During a recent Welcome Center shift, Co-Executive Director Oscar Lai picked up the phone and spoke to someone who had expressed a long-time interest in applying for our Water Harvesting Certification Course. She saw a need to apply water harvesting principles both at her home and in her community on Tribal land. However, she was debating whether she had the prerequisite math skills to take the course. After a quick conversation and some gentle encouragement, she decided she could complete the certification.
These kinds of calls and conversations are why we do this work: because conservation is only possible when we are deeply embedded in and responsive to our community. We call this model hydro-local, and it is what allows us to:
- Educate and inspire more than 4,000 annual visitors to the Living Lab
- Host as many as seven Sustainable Desert Living workshops, water harvesting rebate classes, community science opportunities, and other community education events in a single week
- Partner with Arizona’s 22 Tribal Nations and support other historically underinvested communities
- Coordinate thousands of resident volunteers to restore Tucson’s heritage waterways, including the Sabino, Tanque Verde, and the Santa Cruz Rivers
- And so much more!
Over the next few weeks, we are going to share more stories of the people, partnerships, and communities that remind us that One Watershed means all of us, together. And if those stories resonate with you, please consider making a gift to our summer fundraising campaign, where we have set an ambitious goal to raise $100,000 by October 2nd.
Follow our progress on social media, by making a donation, or through registering for our Action Bulletins.