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FERNTV: How damaging is it for the La Luz Creek to be used for the off highway vehicle use and a race course.
John: Streams and wetlands in the arid Southwest are arteries of life. Because of the presence of water in an arid landscape their significance is magnified. So when bad things do happen to streams and rivers the consequences are much worse. Off highway vehicles can strip a creek bare and dump tons of sediment into a creek both by erosion along the stream and then in the land above and adjacent to the stream. It's a real problem for streams all over the West and it's made worse by the fact that OHV'rs like to ride their machines up and down a creek where possible. It can strip away vegetation, not to mention the noise and air pollution. The truth of the matter is that off-highway vehicle use is just one of many threats to rivers and streams. Unfortunately there are many, many threats, including dams, water diversions, ground water pumping and cattle grazing. Each of these is a unique challenge that requires creative solutions to ensure that the rivers that sustain and inspire us today will be around for future generations.
FERNTV: How do people accept the fact that some rivers should be given rights?
John: My sense is that people are surprised, even a little shocked to learn that a river does not always have a right to its own water and that rivers can be run dry in the absence of a right to their own water. So we find that there is a lot of support for the concept of securing a river's rights to its own waters. Now practically speaking it's been a little more difficult, especially because here in the arid Southwest many rivers are over-allocated and over-appropriated in the first place. basically there are too many straws in a river. But we've been working, through the law, our political system, and more practically through conservation and efficiency, to ensure that some minimum flows are provided for our rivers.
FERNTV: What are some of the first steps in recovering a site that needs to be restored? Where do you start?
John: The single most important first step is stop whatever degrading activity led to the abuse in the first place. The next step is to evaluate it's current condition and what techniques could be employed to restore the area. In the Southwest much of our work has focused on protecting and restoring streams because of their biological significance. As we focused on streams the single greatest threat to their health has been cattle grazing, so the first thing we've done is remove cows from these sensitive habitats. Once we've dealt with the threat is when the fun part starts. And that generally means a lot of planting of native trees and shrubs, largely to give these areas a jump start on what they naturally do--which is grow a lot of vegetation. There are two other issues that we focused on--removing non-natives and trying to secure water/water rights to ensure that not all of the river's flows are diverted for human uses. It can be a lot of work.
FERNTV: In the Rio Puerco, the baldeagles and other native wildlife finally came back for the first time in decades, how did that make you feel?
John: Proud. Excited. Inspired to do more. It's quite an exhilarating feeling to see that nature can be healed if we just stop abusing the land and allow it to rejuvenate and restore itself. I started planting cottonwoods along the Rio Puerco in 1996 and it's been a long and difficult path at times to bring this stream back to life. We still have a long way to go too. Much of our advocacy work--as opposed to our restoration work--is a struggle and the ability to participate in healing work sustains me and energizes me on other work that is less restorative emotionally but equally or more important politically or socially.
FERNTV: How does one become a Watershed Guardian and why should someone become this type of guardian?
John: Anyone who cares about rivers, streams, springs or the health of their entire watershed can become a watershed guardians. I have urged people to become watershed guardians because lasting change only happens when people demand it--whether from our leaders or the state and federal agencies that manage our land, wildlife and water. I also think it's a unique opportunity because we try to make sure that people are involved at the right time and in the right place to make the biggest difference possible for healthy rivers. That means showing up for a hearing to ensure that polluters can't pollute or participating in restoration events
For more information goto: www.wildearthguardians.org
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I am sure that when a lot of us think about the environment we think of a lot of doomsday scenarios and we adopt a “I give up” attitude. That is not always the case especially with a hardworking environmental organization called WildEarth Guardians who give us a lot of hope about the environment as their hard work produces results. FERNTV talks to John Horning who discusses the work behind restoring rivers in the America West which is one of the many things that WildEarth Guardians concentrates their efforts on. We first discuss the La Luz Creek which is one of their restoration projects...
Rio Puerco NM, After
Rio Puerco NM, Before
La Jencia NM, Before
La Jencia NM, After
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