Spreading the Flow with a Media Luna
We had another great erosion control workshop last weekend, instructor Craig Sponholtz of Dryland Solutions, Inc. came down from Santa Fe and volunteers came from several places. Many volunteers were repeat guests from the Tucson area. One guest was all the way from St. Louis and was riding his BMW motorcycle cross county to California. Old faces and new-it is always good to see old friends and make new friends. Plus they sure can lay down the rock structures! This workshop added to and repaired older structures as well as built new Zuni bowls, media lunas, rock rundowns and one-rock dams.
Our volunteers are a diverse group with ages spanning 5 decades and occupations from student to retiree. They may be a teacher, engineer, lawyer, social worker, musician, author, rancher, landscape designer, hydrologist, farmer or student at home, but for the weekend they are just folks working in dusty boots and leather gloves to help the environment. Doug and I are proud to host them!
Double Circle Ranch and Eagle Creek have benefited from the hours of volunteer labor here. We have gullies filling in with sediment and grass growing where it used to be bare ground. Water is being slowed and erosion lessened as water has time to infiltrate the soil. It looks better every year here at the Double Circle. We are proud of this ranch and certainly do appreciate the contributions our volunteers have made to our sustainable ranching goals.
We are also grateful to the Arizona Water Protection Fund Commissioners who funded this and past erosion control workshops here at the ranch. I think their money has been well spent- not only for the good work done here but also the work these people will do on other projects. Our volunteers will be building erosion control structures on their own land, on clients’ land, in their work designs, on family plots, AND they teach more people. It is an expanding circle of good conservation practices. Thanks to everyone – Craig, AWPF, Forest Service, Greenlee County, and all the volunteers. Doug and I are pleased to work with all of you.
Erosion Damage Caused by the Recent Monsoons
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