We have a lot to be proud of, restoring desert rivers, expanding green jobs, and conserving water for future generations. Will you keep our momentum going strong into 2025 with a donation today?
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Our Top Ten Accomplishments for 2024
#10: The Tanque Verde Creek is feeling loved! New cottonwoods and willows have sprouted in the 66 acres of riparian habitat where our River Run Network volunteers have removed invasive Arundo donax (Giant reed).
#9: We are building the capacity of other organizations. WMG wrote and received two grants to fund a full-time Watershed Coordinator + Planning Lead for the Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative (SCWC). Welcome Maria Johnson!
#8: WMG co-founders, Catlow and Lisa Shipek, are leading a new drought planning initiative with the City of Tucson, Pima County, and other partners of the SCWC. The goal is to ensure that when it rains less than average in Tucson we have a timely response to protect our urban forest, river flows, and groundwater aquifers.
#7: Our education team taught over 400 people how to identify and eat native edible foods, and then over 100 of these folks took home native edible rain garden kits to plant at home. We love native edible gardens that provide food while thriving just on rainwater.
#6: It’s been a year since we opened our new Learning Center, which hosted over 75 events, including a series of Watershed Soundscape concerts in partnership with the UA School of Music, bringing new people and perspectives into our work through art and music.
#5: The Living Lab is proving hydro-local living is possible. In 2024 our campus was 100% powered by rainwater collected on site. That’s more water that stays in our aquifer and in the Colorado River!
#4: Over 4,000 people devoted time to learn about hydro-local living at WMG’s Living Lab, taking water harvesting classes, bringing the kids to Family Saturdays, or discovering simple innovative strategies to conserve water and turn waste into resources on docent-led tours.
#3: Our US-Mexico binational beaver survey expanded to cover the entire San Pedro River, with over 120 people participating in this massive community science effort to enhance beaver habitat and restoration efforts.
#2: Our Cool Tucson initiative launched a Sustainable Mobility workshop series helping people get comfortable riding bikes and planning bus trips. WMG staff opted for biking, busing, and carpooling for the month of November, and we kept 2283 lbs of carbon out of the atmosphere, the equivalent to planting 103 trees!
#1: WMG donors make things happen – like funding a new paid apprenticeship program to open up jobs in the environmental field for underrepresented individuals, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Latinx, and LGBTQ+. Eight apprentices joined us in August and we’ll be hiring the 2nd cohort in 2025.
Your donation today will help have a strong start to 2025. Thanks to you, we have much to celebrate!
