‘Twas An Average Year By Craig A. Wilson, Water Management Director
The fall of 2018 saw plenty of tropical storm activity, and that was after the monsoon season ended. The “monsoon season”, however, is a calendar event and nature, as we know, does not check boxes. Rather, nature is a rambling connection of forces that just likes to play with us here on the Ranch. Look at what has happened this year. Mostly, it has been an average year. Rainfall was typical Arizonan, about 7 inches of rain fell this year. The high temperatures were high; 119 - 100oF plus days and 13 - 110oF plus days. The low temperature barely made it to the freezing point (32oF) last January. All in the average range for the Ranch. The monsoon season was kind of a bust, just a short series of rainy days leaving about 3 inches of rain behind; another 2 inches when you count the rainfall in October. It’s not the rain though, but the associated wind, that created the damage we saw this past fall. Yes, the rain filled the lakes to overflowing, but that is part of the cycle of the lakes; receive the run-off, hold it and then slowly release the water. It is called detention and that is one of the missions of our lakes. The wind damage was serious, and we lost a great many of the trees that surround us and shade us from the sun. Many of the trees impacted by the wind were well into their life cycle. They grew from small saplings to medium size and then grew into large pine trees. In growing in our desert environment, they had to contend with dry and shallow soil depths in which to root. In many cases the catchment area that surround these trees was covered over by concrete and asphalt. Little if any rain water reached the tree roots, thus weakening the tree. Those trees in the path of the storms this season could not resist the fury of the wind. We did manage to use less irrigation water on our common area as turf areas captured a good portion of the rain to keep the soil moist. I imagine the overall water consumption across the Ranch also dropped as the many installed smart controllers cut back on irrigation. Life on the Ranch is just a series of water conservation opportunities just waiting to be applied.