The dust in the Lordsburg Playa is light and easily released by wind and other disturbances.

Dust storms from the surrounding Lordsburg Playa caused 39 traffic-related deaths along a 20-mile section of I-10 in the southwestern corner of New Mexico from 2015 to 2019.

Cattle have grazed this area since the late 1880s when settlers first arrived and found a lush grassland. While their hoof prints and dung are beneficial, there is simply too little grass left to protect and build the soil.

Gordon Tooley shows the short, fragile root structure of the annual grasses that dot this landscape. These short-lived varieties do very little to stabilize and build soils and provide little resilience to the scouring winds.

Mike Gaglio, a biologist and managing member of High Desert Native Plants, selected the seed varieties and is the project manager for this desert restoration project.

Carefully selected varieties of native seeds are scattered in front of the imprinter which presses them into the soil and creates a moisture collection pocket to encourage germination.

The 65 degree angles of the imprinter create divots in the dry earth that can hold about a gallon of water each.

Gordon Tooley drives his tractor with the three part land restoration system: Keyline plow, seeder and imprinter. While he didn't invent the components, he did put them together so that he can achieve the whole process with one pass, saving time and money over separate systems.

A view of the keyline plow, seeder and imprinter being pulled through the expansive, barren watershed.

Gordon Tooley, surrounded by his handiwork.

Gordon Tooley, owner of Tooley's Trees and Keyline Design, who created a three-part system for more efficient treatment of the land.

Gordon Tooley uses his keyline plow, seeder and imprinter to bring life back to the desert.

In order to maximize infiltration, Tooley follows the natural elevation contours of the land, the same way traditional terracing was built to capture water. He is careful to avoid the mounds of prairie dogs and other wildlife.

Gordon Tooley inspects a recently imprinted section of land.

One of the many benefits of this system is that the tractor is nimble enough to work around arroyos, archeological sites and wildlife habitats.

Van Clothier, owner of Stream Dynamics, worked on building one-rock dams and contouring drainage ditches to work in concert with Gordon Tooley's imprinting. They hope their combined efforts will slow and spread precipitation enough to hydrate the soil and revitalize the land.

One of the many benefits of this system is that the tractor is nimble enough to work around arroyos, archeological sites and wildlife habitats.

Gordon Tooley walks up a hill to survey his handiwork.

The divots left from the imprinter, which mimic hoof prints of the bison who used the move across these prairies, can hold up to a gallon of water and have been seeded with 15-20 seeds each, creating a kind of germination nursery.

Gordon Tooley makes the final passes over the last section of land to be treated during the first phase of the desert restoration project.

Abstract patterns left by Tooley's imprinter.

One of the many areas treated during the first phase of this project. The straight line on the left shows the fence-line separating land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (left), where ranchers continue to graze their cattle and land managed by the State Land Office where this experimental approach is being tested.

The Lordsburg watershed is much larger that the area that Gordon and his team have started treating. They hope that new growth will start as early as the spring to show the effectiveness of their efforts so that they can expand their work over the course of the next few years.

After a long day of imprinting, Gordon parks his tractor for the night.