My late husband and I built three rock dams at the oasis. The first two divert water into below-ground-level tanks. The third one (I call the lower dam) is the biggest. It just holds water in the arroyo for a few weeks to give everything a good soaking, rather than it running away and leaving everything dry in a couple of days. Through the years, silt has built up behind the dam and a nice habitat is growing there. Here's a recent photo I took of part of the new habitat the dam created.
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| April 2019 |
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| August 2017 |
The first dam (upper dam) is the one that fills my big in-ground tank, pictured here.
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| Monsoon of September 2018 |
And the second (middle dam) gets water behind it after the big tank is full and water is then able to run over the first dam. The middle dam diverts into the stucco tank. Often there's not enough runoff to get that far, but I usually get plenty of water in my two dirt tanks (in a different arroyo) that I can pump the stucco tank full anyway. Here's the middle dam. Even if water doesn't make it to the stucco tank, it still backs up enough to give my lovely soapberry patch a good soaking.
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| Middle dam July 2005 |
The oasis totally depends on the harvesting of rainwater. And because I have the new above ground tank, I'm no longer stressed about water leaking and evaporating in the stucco tank. Normally, I'm really stressed around May when all my water is just about gone, trying to make it until the summer monsoons (Jul-Sep). Not this year. I'm good. And so grateful to all the wonderful donations that made it happen. If the dams are the backbone, then the water is the life-blood.
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