Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) Riparian Restoration

The Ohkay Owingeh riparian restoration project is a series of coordinated projects reaching back to the 1990s that now encompasses over 700 acres of restored ecological mosaic including wetlands, cottonwood gallery forest, grassland, shrub cover, open water, and dense emergent willow thicket that is ideal for bird habitat, particularly Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. The primary concerns were flood control channelization and invasive trees. The project involved hand-cutting invasive trees, recreating and enhancing river channels, planting native vegetation, and conducting pile burns. The project was successful in removing Russian olives (and other invasive trees) and the vast majority of seedling and root sprouts.