We are in a ‘drought apocalypse’

According to a recent NASA study on the state of water in the western U.S., we are in a “drought apocalypse.” The West is undergoing rapid desertification due to human caused degradation of the land. Land loses its water holding capacity when precious topsoil and plant cover are lost due to destructive agricultural practices such as excessive tilling, overgrazing and intensive logging. As a result of losing its water-holding capacity, most of the precipitation falling on the land is lost from evaporation and runoff. Historically fertile and productive land becomes a desert.

All of this destruction has been allowed by our government land and water agencies. They helped create the “drought apocalypse” in the West by issuing permits for excessive pumping of aquifers, overgrazing of grasslands, and the clear-cutting of public forests. Developers, industrialists, and huge corporations exert relentless pressure on government officials in order to reap enormous profits from the exploitation of natural and human communities. Every devastated watershed, overgrazed rangeland, polluted river, and new oil and gas pipeline, represents the failure of our elected officials to do their sworn duty — to protect the Earth’s resources held in trust for future generations from damage and privatization. The good news is that humans can reverse this vicious cycle of desertification. The answer lies right beneath our feet and all around us.

David Johnson, a senior research scientist at NMSU, states that every 1 percent increase in soil carbon amounts to an additional 25,000 gallons of water storage capacity per acre. In desert soils, this represents a fourfold increase in soil moisture. Holistic land management can achieve a 1 percent increase in soil carbon every few years or, in some cases, every year. Improved soil carbon and fertility translates into greater productivity, less runoff, reduced evaporation rates, and improved recharge of aquifers. In addition, every 1 percent increase in soil carbon amounts to the sequestration of 37 tons or 74,000 pounds of C02 per acre. Through soil restoration we can not only stop desertification, we can begin to reverse it and, at the same time, help mitigate climate change. There is great promise for our watersheds as well.

According to a recent study done by the Center for Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology at the University of Arizona, carefully managed thinning of second-and third-growth forests can have a dramatic effect on the amount of water discharged from watersheds. Today’s forests are unnaturally dense from regrowth after extensive logging. Measurements have shown that much of the snowfall is intercepted by the tightly spaced trees before it reaches the ground and nearly 50 percent of this snow sublimates (lost to the atmosphere as water vapor). Researchers found that careful thinning can increase the annual watershed output by 10 to 20 percent. The increased amount of water benefits the whole ecosystem — trees, fish, animals and humans. For Taos County, a 10 percent increase from our watersheds would amount to an additional 12,000 acre feet of water per year.

Imagine if we started restoring our watersheds, practicing holistic grazing on public lands, and helped start ecologically managed local farms. The healthy farms, fields and forests would capture and retain more precipitation, eliminate destructive runoff, recharge groundwater, and provide food security and income for our community.

Watershed renewal, soil restoration, acequia education, and local sustainable agriculture build community resilience, create meaningful work, generate community income and help heal our relationship to the land, water and each other. Future generations will not be paying the debts for our mistakes, but reaping the interest from greater natural and human capital.

In the words of George McGovern, “The powerlessness of people to participate in the institutional decisions that affect their lives marks the end of a true democratic society.” We have the power and now is the time to exercise it. Call and write to your senators, congressman, land agencies and elected officials and demand they protect the land and water. The deep wells planned for by the Abeyta Settlement are not the answer. They are just a continuation of the policies that have created the current environmental and financial crisis we are now faced with. We can do better!

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock can be our inspiration. We do not get power from being against something. We are powerful when we are standing together for that which we love — the Earth and its water. It is by focusing on what is right in the world that we have the power to change what is wrong.

Pieper is a local business owner, acequia commissioner, outdoor educator and operator of a small farm in Arroyo Seco with his wife, Elana.