3,000 trees threatened by extreme drought
Efforts to use native plants to restore the Santa Fe River area are in jeopardy
The lives of 3,000 recently transplanted willow clumps and 142 cottonwood trees along the Santa Fe River could be in jeopardy because there may not be enough water flowing down the river this year.
The vegetation was planted along the river between Frenchy’s Field and Siler Road about a month ago as part of the Santa Fe Greenway Project, a joint effort between the city and Santa Fe County intended to restore the river using natural materials and native plants.
“They are all in bloom and doing well so far,” Scott Kaseman, the county’s project manager for the Greenway Project, said of the plants. “We just need a good flow to soak the river channel to give them their best chance at survival.”
But that flow may not be coming due to a dry winter that could prevent an adequate amount of river water reaching the area where the plants are trying to take root.
On Wednesday, the city of Santa Fe’s river and watershed coordinator, Melissa McDonald, told the City Council’s Public Utilities Committee that due to a well-below-normal snowpack this year, stream flow is likely to fall short of projections.
McDonald said the target flow for the river this year is 300 acre-feet, but data the city received early this week from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service indicate there may not be that much water available.
“Basically what that means is we don’t have a lot of water this year,” she said.
McDonald said the hope
was that there would be enough water to release 4 cubic feet per second of water per day, but it will probably be closer to 1 cfs when the city planned to release its spring “pulse,” which is scheduled to take place in about two weeks.
A pulse is the release of enough water from the city’s two reservoirs in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains foothills to create a flow through town, mimicking a natural spring runoff in order to irrigate trees and vegetation along the river corridor.
The spring pulse is timed to provide necessary flows to accommodate the annual Children’s Fishing Derby and the historic agricultural village of Agua Fria’s blessing of the river, usually held around May 15, to honor San Ysidro (sometimes spelled San Isidro), the patron saint of crops.
McDonald said conditions will require the fishing derby to be postponed this year (see sidebar).
The lack of water flowing down the river will likely also affect acequia associations, two of which the city is obligated to provide water for through a court order.
A rare year
While the Santa Fe River typically trickles through parts of town and seldom reaches the city’s southern sections, the city’s “Living River” ordinance allows for as much as 1,000 acrefeet of water from the McClure and Nicholas reservoirs to bypass the treatment plant and flow through the city.
But because of the dry winter, a low snowpack and what so far has been a dry spring, the water just isn’t there this year.
“Last year was a great year,” said Alan Hook, the city’s water resources coordinator. “What a difference a year makes.”
Hook says the McClure and Nichols reservoirs are currently at 29.4 percent capacity. Normally, they’re between 80 percent and 90 percent capacity by June 1. “That shows you we’re not there this year,” he said.
In an interview Thursday, Hook emphasized that the city’s water supply is not in any danger due to the dry winter. The city uses three water sources — the Santa Fe watershed, groundwater pumped from wells both inside and outside the city limits, and its share of Rio Grande water from the San JuanChama Project, which comes from the Colorado River basin and is pumped over the Continental Divide — and there’s enough water to be tapped from the other sources to accommodate needs.
Hook also said he met with representatives from Acequia Madre, del Llano and Cerro Gordo on Thursday to discuss the situation.
“Mainly, we talked about the fact that there is very little stream flow coming from above the McClure Reservoir and the potential for delivery,” he said, adding that the city may not be able to meet the project delivery requirements for the Acequia Madre and Acequia Cerro Gordo associations determined by court orders resulting from a dispute over water rights. “They were aware that this is a rare year of extreme drought.”
Hook said he talked to them about possible options for integrating bypass releases to fit schedules for when they would like to receive water.
“Trying to combine or reduce deliveries to a more flexible schedule was discussed, because if we try to follow the original schedule we may not have the water to meet the flows,” he said.
Water truck not enough
While the Santa Fe River Greenway Project is a joint project between the city and county, the county is responsible for an 8-mile stretch of the river from Frenchy’s Field to the wastewater treatment plant west of N.M. 599. But the city will take over the maintenance of the river along that stretch a year after the Greenway Project has been determined to be substantially complete.
The planting of the thousands of willows and cottonwoods is one of the last remaining
elements. Kaseman said the project won’t be declared substantially complete until after a contractor’s one-year warranty runs out, meaning the city won’t take possession for another two years or so.
City documents say the project was initiated in the 1980s after a proposal to channelize the river for flood control purposes was rejected by the City Council “because the proposed measures were too drastic and insensitive to the natural character and history of the River.”
The project includes the construction of a multi-use trail along the river. But the overall river reconstruction was designed to remove non-native vegetation and replace it with native cottonwoods, willows, shrubs and grasses, and stabilize the river bed and banks.
Kaseman said the 3,000 willow clumps, made up of five to 10 stems each, and 142 cottonwood saplings were removed from the La Cieneguilla area west of Santa Fe, and replanted on both sides of the river between Frenchy’s Field and Siler Road.
The plants are now being watered from a water truck about once a week, but that’s not enough.
“Supplemental watering can only do so much,” he said. “Right now, we’re watering weekly, then it depends on the monsoons.”
Kaseman said the county is working with the Santa Fe River Commission, an advisory committee on issues related to the sustainable development and management of the Santa Fe River, and the city to release enough water to give the plants a good soak. He said soaking the river bed and banks could put enough moisture in the ground to last four to eight weeks — hopefully long enough to keep the plants alive until the monsoon season.
Look at the ‘big picture’
Augmenting the river flow to support the Greenway Project, and rescue the newly transplanted willows and trees is what the city’s Public Utilities Committee was asked to consider on Wednesday.
Andrew Erdmann, another of the city’s water resources coordinators, said he intended to present the committee with three options, but based on the latest water flow report, only one option remained viable — and it couldn’t be implemented for several months.
That option is to utilize the Osage Well, which is conveniently located near Frenchy’s Field, but hasn’t be used for several years. The problem with that is the well would require a discharge permit from the Office of the State Engineer and obtaining the permit could take several months.
Erdmann faced a barrage of questions from committee members, including City Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth, who was trying to get a feel for just how dire the situation was for the plants.
Among the questions she asked were: How drought-tolerant are the plants? How many would be lost if they didn’t get additional water from the river? How long does it take to establish the plants?
What about next year if we’re in the midst of a long-term drought?
“That’s why I should pursue a discharge permit,” Erdmann replied to the last question. If the situation were to occur next year, the city would have the permit to use the Osage Well.
City Councilor Renee Villarreal brought up the orchard planted at Frenchy’s Field a few years ago. The trees there appear to be suffering due to lack of water.
“Can we think about the big picture and include the fruit trees?” she wondered.
There was some discussion about how, last year, water was used to help abate the problem of wind kicking up dust at the construction site for the Las Soleras housing development on the city’s south side. But it turns out the water used for that came from a private well.
Councilor Chris Rivera, who chairs the committee, said he was reluctant to use any water that could be used as drinking water to water the plants, especially now when there’s a concerted effort by the city to get its residents to conserve water. Councilor Peter Ives then noted that most people use potable water to water their lawns.
But everyone seemed to agree that in the spirit of cooperation with the county, and to assure the success of the Greenway Project, something should be done.
“I think we should do everything we can to try to salvage them,” Councilor Joanne Vigil Coppler said of the plants.
The discussion will continue next week when the matter comes before the council’s Public Works Committee on Monday and then the full City Council on Wednesday.