Cuenca Los Ojos, AZ

 See https://www.cuencalosojos.org/


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, CLO 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.

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I have the idea that the Tijuana River used to be a place like that. I used to go to this place in Tecate, Mexico, near Rancho Vacas Flacas, and there is no water, but it is all willows and must have once been a wetland marsh.

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