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For well over a century, the Corbett Irrigation Ditch carried water from Tanque Verde Creek to the old Fort Lowell neighborhood, where it nourished farmland and helped to sustain a thick forest of native velvet mesquite trees. Now a group of... Read more
Reflecting on her childhood, Tucson, Ariz., Mayor Regina Romero points to her father as the figure who lit an environmentalist fire within her.
Any chance he'd get, Romero's father would take his wife and six kids to an 800-acre ranch in... Read more
The beaver population on the San Pedro River increased by one Friday with the release of a transplant that was trapped by a pest control company along Oak Creek southwest of Sedona.
Rather than kill the “nuisance animal,” Steven Martin... Read more
Under cover of darkness, beavers are swimming through tranquil pools in the San Pedro River. They're gnawing on tree trunks. They're building dams.
We know this because of the work of volunteers who have recently walked miles along the... Read more
The mission of Local First Arizona (LFA) is to build equitable systems for Arizona’s local businesses and communities that create a vibrant, inclusive and sustainable Arizona economy by strengthening, supporting and celebrating entrepreneurship,... Read more
Thousands of beavers once populated Southern Arizona’s rivers, with frontiersman James Ohio Pattie dubbing the San Pedro River as “Beaver River.” But the animals were hunted and trapped to extermination in the 1800s and early 1900s. However, in... Read more
If you picked the Beavers in your bracket, you can probably forget about winning your office basketball pool.
But if you’re betting on the beavers along the San Pedro River, you’re still in luck.
A Tucson-based environmental group... Read more
The nonprofit saw a dramatic drop in the number of volunteers who are vital to the organization’s operations.
But the organization reacted quickly to the changing conditions brought about by the pandemic.
“We're coming up on our... Read more
The scene outside Tucson city council's ward 3 office in late February motivated longtime resident Brian Ellis to post images to Facebook.
The images showed a series of before and after scenes of the garden of native vegetation that... Read more
In your garden
You can sow or plant warmer-season flowers like sunflowers, hollyhocks, and coneflower. It’s a good time for transplanting cacti and succulents since our soils have warmed up. If you want ocotillo in your garden, April is a... Read more
It's official. Feb. 28 marked the driest 12-month period on record for the area, and there is no significant rainfall on the horizon. But local green thumbs are pulling through.
From March 2020 to February 2021, the National Weather... Read more
Active rainwater harvesting involves the use of gutters and tanks to channel and store rainwater. This allows you to “bank” rainwater in our unpredictable climate so you can stretch out the period of time rainwater is available for irrigating... Read more
Over the last 56 years, more than 130,000 students have explored nature in the Tucson Mountains at the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, an outdoor educational camp just north of Gates Pass that offers programs through a partnership... Read more
This dry winter is the perfect time to think about rain harvesting in your yard or home. Rainwater harvesting is either passive or active. In passive rain harvesting, your soil is the storage medium for the rain, while active rainwater harvesting... Read more
With thousands of nonprofit organizations, Tucson regularly ranks as one of the most charitable cities in the country. Hundreds of these are even locally focused, meaning your contributions can directly feed back into the community. It’s no... Read more
Rainwater harvesting has been used by humans throughout history as a way to control water supply. Advocates say the technology is a key component to improving water access and counter climate change.
On Navajo Nation land, a mostly rural... Read more
In an average year, Brad Lancaster can harvest enough rain to meet 95% of his water needs. Roof runoff collected in tanks on his modest lot in Tucson, Arizona — where 100 degree days are common in the summer months — provides what he needs to... Read more
How do you plant a tree? As the old joke goes, green end up. In Tucson, it’s a bit more complicated, and one big reason for that is caliche.
Caliche is a hardened soil layer common to desert soils. It is made up of calcium salts and... Read more
The nonprofit Watershed Management Group said that if higher fees or rates are approved, the money should go to a special fund supporting “green infrastructure” such as tree planting or rainwater harvesting systems that promote sustainable... Read more
The Watershed Management Group is hosting their first Monsoon Film Festival on Thursday, Sept. 24, and is currently seeking film submissions from the public. The virtual Monsoon Film Festival is planned to share audience stories and... Read more