Lamenting the McElmo effect and loss of irrigation-landscapes in an era of aridification

On the side-effects of necessary water use cuts

🥵 Aridification Watch 🐫

Irrigated landscape in McElmo Canyon in the summertime. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

Last week, on my way from Durango to southeastern Utah to get my sagebrush and slickrock fix, I drove through one of my favorite places anywhere: McElmo Canyon. The evening light, filtered through a series of spring squalls moving across the Grea…