Ecological Sustainability Analysis of the Coronado NF: Describing the Ecological Niche of the Forest for Water and Riparian Resources Item Type text; Proceedings Authors Lefevre, Robert E.; Halverson, Kevin Publisher Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science Journal Hydrology and Water Resources in Arizona and the Southwest Rights Copyright ©, where appropriate, is held by the author. Download date 26/09/2021 08:54:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/296684 ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE CORONADO NF: DESCRIBING THE ECOLOGICAL NICHE OF THE FOREST FOR WATER AND RIPARIAN RESOURCES Robert E. Lefevre' and Kevin Halverson2 The Coronado National Forest (the Forest) is made Evapotranspiration - vegetation converts up of a group of mountain ranges known as the precipitationintowater vapor,butis inSoutheastern Arizona. These Sky Islands highly variable for different vegetation mountain ranges provide an interesting function types and densities for the water resources of the area.This paper Infiltration - precipitation that infiltrates describes the water quantity and quality ecological niche of the Forest at several different scales in into the soil generally does not become order to evaluate the contributions to ecological available as surface water in Southeastern Arizona.In isolated locations there is an sustainability that may occur at those scales. excess of water in the soil that emerges as surface at springs or seeps, or in perennial SUBBASINS AND WATERSHEDS streams where the water table intercepts This analysis extends beyond the boundaries of the stream bottom. the Forest in order to understand the environmental Soil Water Storage - water stored at the context of the Forest and the opportunities and end of the growing season, often leaving limitations of theForest tocontributeto the the watershed moreresponsive to systems.National sustainabilityof ecological subsequent precipitation events. directionrecommendsusingthesubbasins, watersheds, and subwatersheds developed by the The data represented in Figures 3 and 4 represents National Hydrographic Dataset. (NHD, 1999) runoff - often stormflow, but generally any water The Forest is contained within nine that is not intercepted, evapotranspirated, subwatersheds and 51 watersheds. Subwatersheds infiltrated, or stored and makes its way down a The subbasins have not been developed to date. watercourse on the surface.The wide variety of are listed in Table 1, and displayed on a map in precipitation, topography, and vegetation Figure 1. communities found at every level of analysis makes estimating runoff difficult.Few stream WATER QUANTITY gages record runoff in this area, and those that do Water quantity available in the subbasins, representwateryieldat pointsgenerally watersheds, and subwatersheds as surface water is downstream from large water uses such as farming affected by a variety of factors including: communitiesandmunicipalities,orhighin Precipitation - most available water is watershedsrepresentingareassmallerthan directly responsive to precipitation events. subwatersheds (Daly et al, 2003). Interception - some precipitation does not Perennial water is scarce. A total of 458.51 reach ground surface to become surface miles (NHD modified)arefoundinthese water but is intercepted by plant canopy watersheds. In the watersheds that have perennial and litter. water, the Coronado National Forest contains a largeshareof themilesof perennialwater USDA Forest Service, Tucson, Arizona compared to representation of acreage in those 2 USDA Forest Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico 40 Table 1 Subbasins that Contain the Coronado National Forest Hydrologic Subbasin USFS Area Unit Code Subbasin Name Area (mi2) (mi2) 15040003 Mimas Valley. Arizona, New Mexico. 2221.4 41.6 15040005 Upper Gila -San Carlos Reservoir. Arizona. 2784.1 246.6 15040006 San Simon. Arizona, New Mexico. 2241.8 283.1 15050201 Willcox Playa. Arizona. 1678.7 275.4 15050202 Upper San Pedro. Arizona. 1797.2 253.2 15050203 Lower San Pedro. Arizona. 1985.7 365.6 15050301 Upper Santa Cruz. Arizona. 2209.1 690.9 15050302 Rillito. Arizona. 929.3 278.1 15050304 Brawley Wash. Arizona. 1389.9 44.0 15080200 Rio De La Concepcion. Arizona. 135.0 99.2 15080301 Whitewater Draw. Arizona. 1188.1 124.9 15080302 San Bernadino Valley. Arizona, New Mexico. 427.5 47.5 15080303 Cloverdale. New Mexico. 135.1 28.0 Coronado National Forest Ecosystem Management Areas U '., Subbasins tr#t75O+ d:7 Figure 1. Subbasins that Contain the Coronado National Forest 41 p % National Forest 100% 90% % Water Yield 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% - 0% oo o o %o Je\eA Ja\¢eo\e QQQá`ee s ea o aeO Go ee Gca\o, ooe So ¢ c a e JQQ JQe 0e eGcm òe r col" JQ Figure 3. Comparison of Percent Total Water Yield from the National Forest to Percent of the Watershed that is National Forest. D Fs Ownership (percent) 120.00% Percent of perennial streams 100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00% GJti 5 + a ak Qo 4 `.a\oo \ou g a 6at\o\\a Aeooi \,o JQQo a I Q-` Cra JQQ6 Figure 4. Comparison of Percent Perennial Water on National Forest to Percent of the Watershed that is National Forest. 