This winter, Tucson received a healthy amount of rainfall as well as abundant snowfall on our surrounding mountains. I have been bubbling with gratitude for this rain and snow. Almost daily, I visit my nearby river, the Rillito, basking in the consistent river flows and replenishment of our groundwater aquifer.
It’s easy to be grateful in a time of abundance, but perhaps it’s even more important to show gratitude and reverence for water in our driest years. No matter what nature has in store for us, water in the Sonoran Desert, and in communities around the world, has been understood as sacred by native peoples for millennia.
As people and governments fight over and negotiate water resources, it’s important to pause and remember that water is not just something to be consumed or owned, but it’s a gift to be stewarded.
In this spirit, WMG will continue to expand the dialogue about living hydro-local: from what we do at home to how our cities plan for our water future. With your help, we can spread the hydro- local message of stewarding and valuing our local, renewable water resources instead of depleting distant watersheds.
Our hydro-local education, restoration, and policy work is also showing up strategically in how we design and fund our programs. Over the last five years, we’ve shifted away from fee-for-service water harvesting and green infrastructure installations to focus more energy on our innovative community and educational programs. To make that shift, we have continued to grow our fundraising efforts, so that we now depend on donors as our largest source of revenue to fund programs like the River Run Network, education at the Living Lab and Learning Center, and our community conservation efforts.
As one of the co-founders of WMG, I’m proud to celebrate WMG’s 20-year anniversary and grow our mission to develop and implement community-based solutions to ensure the long-term prosperity of people and health of the environment. Thank you to everyone who continues to support WMG as a donor and to everyone who is providing consistent support as a monthly Flow donor; in 2022, we grew from 85 to 128 monthly donors! In honor of our 20-year anniversary and to sustain our work into the future, we’re launching a campaign to Give $20/month for WMG’s 20th! Will you join us?
From the mighty Colorado River to the creeks in our backyards, from the mountain springs to the groundwater that flows beneath our feet, we thank you for being part of our work, for water is life.