Northeast México Area Report, with a focus on Cuatrociénegas

Authors: Dean A. Hendrickson

Year: 2009 (xli)

Abstract

Northeastern México remains very poorly surveyed for fishes, but some small, isolated recent collecting efforts and explorations have produced interesting new discoveries of presumably natural populations of native fishes that had been previously overlooked. A small population of Etheostoma segrex, the Río Salado darter, reported a few years ago at DFC by this author and collaborators to be on the verge of extinction, was found in summer 2009 downstream of the area recently surveyed by Hendrickson et al. This is promising for the species, though the available habitat is very small, with dense Arundo above and below, and is completely disconnected from the small upstream population by mill diversions and associated barriers. A single specimen of Prietella phreatophila from a previously unknown locality was provided by Lourdes Lozano et al. a few years ago, and recent discovery of a promising, previously unknown area of karst with extremely high density of large and deep (100 m?) sinkholes (31 discovered by a small party in a single day of exploration) looks likely to expand the range of this species as much as 100 km west of what was previously documented. Plans are in motion to put large groups of speleologists in the region (N and W of Kickapoo springs) in the near future to thoroughly explore the area. In Cuatrociénegas, Poza La Becerra remains closed by PROFEPA for lack of an Environmental Impact Analysis, illegal change of soil use, and lack of a management plan for the extensive tourism that formerly occurred there. Since closure of the site in May 2008, the tourism group that formerly ran the balneario (water-based recreation site) relinquished control back to the original owners, who are left with a substantial fine and a requirement to provide an environmental impact statement and management plan before anyone can re-enter the property. Though the state governor has agreed to pay the fine for them, the owners are said to be reluctant to invest in an impact study and plan until they are assured they will be able to reopen in any way that could be profitable. Nobody has set foot on the property since it was closed, except for those controlling water extraction for irrigation. That activity has been unaffected and is not contested. The entire spring discharge of 500-600 liters/sec continues to be continually diverted into the canal except for occasional brief (2-3 day) periods for canal repairs and maintenance. Tourism-based income in the local community has dropped precipitously as a result of the closure of this formerly popular recreation site, and there is much talk in the local community now of development of new types of tourism that have no dependence on water or the pozas. Laguna Churince dried again this fall, and sinkholes that divert water from the Río Churince that feeds it have proliferated. The large ejido property that includes Laguna and Poza Churince, Poza Intermedia and Poza Bonita, as well as essentially all of the southwestern part of the valley exclusive of Poza La Becerra (privately owned) and the gypsum dunes (owned by DESUVALLE A.C.), was purchased this year by a private individual (or possibly consortium) from Sonora. Their plans for the property have not been stated, though there is speculation that the buyer is associated with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, whose foundation recently donated $100 million U.S. dollars to WWF México for conservation in several focal areas, including the Chihuahuan Desert. Regional newspapers reported in late summer that CONAGUA (National Commission for Water) has broken ground on the first of several projects that will put water from canals that transport water from Cuatrociénegas springs to agriculture outside of the valley into pipelines. The first project is Canal Santa Tecla, in the southeastern corner of the Reserve. Whether agreements have been reached to limit water going into the pipeline and retain some water in natural systems in the CC valley remains unclear, and nobody I have asked, including the Reserve Director and the local manager of the adjacent property owned by conservation group Pronatura Noreste, has seen any on-the-ground construction activity. Similar work on both Canal de La Becerra and Canal Saca Salada are to follow. To the north of Cuatrociénegas, in the Calaveras/Ocampo valley, though not yet officially announced (as far as is known to the author), the National Commission for Water (CNA) has indicated that they have determined that recharge of that valley’s aquifer that once naturally fed the now-dry Río el Cañon that once flowed through the town of Cuatrociénegas, is equal to the current extraction by agricultural pumping in that valley. CNA will thus apparently propose an extraction limit equal to current extraction rates. However, previous studies documented that the water table there had dropped precipitously in response to pumping, indicating that extraction exceeded recharge some years ago. Despite the dropping water table, agriculture has continued to expand and diversify in the Calaveras valley. To the south, in Valle El Hundido, an earlier-declared CNA water extraction limit still applies. Persistent Internet investment community blog reports about the imminent opening of a copper mine just outside the southern limit of the Cuatrociénegas reserve remain mysterious. Though within the political limits of the municipality, nobody in the municipal office or any local residents with whom I have inquired, has any knowledge of it. Over the past two years the Reserve has fenced several large areas with aquatic habitats (Los Gatos, Los Hundidos, Churince system) to exclude livestock. Reserve management has generally shifted over the past year to focus on work with local communities, helping them find new income opportunities and more sustainable lifestyles (solar ovens, raised bed gardening with drip irrigation, etc.). Essentially the entire reserve staff except the Reserve Director, sub-director and two clerical assistants now live and work 4 days/week in the outlying ejidos. The National Institute of Ecology (INE) recently published on its website (http://www.ine.gob.mx/emc-cuatrocienegas) all data from their array of 15 poza water level and temperature data loggers scattered widely around the Cuatrociénegas valley. These have logged data hourly since installation in late 2006 and early 2007. Graphs of monthly averages presented on the website generally demonstrate that all pozas (ranging from spring pools through rivers to sumps) vary in both level and temperature, but to different degrees with trends in some clearly independent of those seen in others. Generalities are hard to extract from the simple graphic presentations provided on the website, due to their varied time frames, cryptic missing data, the relatively short overall time frame of a bit more than three years, and sometimes human manipulations of water levels and discharges, but many systems demonstrate the expected January peaks and summer lows. Especially in the southwestern and central parts of the valley it appears that most pozas have experienced slight declines in water levels over the monitored period. The water level of one poza on the far western edge of the valley (Anteojo) is unique in being indicated to have risen steadily a total of about 15 cm over the monitoring period (however, 6 months of data are missing from the middle of the 28 month period) and this poza has a history of human manipulations. Data continue to be collected from these loggers and merit more careful and continued analyses. Unfortunately, data errors and some omissions were found in the raw online files but INE has promised to correct them, and indicate that they plan to continue adding new data periodically as they become available. They are to be congratulated for making these valuable data publicly available.