Riparian ecosystems are declining throughout the southwestern United States, where many have disappeared completely; yet progress toward checking their decline has been marginal, and the results of only a few recovery projects have been evaluated. In this guidebook, Mark K. Briggs has filled this gap in riparian conservation literature. Based on his experiences gleaned from evaluating the results of many riparian rehabilitation projects, Briggs presents these results in a manner that biologists, hydrologists, government planners, resource managers, and other concerned citizens can immediately apply toward developing site-specific recovery strategies. The book opens with a review of watershed characteristics and an examination of drainage systems, then proceeds to determining the causes of riparian decline. It introduces five factors that have a significant effect on the results of riparian rehabilitation--natural regeneration, water availability, channel stability, direct impacts such as livestock grazing and recreational activities, and soil salinity--and offers case studies that demonstrate how revegetation has been used both effectively and ineffectively. It also discusses strategies other than revegetation that may be effective in improving the ecological condition of a site. Many of the strategies presented are also relevant to nonarid climates and to urban areas. By emphasizing evaluation of riparian ecosystems, so that the causes of degradation can be understood, and by offering general approaches that can be tailored to specific situations, Riparian Ecosystem Recovery in Arid Lands takes a holistic approach to riparian recovery that will enable users to better judge whether recovery expenditures are likely to produce desired results. An unprecedented work, it will substantially add to efforts across the Southwest and elsewhere to restore these unique and priceless ecosystems. CONTENTS 1 An Overview: Background on Riparian Ecosystems / Lessons Learned from Past Riparian Recovery Efforts / An Evaluation Strategy / Defining Some Important Terms 2 Considering the Damaged Riparian Area from a Watershed Perspective: Case Study 1: Rincon Creek / Taking Advantage of Available Information / Getting to Know the Watershed / Getting to Know the Stream 3 Impacts within the Riparian Zone: Livestock / Case Study 2: Sheepshead Spring / Recreation / Competition from Nonnative Species / Wildlife 4 Natural Recovery in Riparian Ecosystems: Case Study 3: Aravaipa Creek / Factors Influencing Natural Recovery / Case Study 4: McEuen Seep / Autoecology of Selected Southwestern Riparian Tree Species / Case Study 5: Boulder Creek 5 Water Availability: Case Study 6: Box Bar / How Groundwater Decline Occurs / Evaluating Groundwater Conditions / Revegetating Riparian Ecosystems Characterized by Groundwater Decline 6 The Drainageway: Channel Instability and Riparian Ecosystems / Case Study 7: Babocomari River / Channel Dynamics / Strategies for Evaluating Channel Stability / Developing Recovery Projects along Unstable Alluvial Stream Channels 7 Soil Salinity and Riparian Ecosystems: Effects of Soil Salinity on Plant Growth / The Soil Survey / Soil Salinity and Revegetation 8 Developing the Recovery Plan: Developing Project Objectives / Selecting the Best Site / Local, State, and Federal Permit Requirements / Identifying Model Areas / Critical Components of the Recovery Plan / Community Involvement / Demonstration Sites / Postproject Evaluation and Monitoring

Author: Mark K. Briggs
Paperback:  159 pages
Company: University of Arizona Press  (1996-10-01)
ISBN: 0816516448
List Price: $22.95
Amazon Price: $21.95
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When American settlers arrived in the southwestern borderlands, they assumed that the land was unencumbered by property claims. But, as Mar'a Montoya shows, the Southwest was no empty quarter simply waiting to be parceled up.

Although Anglo farmers claimed absolute rights under the Homestead Act, their claims were contested by Native Americans who had lived on the land for generations, Mexican magnates like Lucien Maxwell who controlled vast parcels under grants from Mexican governors, and foreign companies who thought they had purchased open land. The result was that the Southwest inevitably became a battleground between land regimes with radically different cultural concepts.

The struggle over the Maxwell Land Grant, a 1.7-million-acre tract straddling New Mexico and Colorado, demonstrates how contending parties reinterpreted the meaning of property to uphold their claims to the land. Montoya reveals how those claims, with their deep historical and racial roots, have been addressed to the satisfaction of some and the bitter frustration of others.

Translating Property describes how European and American investors effectively mistranslated prior property regimes into new rules that worked to their own advantage-and against those who had lived on the land previously. Montoya explores the legal, political, and cultural battles that swept across the Southwest as this land was drawn into world market systems. She shows that these legal issues still have real meaning for thousands of Mexican Americans who continue to fight for land granted to their families before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, or for continuing communal access to land now claimed by others.

This new edition of Montoya's book brings the land grant controversy up to date. A year after its original publication, the Colorado Supreme Court tried once more to translate Mexican property ideals into the U.S. system of legal rights; and in 2004 the Government Accounting Office issued the federal government's most comprehensive effort to sort out the tangled history of land rights, concluding that Congress was under no obligation to compensate heirs of land grants.

Montoya recaps these recent developments, further expanding our understanding of the battles over property rights and the persistence of inequality in the Southwest.

Author: Maria E. Montoya
Paperback:  299 pages
Company: University Press of Kansas  (2005-04-02)
ISBN: 0700613811
List Price: $15.95
Amazon Price: $14.99
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Arriving in Southwest New Mexico, itinerant bookman Jason Niles finds the town of Del Cobre almost too good to be true -- a community at ease with its modest size, rich in the heritage of an ancient culture, and uniquely in harmony with the natural world. It is an idyll that cannot last. The boomers think Del Cobre holds a different promise. And they have little sympathy for Mexican Black Hawks nesting on the edge of town, or the mysteries left behind by ancient artists. You can see it coming. And so can Jason. Inspired, and deluded, by the Ancients' lurid art, the books in which he trades, and the woman of his dreams, Jason sees an opportunity to make a difference. If he can pull it off, he can save remnants of a modern as well as a ancient culture, and even salvage something of himself.

Author: Merrilee H. Salmon
Paperback:  214 pages
Company: High Lonesome Books  (1995-12)
ISBN: 0944383327
List Price: $12.95
Amazon Price: $2.75
Used Price: $0.04