Along New Mexico streams and rivers, professionals use a variety of low-tech structures to reduce erosion, restore stream banks, and help spread streamflow across the natural floodplain. What if there was a low-cost, novel way to monitor the effectiveness of the structures over time?
Those are questions Dr. Nate Tomczyk with the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute has begun researching on restoration projects along the San Antonio Creek, Rio Cebolla, and Rio Mora in Northern New Mexico.
The low-tech structures used in the stream reaches Tomczyk is studying include herbivore exclosures, beaver dam analogs, post-assisted log structures, large wood debris structures, and willow plantings. The goals of these structures are to slow down and spread out water flows, capture sediment, and allow grass, plants and tree saplings to take hold along river banks. Over time, this restoration effort can help water soak into the ground and recharge shallow aquifers.
Tomczyk’s research project is evaluating a new low-cost method for monitoring the effectiveness of the restoration treatments by looking at temperature variation in streams versus air to understand how treatments are changing the contribution of shallow groundwater recharge associated with restoration efforts.
Tomczyk is collecting data from restoration treatment projects on three stream reaches and plans to add more for this initial study.
