Earlier this month, over 350 people gathered at Sul Ross State University (SRSU) in Alpine for the Water in the Desert conference, an “ongoing conversation with landowners, scientists, policymakers and community members” about “complex and pressing water issues” in the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas, as stated in the event’s official description.
Building on the tremendous momentum generated by the inaugural Water in the Desert conference in 2024, this year’s gathering witnessed the formal launch of the Meadows Research Institute for West Texas Water (MRI) “supported by a $2.75 million commitment from The Meadows Foundation that includes both long-term endowment funding and multi-year operational support,” according to an SRSU press release. “Water has always shaped the people, places and opportunities of Far West Texas,” said Eric R. Meadows, president and CEO of The Meadows Foundation. “Our commitment to the Institute and Sul Ross State University reflects our belief that careful, science-based stewardship is essential to sustaining both this vital resource and the communities who depend on it.”
Those communities were abundantly in attendance amid a general feeling of excitement kindled by the announcement of the new institute, with lively discussions and a broad cross-section of stakeholders not often seen at similar gatherings. The speakers and panels covered a wide range of water-related issues. And while it’s often not possible for presenters to cover their subject matter in sufficient depth within the short amounts of time allotted to them, these brief overviews provided participants with points of departure for more detailed research into specific topics that interest them.
Highlights, for me personally, included a fascinating look at drought and climate trends in the Chihuahuan Desert region presented by John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist and professor of meteorology at Texas A&M University. Through a series of slides, Nielsen-Gammon showed precipitation and temperature trends over the past 130 years (1895-2025) compared with trends over the past 55 years (1970-2025). These data demonstrate that the Trans-Pecos region is indeed getting hotter, with marked increases in average temperatures of about 0.5°F to 0.75°F per decade since 1970 as compared to less dramatic decadal increases since the late 1800s. While precipitation has also decreased, Nielsen-Gammon stated that the “new normal” will probably be “wetter than in recent years, but at least as hot.”
The restoration of healthy watersheds was another topic of interest, including a look at “tried and true strategies” presented by Price Rumbelow of the Rio Grande Joint Venture and Billy Tarrant of the Borderlands Research Institute and Meadows Research Institute. Their presentation focused on the decline of large intact grasslands, resulting in erosion, soil loss, reduced retention of available precipitation and decreases in grassland-dependent bird and mammal populations. In response, approaches like the Alamito Creek Conservation Initiative seek to apply “riparian detention structures,” such as brush weirs, check dams, and earthen berms to slow down water, enable vegetation growth, attract native species, and promote water infiltration within the 1,000-square-mile drainage area along the Alamito Creek in Presidio County. Although the impact of riparian restoration on the recharge of underlying aquifers remains poorly understood, Tarrant reported that the Edwards Aquifer Authority has developed “evaluative structures” for measuring such recharge.
In his keynote address titled “Water Scarcity–Realities & Solutions; Seeking water sustainability in a drying climate,” Brian Richter opened the second day of the conference by beautifully crystallizing the challenge we face: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” As president of Sustainable Waters, a global water education service, and author of Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability, Richter is an experienced authority on water-resource depletion. His remarks focused on unsustainable trends involving increased groundwater pumping, decreased precipitation and snowmelt runoff, and record-low reservoir storage in the Rio Grande river basin. Among his seven principles for sustainable water management, Richter called for “setting limits on total consumptive use of water” through the definition of “Desired Future Conditions” (DFCs) by local groundwater conservation districts.
DFCs and the data that support them were among the topics discussed during the panel titled “Grounded in Science” moderated by John Dupnik, deputy executive administrator, Office of Water Science and Conservation, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). The first panelist to speak, Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk, senior research scientist at MRI, briefly explained the region’s many minor aquifers and unique formations and the need for more comprehensive studies and data collection to better understand how the aquifers work (“how they’re plumbed”) and basic water budget components like recharge, flow through the aquifers and discharge. Fellow panelist Amy Bush, hydrologist and consultant to Groundwater Management Area (GMA) 4, which covers most of the Trans-Pecos, echoed the need for more data for better planning, an effort that requires landowner support. I then spoke as the third panelist by emphasizing the need for more funding and greater support from TWDB because most districts in the region have only one part-time employee, shoestring budgets, and enormous districts to administer.
Once again, Water in the Desert successfully convened folks from across the political spectrum around their shared concerns for water. Visit bri.sulross.edu/events/water-in-the-desert-2026/ to learn more about the conference and watch videos from the 2024 conference. Presentations from this year’s conference will also be posted there soon.