historical accounts of watersheds across the arid chihuahuan desert landscape indicate many had more perennial streams and were lined with gallery forests of cottonwood and willow. today, summer thunderstorms result in runoff that is no longer absorbed by the riparian forests and adjacent uplands, resulting in less recharge to aquifers, greater erosion and downcutting of stream bottoms, and less desirable vegetation communities. these stream channels are often disconnected from the floodplains.

well-developed and vegetated floodplains can absorb and store annual flood flows, resulting in wetter watersheds, and healthier riparian and wetland communities for wildlife.