dams would be mistaken for Native American artifacts and structures. So, he added tags on each one giving them names and numbers so that would not happen.
He, too, is very pleased with the success of his structures and the buildup of sediment that has helped control flooding and rebuilt his range.
Mary Nichols, hydraulic engineer with the USDA Research Service, helped Telles with his project. She said once the sediment reached the top of the dam, one could build it higher or just choose another place upstream or downstream to place another. Results may not be immediately seen after a rain event, Nichols added. “It could be a few years before you really start to see things change.” Though they are low-tech, Nichols said it’s cheaper to buy more rock than to replace concrete structures. “You have to look at all of them together as a system for this to work.”
Even though the rock dams are only 18 inches to 24 inches high, the 66 tons of rock Telles bought ended up in 53 spots in various sites along a long wash. “We still have some rock left over. That’s a good thing because we can use it wherever we find more problems. I’m really impressed with the way the land is healing. There’s a lot of new growth and the land’s not eroding like it once was.”
One of Telles’s dams is about a foot high had managed to collect a great deal of sediment. The small dams also create small pools of water that add moisture to the surrounding soil for more grasses to grow while helping reduce the erosion that causes the sediment build-up.
They all know that whatever they build can surely be destroyed by Mother Nature in the wild monsoons. But, over the past few years, rainfall amounts have dropped considerably, and so far, the dams have performed as expected.
Though the rock dams they built can be swept away or covered in sediment in heavy floods, the water retained during mild events helps restore the quality of the grazing land while benefiting the feathered community and all the critters that call the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Management Area home with cleaner water.
Comments