Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Homeowner brings Snyder Pond back to natural habitat

Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jmoorman@news-bulletin.com

El Cerro Snyder's Pond was a gathering place for the youth of Tomé and Valencia County through the years. Now it has returned to being a wildlife preserve for migrating birds and other animals.

The pond located in center of the El Cerro Loop area was developed as a irrigation pond when the land was being farmed.

But when farming ceased in the mid-1970s and the area was developed into residential lots, the pond was no longer filled and became overgrown.

Cottonwood trees grew in the pond basin, and people ventured to the forest to party.

When Andrew Hautzinger took a job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department's Albuquerque office, he was looking for a special place to live.

"I found this 3.8-acre lot with the house, one day while driving through the area," Hautzinger recalls of that special day in 1997. "After walking the property, I knew I had to make it our home."

For four years, Hautzinger has been restoring the football field size wetlands to provide a habitat that had been lost by controlling the Rio Grande's spring flooding.

"Before the dams and levies were built on the Rio Grande, it would naturally cut new paths, making oxbow lakes when it changed directions," said the hydrologist who professionally is a riparian restoration technician. "Those lakes provided pond water in the late summer and fall, when the river might be dry, for the wildlife, including the migratory flocks."

Hautzinger's goal was to return the pond to its natural ecosystem. With the help of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and his own ingenuity in developing backyard conservation, he has created an oasis for wildlife.

"The NRCS is a fabulous resource. Cliff Sanchez designed the first blueprint of our restoration and Ana Gromes has helped along the way," he said. "It's taken thousands of manhours to bring it back to life," he said.

The forest and pond are surrounded by eight to nine 25-plus year old cottonwoods that had circled the original pond. In the pond floor area, newer cottonwoods grow.

"When we created the pond in the north one-third of the bermed area, I was worried about the 12 trees in the flooded area," he said, "but I was advised to let them turn into snags for the birds to roost in. It took four years for the last tree to die, and several have fallen down, which have made islands for the turtles and frogs to sun."

Hautzinger said one day while viewing the pond from the bird blind, he saw all three species of herons.

"First I saw a green heron eating a toad. Then I heard noises in the underbrush around the pond and I saw a black crown night heron. And a little later I saw a great blue heron. This is like the grandslam of heron watching," he said. "I've also seen Cooper hawks, ferruginous hawks and western tanagers."

The pond has been stocked with fathead minnows which are native. Their role in the ecosystem is to eat the mosquito eggs, and to be eaten by birds.

When Hautzinger diked the area, he thought seriously of lining the pond with plastic and clay, but decided to see if it would seal naturally.

"We had some leaking at first, but by having the trees in the area, the dead leaves fell into the water and rotted, forming a murky mud bottom that has sealed the pond," he said.

To give the birds nesting locations, Hautzinger has build a series of bird houses along the north bank of the pond.

He also has a bat box, or house, which Mexican Brown bats have made their home.

"Mexican Brown bats eat 3,500 mosquitoes a night," he said.

The wildlife now calling the area home include turtles, snakes, muskrats, woodducks and even a family of pheasants.

Each aspect of his restoration project has been funded by NRCS Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and family gifts, which he in turns directs to an area in their memory.

"My mother loved wildflowers," he said of his mother who has passed away since he began the project. "In her memorial I have a 10,000-square-foot area on the south and east slope of the original pond's berm that is a wildflower garden."

Hautzinger's conservation efforts extend throughout the 3.8 acres. He has planted 600 native trees and shrubs from 50 different species and native grasses.

"I've created eight irrigation zones in my yard that includes a wind row on the south side of the property by staggering three rows of native trees, a grass area of blue gramma and buffalo grass, and an area of 50 screw bean mesquite bushes," he said.

He also has lined the driveway from Blackberry Lane to his house with cottonwood trees that he started in 1997 from poles provided in by the NRCS plant materials center in Los Lunas. This fall the trees yield poles that will be used for additional plantings.

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