Wednesday, April 27th - the Riparian Resilience team headed to the field to scope out our research sites on the San Pedro River in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico and the Rio San Miguel, which flows south from northern Sonora into the city of Hermosillo.
We began the day with a tour of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), a nationally protected riparian area since 1988. The cottonwood forest can be seen in the photos above.
We continued south, crossing the US-MX border in Naco, and followed the San Pedro to its headwaters outside of the mining city of Cananea, Mexico. We were surprised by the extent of the impact of the drought and the especially dry winter of 2010-2011 on the vegetation in northern Sonora. There was severe Mesquite tree mortality in several areas. Groundwater pumping to support the copper mine and urban population of Cananea and to support ranching activities are major sources of water consumption in the area, which impact the riparian corridor.
US-MX Border Crossing at Naco, Arizona
US-MX Border Crossing at Naco, Arizona
Copper Mine, Cananea, Mexico
Drought-induced Mesquite tree mortality, Sonora, MX
Well field, pumping groundwater for transport to the city of Cananea, MX
Ranching activities in northern Sonora, MXUnfortunately, due to paperwork issues we were not able to visit our field sites along the Rio San Miguel on this trip. We did have the opportunity to meet up with our colleagues from Universidad de Sonora and Colegio de Sonora, which was a pleasure. Our next field visit is scheduled for mid-June, when we plan to spend 2 days collecting data along the Rio San Miguel and meeting with officials in Hermosillo and land owners in Sonora. In the meantime, Lily House-Peters and Robin Lewis have been traveling to meetings of the Upper San Pedro Partnership (USPP) in Sierra Vista and will begin to conduct interviews in southern Arizona in the coming weeks.
Please see the previous post for a link to more photos of our trip! (click on photo, which will automatically take you to the photo gallery)
