Canyon Cassidy

Certainly no easy fixes for fragile desert landscapes. For the non-grazed in between areas the methods certainly apply and will provide buffer edges to grazing areas. I understand that not all plants feed cows, but in harsh landscapes there aren't many options for soil biology to get going.

Seems the Chihuahua desert has a full suite of hardy nitrogen fixers, to name a few
Catclaw Acacia
Honey Mesquite
Trailing Indigo Bush
Coulter's Lupine
Tepary Bean
Partridge Pea / Sensitive Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata / Chamaecrista nictitans)
Crotalaria


Check out Seed Source or google them, there are producers for tepary, coulters and other legumes etc in bulk.
https://seedsource.com/hidden-categories/ecoregions/Chihuahuan_Desert_Trans-Pecos

I think along with reseeding, the methods Brad Lancaster has been presenting for rangelands and drainage would work for that region, these use low profile geologic structures to slow and stop erosion, sometimes lift the flood plane back to the bank, stop headcuts, spread sheet flow into shrub tickets... It has an accumulative effect on the whole landscape. A good resource of how to's on Zeedyk structures or low profile geologic structures IE (Zuni bowls, rock runs, media luna, check dams, leaky weirs)  is Quivira Coalition - https://quiviracoalition.org/technical-guides/. They have great guides for how to implement these on landscape.

It's so valuable It gets budgeted, but would prefer to use often

If any local weeds are trying to sprout in mine tailings, those could be the best option and very cheap. For 3-4 seasons chop all the slash down and use it as cover. it will reseed ofcourse, but in this isolated case this is a good thing. Speeding up the succession. The next succession is pioneering shrubs and trees that can hold onto minerals even longer and establish deep roots.  Example In gold country, (N NV) tumble weeds of a variety are found growing just under mine tailings and just above them sometimes we would see black locust. Nature was already fitting the pieces together,  some of those tumble weeds are thistles and they mine Fe and Cu  with deep taproots. Later on those minerals become chelated after being absorbed and the plant decays. So seasons on chelated Fe and Cu is available for uptake by trees and shrubs in a downslope shaded area by a batch of trees that wants it.  This is a pattern adaptation that nature is already doing that can be used to speed up toxic or mineral rich stirred earth. Tailings, construction base etc. If one uses swales, biochar etc or all the good stuff Permaculture designers apply, the effort is greatly enhanced-exponentially. At a minimum those tailing positions end up a space that hosts a large nitrogen fixing tree nursery, the mineral richness is a source for them. So the problem is the solution. Mine tailings are rich in minerals, certain nitrogen fixing or mineral accumulating pioneers need those minerals. If this is a salty soil use salt adapted types found in the same valley. Salty pioneers, mineral pioneers, loose soil pioneers, compacted soil pioneers. Weeds are available and can do a lot of tough jobs and faster than anything else in most cases.

Or grow your fence and use leafy summer type trees that go dormant in winter. If you have a swale or a road-ditch some water capture is already there for the right types of trees or shrubs immediately downslope. One can add another contour aligned feature to a road or swale. For example If it's a stone feature and placed in a direct downslope area. (It could be a rock run or media luna that drains into to another catchment) At that position the stone features and shady swale bottoms have potential to harvest a lot of moisture from the air, even during frosty or ice and snow conditions. The position combination of shading and scraping the air pools moisture into the keypoint or a downslope contour. If stone or dew harvesting features are in that downslope the cool air that always drops down from the upper structure can be a source of dew capture and that can spill right into right into the next feature. One could continue this at keypoints on the downslope along a main road at each valley or mini valley the road crosses.

Ranchers sometimes burn limb wood to char it, seal it up, then use it for cattle fencing, I suppose one could do the same for snow fencing. If it is dry in the warm season the fence could end up a fire hazard too. Blown in grass can drift, get stuck in the fence and then get sparked by lightning. In places where fire is a problem a roll up fence seems like a pretty good idea.

