Activity Report Explorer

Rio Grande Valley Broadband • Entered by Susan Ostlie on March 31, 2022

NM Wetlands webinar – northern conference

March 30, 2022

Key Issue: Water-related Conservation
Activity Type: Grant Funded Climate Education & Stewardship Program
Key Partners: NMED, US Army Corps of Engineers, Albuquerque Open Space, Bernalillo county Open Space, etc.

Short Description of Activity

Agenda
Welcome and Announcements, Maryann McGraw, NMED Wetlands Program
Six Seasons of Restoration at the Rio Grande Nature Center, Brian Hanson, Rio Grande Nature
Center, Volunteer
Status of Waters of the United States (WOTUS), Brianna Wadley, USEPA Region 6
11:00 – 11:45 A Uniquely New Mexico 30 by 30, Jacob Pederson, Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division
Yerba Mansa Project, Dara Saville, Director, Yerba Mansa Project
River Stewardship Program Overview and Opportunities – Kate Lacey, NMED Surface Water Quality
Bureau
US ACE Regulatory Update, Forrest Luna, US Army Corps of Engineers
CWA Section 401 Certification Process and Updates Alan Klatt, NMED SWQB

Reflection/Evaluation

There were parts of this webinar that were useful and informative, and others that were considerably over my head. The six years of restoration at the Rio Grande Nature center were sobering in terms of how difficult it is to get shrubs to survive for more than a year, unless they are watered more than once a week. It is even more vital for grasses to be watered every day, or even twice a day, for more than the first year. Then getting cottonwood poles to thrive and grow so far from the river is nearly impossible. It used to be that the water table was about 6-8 feet deep, but now it is approaching 20 feet, which not only kills off the young poles, but also is killing off the mature cottonwoods. It was also informative to learn about native plants and invasives, especially Ravenna Grass, which is choking out natives in the bosque. Dara Seville did a useful presentation on these issues. The other three presentations about what qualifies as WOTUS was sobering – new changes are going to make it harder to protect wetlands that are in a basin with. no inlet or outlet, and ones that are ephemeral. It seemed like new changes to the definitions are being sneaked in under the radar. Maybe I was misinterpreting the explanation by Brianna Wadley, but there seemed to be waters that no longer qualified for protection from pollution. Also, once a stream is considered compromised, it no longer has to be monitored for downstream pollution. That sounds totally wrong, I know, but it seemed like that was what Wadley was implying. I think I need to send off some questions about this to the moderator, Mary Ann McGraw. The last two presentations by Luna and Klatt made me glad I’m not any kind of a water engineer, because they were so technical that I could barely manage to follow any of the two presentations. Their slides were so dense that even they couldn’t read them…There were over a hundred participants, and they kept dropping off the webinar during those last two presentations. When it was time to submit comments or questions, there was only one person who even tried, and he was asking what to do about getting his equipment stuck midstream. He could not change the oil and do other kinds of maintenance without destroying the streambed. Of course, one has to wonder what he’s doing with heavy equipment in the streamed in the first place…