42 watersheds. The fact that the Forest is made up of Arizona skyislandsthatreceivethemajority of the The general classifications used for surface precipitation within these watersheds, coupled with water quality by the Arizona Department of the generally shallow soils and bedrock near the Environmental Quality (ADEQ) are "attaining" surface explain most of this. and "impaired" for all uses specified, and "not attaining" or "not assessed ".Presently, water WATER QUALITY quality has not been assessed within much of the Surface water quality flowisaffected by Forest.However, down stream, off the national hydrologic function, which is the ability of soil to forest, water quality has been assessed by ADEQ. capture, hold and release water, and by direct According to the 2004 ADEQ draft report "Status additions of pollution from a point source, or from of Water QualityinArizona: The Integrated landscape accumulations of pollutants (non -point 305(b) Assessment and 303(d) Listings Report" source).The States of Arizona and New Mexico (ADEQ2004),some reaches withinand have conducted water quality assessments and downstream of the Forest have been determined to reported on them as required by the Clean Water be impaired and not meeting the state standards for Act. Assessment at Subbasin or Watershed level is uses specified for that water body. not appropriate, because all data is presented at the stream reach level.Figure 2. displays the streams that have been monitoredinArizonainthe Subbasins of the Coronado National Forest. Assessed Waters National Forest Boundary 0 Watersheds Figure 2. Assessed Waters within the Subbasins within which the CoronadoNational Forest is located. 43 The Categories are defined as follows: Category 1: THE RIPARIAN ECOLOGICAL NICHE OF Attaining All Uses - All designated uses assessed THE FOREST as "attaining" Category 2: Attaining Some Uses - The riparian ecological niche of the Forest is At least one designated use assessed as "attaining" presented at several different scales in order to andallother uses assessedas"inconclusive" evaluate the contributions to ecological Category 3: Inconclusive - All designated uses are sustainability that may occur at those scales.At "inconclusive" (by default, any surface water not the watershed scale, the Forest accounts for a very assessed due to lack of credible data is actually small percentage of total riparian area. This is due includedinthiscategory) Category 4: Not to the large rivers including the Gila River, San attaining - At least one designated use is "not Pedro River, and Santa Cruz River supporting attaining," and no designated use is "impaired" ripariancommunitiesinthevalleys,but not Category 5:Impaired - At least one designated represented on the Forest. All riparian areas on the use was assessed as "impaired" Forest are on small tributary streams to these large A total of one stream and two lakes on the rivers.Figure 5 represents the acreage of riparian Forest are "impaired ".In addition, five streams areas within the watersheds both on and off the and two lakes are "not attaining" because they Forest. have Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plans in process.Off Forest, several other streams are Vegetation listed. The Arizona Game andFish Department Cave Creek, which drains the Chiricahua (AGFD) developed a riparian area map in 1994 Mountains, is listed as impaired due to selenium. thatincludesalllands within these subbasins Rose Canyon Lake in the Rillito subbasin, (AGFD,1994). Inaddition,The Coronado identified as impaired because it is eutrophic after National Forest has conducted riparian area data two major wildfires in the watershed and a large collection and monitoring on NationalForest amount of burned organic matter eroded into it. System Lands since 1984.Table 2 displays the Parker Canyon Lake in the Upper Santa Cruz vegetation types mapped by the AGFD and the subbasin islisted as impaired due to mercury Forest. content in the lake sediments and a fish advisory. The "Strand" and"Agriculture" typesare Alum Gulch, Harshaw Creek, Cox Gulch, mapped on the Forest in small quantities, and Humboldt Canyon and Three R Canyon are listed could be mismapped. as not attaining in the Patagonia Mountain area due to zinc, cadmium, and copper. Channel Morphology Arivaca Lake in the Brawley Wash subbasin has a TMDL approved plan for improving the Data collected since 1998 on the Coronado mercury content in the lake sediments.