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Most of the cottonwoods are 40 to 80 years old, and natural regeneration is not replacing them. According to bosque restoration pioneer Cliff Crawford, "If current trees are not replaced by their offspring, the cottonwood bosque will be overwhelmed by non-native species and disappear within this century." The trouble is on the banks of the Rio Grande itself. Decades of taming the roughly 1,900-mile-long river have severely curtailed its movement. Where it once meandered over an ancient floodplain up to 4 miles across, the river is now constrained to a mere 1/4 mile in most areas, effectively eliminating the mosaic of cottonwoods and willows of varying ages that once grew there. In addition, the water flowing downstream from Cochiti Dam and other diversion dams has gouged and lowered the riverbed as far south as Elephant Butte Reservoir, depriving cottonwoods of their historic habitat--riverbanks low enough to be flooded with some regularity in late spring.
There are some restoration projects underway in other stretches of the bosque outside of the city.
The invasion of salt cedar is also permanently changing the soil of the bosque. Salt
cedar literally poisons the soil around it making it difficult for any other plant to
survive thereby establishing a zone in which only the salt cedar can thrive.
It is very difficult to eradicate as there is only a very narrow time every year where
poisoning the tree will not cause it to dump salt into the soil and it has become
a very serious threat to the health of the bosque.
Does anyone have a picture of a Salt Cedar? to be honest, I couldn't identify one if I had to. I could tell you what a Larch looks like, due to some lessons I received. I'm in the Bosque quite often. Is it OK for people to just go after them, for instance: I'm walking in the Bosque, I spot a Salt Cedar sapling and I pull it up? Just wondering.
This extract from Lala's first link outlines the (ahem..) root of the problem..
"What is saltcedar's growth cycle? Once saltcedar seed germinates it can grow rapidly
to a small flowering shrub in one to two years. The plant is very hardy and horticultural
varieties are advertised to grow "in sun or shade, and in wet or dry areas" from USDA
hardiness zones 2 to 7. The plant quickly establishes a long, woody taproot (Figure 3) to
support a voracious thirst for water. The root system is capable of producing many new
shoots if the top growth is removed by mechanical control methods or fire."
In short, it's like some ledgendary monsters in that if you cut it down, it not only grows back,
it multiplies. It has to be poisoned and, except at one time of the year, poisoning it causes
it to release its salt load into the soil so it's very difficult to eradicate it as you have a very short
window of time to do so without causing even more ecological damage.
Most of the cottonwoods are 40 to 80 years old, and
natural regeneration is not replacing them. ...
I guess that my confusion is in why a temporary flooding has
anything to do with the continuation of the species when the
water table is relatively unaffected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aries63
... overwhelmed by non-native species ....
The non-native species problem doesn't appear related to
the flooding. Even if the river resumed the flooding pattern,
I would think the saltcedar problem would still be there.
Note that I don't know for sure what I'm talking about.
I'm just trying to reason things out. I haven't read or seen
anything that shows why a regular, temporary flooding
has anything to do with new growth of Cottonwoods. Maybe
it does, but I still haven't seen why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poncho_NM
... it's all a bit off topic of "researching move to ABQ - did I miss
anything?" Is there anything else we need to tell movinon38?
Sorry. I was just following the "flooding' sub-thread that developed.
I suppose a "Future of the Bosque" thread would have been better.
I think that it shows movinon38 that there is little to worry about.
This thread quickly devolved into earthquakes and bosques because
the flooding issue isn't really much of a concern.
There have been some posts regarding the great 1988 Juan Tabo flood
that Zoidberg mentions earlier in this thread. Best advice:
Don't drive across a flooded street. That's good advice that is
universally ignored everywhere spawning many Darwin awards.
Is it OK for people to just go after them, for instance: I'm walking in the Bosque, I spot a Salt Cedar sapling and I pull it up? Just wondering.
Yes, I have pictures I took, but can't find them and these are better:
Salt Cedar on Rio Grande on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbycraft/3409895360/ - broken link)
Tamarask tree / salt cedar at our campsite on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/2448441760/ - broken link)
Salt Cedar Macro on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25259586@N08/2400474934/ - broken link)
I don't know about pulling them up, probably not going to get you arrested..
I had one growing in my yard, hard to tell when they are saplings...
Rich
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