River Restoration

When Arundo grows, it creates a root base around native plants, causing an uplift by raising plants and disrupting the natural

We join volunteers with Watershed Management Group as they attempt to remove Arundo donax (giant reed), from Tanque Verde Creek in east Tucson. Arundo is classified as a noxious weed by the state of Arizona and can out-compete native plants for access to water and sunlight. It can increase flood risks and even carry wildfire. Learn more about the plant, and what can be done to eradicate it from Arizona’s streams and rivers. More...

SAN PEDRO RIVER — On a cloudy December Saturday, a group of wildlife enthusiasts met on a dirt pull-off in southern Arizona to embark on a mission. Wide-eyed and unified, the cadre of researchers, advocates, professors and students had volunteered to spend the day collecting data for conservation. Read more...

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 residents, historians and conservationists have launched a campaign to restore the trees and fill the ditch with water again for the first time since it mysteriously ran dry roughly a decade ago.