In America’s arid southwest, a scientist who’s studied dryland water systems for over 20 years has found the key to transforming barren desert into verdant oases.

That key is so basic, it hardly even merits being called technology, as it’s more or less nature at its natural best.

For the sake of scientists’ obsession with acronyms, it’s called ‘NIDS,’ for Natural Infrastructure in Dryland Streams. In other words, any assemblage of stones, log jams, or other waterway impediments that cause the flow of a stream or creek to slow.

Once upon a time, a mountaintop crumbled away a bit, and a flood of stones raced down the hillside along the paths of least resistance. These stones lost momentum and lodged themselves in narrow sections of those paths, which became streams and tributaries.

Beave

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