Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin <br /> <br />also identifies the following list of benefits from a properly functioning <br />riparian community and implies that, until corrective action is taken to <br />rehabilitate the riparian areas, society will forgo these benefits: <br /> <br />. Improved water quality <br /> <br />. Filtration of sediments <br /> <br />. Moderated streamflow (reduced flooding) <br /> <br />. Retention of water, thereby extending late-season flow <br /> <br />. Restoration of perennial streamflow <br /> <br />. Recharge of ground water <br /> <br />.~ <br /> <br />. Protection from accelerated erosion <br /> <br />;:' <br />~~ <br /> <br />. Aggradation or maintenance of high water table <br /> <br />I': <br />;;" <br /> <br />. Increased recreational opportunities <br /> <br />. Optimal habitat for some fish and wildlife <br /> <br />. Increased biological diversity <br /> <br />" <br />?) <br /> <br />. Increased forage for wildlife <br /> <br />" <br />,.'. <br />" <br /> <br />;..;~ <br /> <br />. Enhanced aesthetics <br /> <br />Similar problems exist in upland areas that are tightly connected to the <br />Basin's riverine-riparian areas ecologically, even though separated spatially, <br />insofar as they affect the dynamics of water flows and the availability of <br />nutrients and energy along the landscape's gradients of slope and vegetation <br />(Finch and Tainter 1995). In their review of the literature, Finch and <br />Tainter provide some sense of the magnitude of the degradation in upland <br />systems when they observe that New Mexico's pinyon-juniper ecosystems <br />constitute 23 million acres and on the National Forests, alone, nearly half of <br />the pinyon-juniper watershed contains degraded soils and vegetation. <br />Degraded soil conditions, which includes soil compaction, and accelerated <br />erosion, together with removal of grass cover is associated with long-run <br /> <br />~ .-. <br /> <br />94 <br /> <br />(;('28'll1 <br />