Community Workshop & Creek Walks for University of Arizona students, faculty, and staff!
Tuesday, Dec 10th: Old Main @ 9:30am-2pm, WMG & Coca-Cola Community Workshop
Join the Hydrocats, Watershed Management Group and the UA Office of Sustainability to enhance the water harvesting features at Old Main. You’ll get your hands dirty learning how green infrastructure can reduce outdoor water-use and supports landscaping that provides shade, can mitigate the urban heat island and supports thriving native habitat. Physical work includes identifying critical elevations, placing rock, building erosion control structures, and improving drainage.
Watershed Management Group (WMG) invites you to discover Tucson's riparian gems, explore the great outdoors, get connected to the larger Tucson watershed, learn about WMG's River Run Network movement, and how you and your fellow Wildcats can join us to help restore groundwater levels and flow to our rivers. All events are free thanks to a sponsorship by Coca-Cola! Please register by clicking the links on the event titles, and we will email you directions on where to meet.
- Sat, Oct 26: Flowing Waters - From Farms to River Restoration @ 9am-noon
- Join WMG's Cultural Ecologist Dr. Joaquin Murrieta and Designer Nichole Casebeer, and authors Kevin Daily (also Flowing Wells Neighborhood Association Board President) and Marie Daily, to explore past, present and future of this important sector of Tucson and the current efforts of green infrastructure and river restoration. We will gather at the rain garden site on N Shannon Rd, do light maintenance work at the rain gardens for one hour, walk to the Flowing Wells District Park and the Rillito River and back to Shannon Rain Gardens.
- Join WMG's Cultural Ecologist Dr. Joaquin Murrieta and Designer Nichole Casebeer, and authors Kevin Daily (also Flowing Wells Neighborhood Association Board President) and Marie Daily, to explore past, present and future of this important sector of Tucson and the current efforts of green infrastructure and river restoration. We will gather at the rain garden site on N Shannon Rd, do light maintenance work at the rain gardens for one hour, walk to the Flowing Wells District Park and the Rillito River and back to Shannon Rain Gardens.
- Thur, Nov 14: UA Old Main @ 4pm-6pm
- What happens when it rains at UA? Come and walk with WMG's Cultural Ecologist Joaquin Murrieta and UA representatives to explore the most diverse and intriguing rainwater harvesting in Tucson! Within one mile of walking, you can experience Old Main and its passive systems, CAPLA and its incredible oasis in the desert with active, AC and passive water harvesting; the Visitor Center with its dynamic active and passive systems in its parking lot, and the ENR2 “Canyon Building” LEED platinum-certified architecture which incorporates cutting-edge technologies that epitomize the UA's dedication to sustainability including water harvesting techniques.
- What happens when it rains at UA? Come and walk with WMG's Cultural Ecologist Joaquin Murrieta and UA representatives to explore the most diverse and intriguing rainwater harvesting in Tucson! Within one mile of walking, you can experience Old Main and its passive systems, CAPLA and its incredible oasis in the desert with active, AC and passive water harvesting; the Visitor Center with its dynamic active and passive systems in its parking lot, and the ENR2 “Canyon Building” LEED platinum-certified architecture which incorporates cutting-edge technologies that epitomize the UA's dedication to sustainability including water harvesting techniques.
Sat, Nov 23: Santa Cruz River @ 9am-11am
- There's flowing water in the Santa Cruz River through downtown! Walk with WMG’s Cultural Ecologist Joaquin Murrieta, a UA scientist and a Tucson Water hydrologist to explore the new release of treated water into the Santa Cruz River and see the effects of this water meandering through the riverbed. Learn more about how you are connected to this project and WMG's 50-year vision to restore Tucson's heritage of flowing rivers. This is a great opportunity to see how the Santa Cruz River is connecting people, culture, and nature for the wellbeing of the Old Pueblo.
- There's flowing water in the Santa Cruz River through downtown! Walk with WMG’s Cultural Ecologist Joaquin Murrieta, a UA scientist and a Tucson Water hydrologist to explore the new release of treated water into the Santa Cruz River and see the effects of this water meandering through the riverbed. Learn more about how you are connected to this project and WMG's 50-year vision to restore Tucson's heritage of flowing rivers. This is a great opportunity to see how the Santa Cruz River is connecting people, culture, and nature for the wellbeing of the Old Pueblo.
- Fri, Nov 29: Black Friday & Beavers at Ciénega Creek @ 9am-3pm
- Join WMG’s River Restoration Biologist Trevor Hare and WMG Founders Lisa and Catlow Shipek to discover to glorious beauty of Ciénega Creek, the home of Gila topminnows, Chiricahua leopard frogs, gray hawks, coatis, prairie dogs and a whole lot more, and will soon be home to beavers! Bring your binoculars and wading shoes as the hike will be wet and there are birds galore. We will have lunch under the cottonwoods with water flowing at our feet!
- Join WMG’s River Restoration Biologist Trevor Hare and WMG Founders Lisa and Catlow Shipek to discover to glorious beauty of Ciénega Creek, the home of Gila topminnows, Chiricahua leopard frogs, gray hawks, coatis, prairie dogs and a whole lot more, and will soon be home to beavers! Bring your binoculars and wading shoes as the hike will be wet and there are birds galore. We will have lunch under the cottonwoods with water flowing at our feet!
- Wed, Dec 4: Bike Ride - Old Main to the Santa Cruz @ 4pm-6pm
- Two professional gamblers and a saloon owner owned the 40 acres of land where Old Main opened its doors in 1891. Imagine if you were one of the first students looking West from the second floor of this magnificent building, what did you see in the Old Pueblo? You’d see a great mesquite bosque, a gallery of cottonwoods and willows along the crystal water flowing in the Santa Cruz River. After a century, time has passed, what would you see? And what can you imagine for the future of Tucson’s Santa Cruz River over the next one hundred years? Join WMG's Cultural Ecologist Joaquin Murrieta for an extraordinary bike ride from Old Main to the newly flowing waters of the Santa Cruz River heritage project to experience the past, present and future of the Santa Cruz Watershed and learn how you can get Tucson’s rivers flowing again.
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