The Distribution of Conservation-Type Water-Control Systems in the Northern Sierra Madre Occidental

Abstract

The occurrence and distribution of water-control devices in the northern Sierra Madre Occidental can be explained on the basis of the soil's parent material and, to a lesser extent, by the seasonal distribution of precipitation. The areas at the northern and western extremes of the Sierra Madre are associated with andesite surface rock which weathers more rapidly and produces a more fertile soil than the rhyolite-derived soils found to the east and south. A more even distribution of moisture occurs on the western, or Sonoran, side of the continental divide than that associated with the Chihuahuan Desert regime on the east. Thus, more moisture is available for agriculture during the growing season on the western slope. Our investigation indicates that water-control systems were constructed by local groups to increase agricultural production on sloping land and were not part of a massive, but incomplete, project to protect irrigated fields downstream, as contended by Di Peso (1974).

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