By Robert Marcos, photojournalist
Grand Junction, Colorado
While filming for the Nature Conservancy I learned this: Climate change has made three-quarters of our planet drier, yet at the same time the frequency of extreme downpours has increased. Raindrops that fall during these downpours hit the soil with more energy than they used to. This results with more erosion as dislodged soil is swept downstream by runoff that our increasingly dry soil is unable to absorb.
Forgive me if I left anything out of that overly-simplified explanation, but I wanted to define the problem first before describing solutions that are underway in Northwestern Colorado. The Nature Conservancy and their partners are heavily invested in a project whose goal is to improve the water quality in the Yampa River, and I was fortunate to have been invited to film work being done at three remote sites.
Joseph Leonhard – a Riparian Restoration Project Manager at the Nature Conservancy told me that his crews – which consisted primarily of AmericaCorps workers plus a few hardy scientists from the BLM and USGS, utilized Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration, (LTPBR), methods to slow the water in streams that led into the Yampa River.
LTPBR is a low cost restoration method that uses simple, hand-built structures composed of natural materials obtained locally – like branches, boulders, and sod, which mimic actual beaver dams. By restricting water these small dams encourage regenerative processes that can, over time, repair degraded landscapes, improve water retention, create habitat, and even build resilience against drought and fire.
What really impressed me was that the members of these crews – some of whom were 19-year olds while others were PhD’s, shoveled mud and waded through knee-deep water together. They displayed “group cohesiveness”- which is defined as coordinated effort toward shared objectives. During his interview Joseph Leonhard said that he and his people were “activated”, which I interpreted as meaning that instead of sitting in front of a computer, (like I am right now), they were engaged in productive physical activity that would directly benefit the environment.
For more information about the Yampa River Fund please visit: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/colorado/stories-in-colorado/yampa-river-fund/