Food for thought ~
Dew capture might be possible, it is surprising how much dew capture happens in drylands. Seems rather invisible, however stone structures or gravel based on top of soil can harvest dew in the night. Any air moisture will get trapped the rocks and as they cool they collect water on the bottom side that is hidden from the open air. If one can incorporate the dew capture materials with your swales or rain capture pattern you get better benefit-as when it does rain the dew capture structure will hold moisture longer by the same shading effect adding more air moisture right there-to be re-captured in the night.

Hypothetically, on a larger scale, if there was a way to arrange dew capture features continuously just below peaks and ridges (that are now barren) those ridges and peaks could be replanted with the right species(perhaps a native tree or shrub combo), these are selected because they also harvest and enhance dew capture, if this is done at scale it might actually increase localized rain potential and for every storm event that passes. The system will harvest dew from the air even if only traces of rain occur.

If situated in a valley and the wind blows generally sideways across the valley bottom, one could add contours shaped exactly against the predominant wind (like a series of long loess dunes) Snow or rain capture fencing is added to the cornice side of each ridge, effectively scraping the wind and creating a small pressure drop on those ridges. If in snow country, the fencing really does it's thing! Add dew capture features below the wind scraping fences and native dew enhancing tree/shrubs near the top edge of the ridge.

On a an even larger scale, really really big! if the above methods worked... Then perhaps an enormous contour system of rain capture lakes/ponds is installed generally at the toe of the slope around an entire valley.

Very heavy lifting for the bigger stuff.

While it might not be "free" you can use seed or roots,. Sow plants intensively for a couple seasons, then chop and smother the whole patch like a hugelkulture bed. The humic acids, worms and mycelium from growing the patch for a few seasons will break down the bonded clay and add carbon and nitrogen. The trick might be to use native or seed that really likes the clay at first. I am trialing that now in AZ clay. It does appear to be working out so far. Plowers and nitrogen fixers to start with. (black eyed peas + daikon) But then garbonzo + standard radish(other plowers) get added next. As the season changes so does the type of seed sown, however it ends up a patch. The timing of season and soil temperatures need to match as well as being a clay loving seed. (warming season seed, cooling season seed, peak heat season seed, peak cool season seed).

Food Grade Mylar, rather expensive to make yet so quickly discarded! One thing it can be used for is insulation from RF, face the reflective side towards the "noise", it can still can be covered with cloth so it isn't shiny. It will still attenuate frequencies, or reduce any vibrations coming through. One concept is to glue it into the wall panels of any yoga room or sleep space. An easy way to make a sheet is to simply use packing tape to glue all the pieces into a sheet. Some food grade mylar has texture, if it has texture it is not reflecting like a mirror then it will also work as reflective sheeting for a green house. One good thing about the food grade varieties is that they do not off gas like many plastics do. Strangely there is little to no recollection/recycling on this type of plastic, so it's on "us" the unsuspecting population to come up with a solution.

I like to find ways to convert them into compost. Since weedy pioneering plants are so good at mining minerals or accumulating them, using them in compost add colloidal forms of minerals to the mix. Sort of like adding rock dust suspended in the weeds. You can essentially grow your own compost if you plan it out.

Stake or fence a thick patch of weeds, nurture it a little, give it some contours and a good drenching once or twice, even add a little compost to get them boosted. Before the seeds mature, chop the whole patch and chop it all into a mash for compost processing. If it's seedy, use it for compost tea, if not as seedy add it to your Berkeley flip or long term pile.

Now there is an opportunity to smother the roots of the newly chopped weeds and the whole soil surface with card board and compost. You can add a no-till bed right on top of it! Just smash the stems down with the layers of wet cardboard then add a layer of finished compost and/or topsoil then seed it with your chosen cover crop. Some persistent weeds will get through, but if that is the situation manual removal is needed anyhow and doing this step this will knock the weeds back and fill the same space with a desired blend. By allowing the weedy patch to grow there you will have preset the subsurface of the soil for the no-till bed.