Ciénega

Ciénagas are alkaline, freshwater, spongy, wet meadows with shallow-gradient, permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes that often occupy nearly the entire widths of valley bottoms.

In a healthy ciénaga, water slowly migrates through long, wide-scale mats of thick, sponge-like wetland sod.

More recent updates and geographically broadened inventories and status assessments of ciénegas now extend throughout Arizona and New Mexico eastward into Texas and south into Chihuahua and Sonora (México).

"Since the late 1800s, natural wetlands in arid and semi-arid desert grasslands of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico have largely disappeared.".

[9]Ciénegas occur at intermediate elevations (1000–2000 m) and are characterized by saturated, reducing soils with reliable water supply via seepage.

[13] As a primary source of water in arid environments, ciénegas support a broad range of terrestrial life, including numerous endangered species.

[15] The decline of ciénegas has been caused largely by changes in land use, primarily overgrazing (which removes water-absorbing vegetation) and overexploitation of ground water for agriculture and urban use.

This preservation is complicated by the fact that a majority of ciénegas are found on privately-owned land, most of which do not have binding conservation agreements or easements in place.