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The Open Space Division manages seven thousand acres of riparian areas comprising the Rio Grande Valley State Park. In 1988. Open Space began experimenting with dormant stock cuttings. This paper contains methods and procedures for establishing dormant stock cuttings. Dormant stock cuttings will be referred to as "poles" in this paper.

In the lower Pecos Basin, an unusual coalition of conservationists, agriculture producers, business owners, and state agencies have joined together to save what is left of the once-naturally diverse Pecos River ecosystem. This organization is going to show a state-of-the-art, economical, effective, efficient, and environmentally safe method to control salt cedar and reestablish native riparian vegetation. The objectives of the project are to demonstrate native wetlands and wildlife habitat improvement through salt cedar management; to demonstrate effective. economical, and environmentally...

The management of seven thousand acres in the Rio Grande Valley State Park presents a unique management challenge and opportunity. The Open Space Division defines a riparian area as "any area of land influenced directly by permanent water". The influence of permanent water or water flows produces visible vegetation and visible vegetative characteristics on the affected land. The Open Space Division management practices are designed to avoid adverse and negative impacts as much as possible. Mitigation measures such as creating wetland, land donation (including beneficial land exchanges and...

Riparian habitats throughout the Southwest have been altered directly and indirectly by human activities. Many migrant songbird species specific to riparian communities during the breeding season are experiencing population declines. Conversely, the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) benefits from fragmentation of, and livestock grazing in and near riparian habitat. Brood parasitism by cowbirds may accelerate the process of local extirpation of small, remnant populations of migratory songbirds. Cowbird trapping programs have successfully reduced brood parasitism of the Least Bell’s...

Several Federal and State agencies in Arizona and New Mexico are collaborating on the development of a strategy for the restoration of riparian systems. The strategy that is taking shape is the development of a package of formats, methods and information that can guide local groups in developing and implementing local riparian restoration plans. The major elements of the preliminary strategy are described.

Riparian habitats historically constituted 1% of the land mass in western North America. Within the past 100 years, an estimated 95% of this habitat has been altered, degraded or destroyed due to a wide variety of land use practices such as river channelization, clearing for agriculture, livestock grazing, water impoundments and urbanization. Many authors now concur that the single most important land management practice impacting western riparian ecosystems has been unmanaged domestic livestock grazing. Over 70% of the western United States is currently being grazed by livestock in...

Determining what "desired future condition" actually means has been viewed as a moving target approach for developing ecosystem management plans. The difficulty arises from trying to define what the desired condition are for any given site. In addition, definitions may be plagued with inconsistencies, contention and argument, indeterminate time frames and less than the best knowledge available. Herein, we propose a conceptual approach called "Desirable Functional Processes," or DFP, for evaluating the ecological condition of an ecosystem or parts thereof. It is founded on the premise that...

Created in 1992 by the Arizona Legislature, the Riparian Area Advisory Committee (RAAC) developed recommendations for protecting, maintaining, and restoring riparian areas in Arizona. These recommendations were submitted to the Legislature and to the Governor after concluding a two year period of study and discussion. The RAAC, consisting of 34 members broadly representative of federal and state agencies, tribal government, counties, municipalities, major economic resource user groups as well as environmental and recreational organizations, agreed on a Conservation Goal and on the broad...

The New Mexico State Land Office has initiated a rare plant survey of state trust land, an inventory and assessment of riparian areas on the trust land, and the development of a biological resources data base and information management system. Some riparian sites that still belong to the trust have been negatively impacted by livestock such that biological quality and ecological integrity of these sites have been reduced. Some sites on state trust land may have high potential for the development or restoration of riparian forests which could serve as essential habitats for neotropical...

Currently an organization called the Verde Watershed Association is the central point for consensus building and public involvement in water issues in the Verde River Watershed. The association is the out growth of efforts towards the resolution of watershed issues without passing new laws, initiating regulations, or entering the win-lose arena of litigation. The association is premised on the idea that truly effective river management and protection strategies cannot succeed without local consensus and support.