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A Cross Country Road Trip: Wetlands of the Southwest

Written on: September 16th, 2024 in Natural Resources

By Alison Stouffer, DNREC’s Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Program

Welcome back to the second installment of the WMAP cross country road trip! To our returning adventurers, we are so glad you have decided to join us on the next leg of the trip. For those of you joining us for the first time, we are slowly making our way across the country as we explore a new wetland in each state of the US. If you are feeling like you missed out, you can read up about the first excursion here. Otherwise, sit back, relax, and enjoy passenger princess treatment from the comfort of your home as we head to the wetlands of the southwestern United States.

This region of the country is dominated by arid desert lands, pock-marked by low-lying basins and small mountain ranges. However, desert isn’t the only ecosystem found here; forested mountains, great plains, and intertidal coastline are also present. And throughout, wetlands (covering approximately 8% of the four southwest states¹) provide a refuge for wildlife to beat the dry climate. On this leg of our cross-country road trip, we will be exploring wetland points-of-interest from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Arizona

I hope you packed your portable, battery-operated fan because the first stop of our Southwest road trip is a hot one! Tres Rios, a wetland and riparian restoration project within the City of Phoenix, is a 700-acre freshwater wetland habitat influenced by the Salt River. This demonstration site helps to re-establish the historic wetland function of the Salt River by increasing flood control within the area and removing the invasive salt cedar tree (which has pushed out native plant species like the mesquite tree). Plus, as an added bonus, Tres Rios helps filter water entering the river from the city, including reclaimed water from a nearby wastewater treatment plant.

New Mexico

From one capital to the next, we continue our journey to the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve is a unique and rare wetland type called a ciénega, or “marsh” in Spanish, which forms around a natural spring. The 35-acre preserve is actively monitored to ensure visitation and management efforts (such as the removal of invasive plant species) are having a minimal negative effect on the habitat. This desert oasis provides critical habitat and water resources for many species of birds, butterflies, and mammals.

Texas

Our next wetland stop-over has us leaving the desert behind for Big Thicket National Preserve, which boasts over 35,000 acres of mapped wetlands! Located in a unique transition point between ecosystems, the preserve contains a range of wetland habitats, including pine savannahs with poorly draining soils, riverine floodplains that experience seasonal flooding, baygall depressions dominated by sweetbay magnolia and gallberry holly, palmetto hardwood flats where ponding can occur, and cypress sloughs that are the quintessential image of a swamp. With sea level rise, Big Thicket will likely experience a shift from freshwater to estuarine wetlands as saltwater moves inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

Oklahoma

We will be finishing the southwest portion of our wetland cross country road trip at Red Slough Wildlife Management Area in Oklahoma. Red Slough contains around 2,400 acres of wetlands, a small proportion of its historic footprint. Agricultural draining and clearing in the 1960s significantly impacted the ecological functioning of the area, which was later restored by re-establishing former hydrologic conditions. Visitors will enjoy views of mudflats, shallow-water impoundments, emergent marshes, wet prairies, riparian zones, and scrub-shrub habitats.

Next Stop: Wetlands of the Midwest

I hope you enjoyed this installment of our cross-country road trip and all the unique features the wetlands of the Southwest had to offer! We will be turning our travels north to the Midwest in the next portion of our journey so be sure to stay tuned. Until then, rest up, stretch out those legs, and start planning your return to these wonderful southwestern wetlands!

1. USGS. (1997). State Summary Highlights. In: National Water Summary on Wetland Resources. https://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425/state_highlights_summary.html.

Tags: Wetlands