Flowing water is the most precious of desert resources, and it’s a resource that’s been profoundly degraded in West Texas. As grasslands here were denuded, rains that once lingered in the soil came fast and hard across the land, accelerating erosion. Perennial streams became steep-banked arroyos, often bone-dry except during flash floods.
Millions in federal funds have been allocated to restore Trans-Pecos streams and grasslands, with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Alpine’s Borderlands Research Institute, or BRI, and the Rio Grande Joint Venture taking the lead. Now, there’s a new approach. Facilitated by the nonprofit Texan by Nature, and funded by oil giant ConocoPhillips, the Delaware River Basin Restoration project aims to revive an historic stream in Culberson County, 70 miles north of Van Horn.
Taylor Keys is Texan by Nature’s director of programs. Founded by Laura Bush in 2011, Texan by Nature brokers connections between businesses and conservation groups.
“Business will come to us with a challenge, their location, a budget, what success looks like for them,” she said, “and then we offer them solutions to turn those goals into something concrete. We truly believe that business can be a positive force for nature.”
The Delaware River runs 60 miles, from the Guadalupe Mountains to the Pecos River. It was a lifeline for the first U.S. explorers, and the Butterfield Overland stagecoach route followed its course. Today, long stretches of the river are often dry, while other reaches flow with spring water, sustaining fish and turtles.
In recent years, petroleum production surged within the watershed, and ConocoPhillips has been a player in that boom. The company is not disclosing its contribution to the new project. But with the funding, BRI, TPWD and Rio Grande Joint Venture staff will bring their restoration expertise to bear on the Delaware River.
The partners began by hiring an engineering firm to develop a digital model of the river basin. The engineers used remote sensing and satellite imagery. Then, they visited local ranchers, to learn about how their land has changed and what they would like to see on their properties.
This “big-picture” approach is novel – and it will help the partners target their efforts for the greatest impact. It will also allow them to monitor the results. That’s critical, Keys said, to help conservationists refine their techniques, and to demonstrate to businesses a return on their conservation investment.
“So let's create this model and then let's make sure it doesn't sit on a shelf,” Keys said, “but actually build on it as we put projects on the ground. Hopefully it can be a guiding data set that can help with future projects.”
Projects will be tailored to individual properties, Keys said, with landowners sharing the costs. At some sites, brushy plants – like creosote and tarbush – will be treated with the herbicide Spike, to allow native grasses to return. Healthy grasslands are a boon for wildlife and livestock, of course. But they also allow rainfall to be retained in the soil, to flow out slowly into streams. Other projects could include “brush weirs” – low-tech dams that will slow water in the Delaware River, helping reverse erosion.
The current initiative is for five years, and a first project will break ground this fall. But stream restoration takes time. Keys hopes this is the beginning of sustained efforts to restore the Delaware River.
“At the end of five years,” she said, “I hope we can say we put a lot of projects on the ground, there's a lot of acres restored, and here's the benefits, but also, how can we continue that work?”
Interested Culberson County landowners can contact Keys, at Programs@texanbynature.org.
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