December 12, 2024 | Posted in General News
Photo By Robert Potts
Continuing work on one of the JV’s earliest projects (funded originally by TPWD and NFWF in 2019) Jeff Bennett, Price Rumbelow, the Dixon Water Foundation, and Borderlands Research Institute collaborated in 2024 to restore this important wetland using Pittman-Robertson funding.
The Property is located on the southern flank of the Davis Mountains and is comprised of a unique combination of wetland and riparian habitat adjacent to a playa lake surrounded by mixed prairie and grassland habitats. Cienega Creek runs north-south through the property just east of the wetland and playa lake. Like most streams in the Big Bend, Cienega Creek is incised and therefore dryer than it was before the arrival of colonizers. A large, relic, gallery forest of cottonwoods and willows is supported by the underlying groundwater system.
The purpose of the activities within the project area is to increase water storage and residence time along Cienega Creek and to increase connectivity with the alluvial aquifer. This is being accomplished through the instillation of a variety of low-tech “filter dams,” including one rock dams, wicker or woven filter dams, and even engineered log jams. Our intent is to assess their effectiveness and demonstrate the effectiveness of the low-tech “filter dam” approach. Ecosystem services along Cienega Creek that will be improved include: filtering and storing water, recharging and discharging groundwater, and sediment storage–all while improving habitat for nesting and migrating birds. Small areas of restoration can have a large impact both upstream and downstream by creating a protected, nursery environments that will allow natural regeneration of riparian forest to occur.
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