Velvet Mesquite Thinning to Improve Riparian Forests along the San Pedro River

In 1998, scientists from The Nature Conservancy implemented a tree-thinning experiment at Bingham Cienega Natural Preserve (the Preserve) to restore a bosque structure to a velvet mesquite community. The goal was to determine whether thinning could accelerate the development of a mature mesquite bosque. Trees were cut by hand and the cut stumps were treated with herbicide (Garlon). The results demonstrated that thinning treatments can lead to faster growth rates with 2.5cm diameter increase compared to 1.5cm in the control plots. In addition, thinned plots had noticeably more abundant resprouted stems in a shrub-like growth form.