GSS Team Criss-Crosses New Mexico

This October, Andy Robertson, Zack Ansell, and Josh Balsiger from GSS traveled to New Mexico to conduct Draft Map Review of wetlands alongside New Mexico Environment Department staff scientists from the Surface Water Quality Bureau (SWQB) Maryann McGraw, Daveena Crosley, Emile Sawyer, James T. Jones and Regional Wetland Coordinator Gary Hunt. Josh Balsiger, GSS Technician, said of the experience working with SWQB staff, “learning first hand from scientists who’ve devoted their lives to the study of the ecological system taking place in front of you is eye-opening.” They traveled west to east across New Mexico’s southern border, from large alkaline playas in Lordsburg, across the otherworldly landscape of White Sands National Park, to areas of robust karst topography south of Roswell. From there, they went north from the Permian Basin into the Eastern Plains where they answered questions about the high desert playas. The trip culminated in Santa Rosa, where the high water table produces saturation year-round and spring influence dominates the hydrology.

Special time was taken in White Sands National Park, home of the world’s largest gypsum dunefield, as the unique hydrology plays an essential role in the maintenance of the gypsum dunes that have become iconic of the southwest. Just inches below the surface of the dunes, the sand is wet, which helps hold the dunes together. “Walking into White Sands National Park, you feel as though you have stepped into another world,” said GSS Technician Josh Balsiger.