SaddleBrooke Nature Club members on the San Pedro River field trip
Jo Ann Waddell
On Monday, April 14 The SaddleBrooke Nature Club heard a presentation by Dave Gann, Director of Arizona Rivers Programs for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). 52 club members and some guests learned about the mission of the TNC, an international organization founded in 1951 whose mission and vision are to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends and leave a sustainable world for future generations.
One of the biggest challenges worldwide in achieving this mission and vision is our increasingly finite resource—water.
To bring that challenge close to home, Dave spoke specifically about the Conservancy’s San Pedro River near stream recharge project whose goal is to ensure the flow of the San Pedro for at least the next 100 years. His power point presentation demonstrated the natural water recharge process and how natural events like droughts or pumping water for agriculture, as well as increasing water usage by developments, can reduce the water levels in aquifers and subsequently river flow. The Conservancy staff and volunteers have wet/dry mapped the San Pedro and determined three areas of the river where the flow is impeded. The recharge project would likely use storm water runoff from upstream urban areas or treated effluent near these three areas to build up water underground that would then percolate into the river at the three impeded flow locations. Collaboration with Ft. Huachuca, Sierra Vista, ranchers and technical experts from the University of Arizona along with many volunteers are making this recharge project a reality.
On Thursday, April 17, 15 Nature Club members went on a field trip to the Sierra Vista area to see first-hand the three areas the Nature Conservancy is exploring for the San Pedro River recharge project. Leading the field trip was Brooke Bushman, Upper San Pedro Program Coordinator for The Nature Conservancy. Assisting her were CEO of the Friends of the San Pedro River Robert Weissler and TNC Donor Relations Manager Mark Ryan. The trip began at the shaded wildlife viewing platform at Sierra Vista’s currently operating recharge facility. The group learned about the types of conditions that must exist for an area to readily receive and percolate water in the direction intended to increase river flow. One of the most interesting of the three stops was the Bureau of Land Management’s Murray Springs Clovis Paleolithic Site where evidence of mammoth kills has been found. The group learned about the interaction between recharge and prehistoric archaeological sites and walked along an interpretive train. The final stop of the day was at the San Pedro House for a picnic beneath magnificent cottonwood trees and a walk to the San Pedro River. It was a fun and educational day for all.
The SaddleBrooke Nature Club meets the second Monday of every month at 4:00 p.m. in the Coyote Room of the SaddleBrooke One Clubhouse. Please join us.