Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Clouds = relief.

If it’s not too much to ask … some rain??

At last count, there were 23 wildfires burning in Southwest Colorado (this doesn’t include the fires elsewhere in Colorado). It is supremely, horribly dry. Please be careful, no matter where you are! And please send positive thoughts and prayers to the firefighters and people evacuated from their homes as well as those who have lost their homes (none that I know of in SW Colorado).

Forest Service range guy HP was back in the basin this week to honcho the task at “the trickle,” an overflow pipe at an existing well that apparently used to support a drinking trough. We didn’t quite get accomplished our original goal, which was to dig down and install a drinking trough that would be filled by water from the trickle (just too rocky for shovels). But we did get the water flowing through a hose to fill the existing little pool, which we then dammed to try to hold better water there.

This is the end of the source pipe after we pried off the end-cap filter, which, because of mud and silt, was acting as a solid cap. There’s also mud backed up inside the pipe, and we’ve been playing in the mud to clear as much of it as we can reach, so yes, it looks pretty black and yucky.

The filter that had capped the source pipe. The pipe had been broken above where this fit inside, and the littlest trickle of water was flowing out (hence the name). Despite the poor quality and low quantity, the horses drink here, so we’re trying to make it better.

The water flowed downhill, caught in that little pool at the base of the tamarisk, then flowed on around and down until it just ran out.  The light-colored dirt at lower left is what we gathered to pack in around a plastic hose/pipe that we inserted into the source pipe, wedged with rocks and then packed with sand/clay/mud to force the water into the hose to run downhill. The line of rocks covers the hose from hoof traffic, and I’ll keep an eye on it until we can come up with another solution.

The end of the hose, with clear water continuing to trickle out. The water has been tested in the past, and although it’s salty, the horses clearly take advantage of it. (And all the water in the basin – except at the water catchment – is salty because of the alkaline soil.) We’re hoping this mucky little pool will clear up a bit and offer the horses a better source of water.

Apparently, some years in the past, the well fed a drinking trough that has since been removed for unknown reasons. That’s what we’re trying to restore.

Many thanks to HP of the Forest Service in Dolores, who supplied tools, muscle and know-how! He’s using his tamp bar to pry up rocks below the source pipe. The original well is up the hill behind him and the tamarisk you see in the background. Even though someone decided tamarisk is now OK, as it’s habitat for birds, we’re still on a mission to remove as much as we can from the basin, especially near water sources – which is exactly where it likes to grow.

Yours truly, captured by HP, who stole my camera to take this shot. 🙂 I’m shoveling mud into a little dam we made with rocks to hold the water in this little pool. (Note another tamarisk that needs to go bye-bye.) The trickle hose comes out at lower right. The trough we’d hoped to install is behind me.

To come: some poor-quality cellphone pix from riding the arroyos to GPS water seeps. We made some interesting discoveries. While there’s not a lot of water, there IS water, and the horses continue to be in excellent condition.

Rain dances encouraged and welcome.