In 1982, an Arizona couple began building what became about 20,000 small rock dams across their desert ranch; one study found stream water increased 28% and flowed four weeks longer

In 1982, Josiah Austin and his then-wife, Valer Clark, bought a worn-out cattle ranch known as El Coronado Ranch in the mountains of southeast Arizona. Soon after, Austin dumped concrete rubble and stones into a small wash near the ranch to keep it from eroding further.

Raccontata datimesofindia.indiatimes.com