Thank you to the River Run Network Members who wrote in on the One Water 2100 Plan and made restoring rivers and shallow groundwater areas one of the top issues in the public comment period. This caught the attention of long-time environmental reporter, Tony Davis. This article by Davis features WMG's perspective on the plan and what's missing: New Tucson plans lack measures to bring back vanished river flows, critics say.The One Water 2100 plan was approved by the Mayor and Council on...
From 2020-2022 the Educating Children Outdoors Teen Naturalists monitored the flow of the Santa Cruz River in Marana under the guidance of Kathy Balman. The Teen Naturalists not only monitored the flow of the river for Flow 365 they also identified local and invasive flora and fauna and submitted their data to iNaturlaist, monitored water quality for Earth Echo Water Challenge, collected litter as part of Keep Nature Wild, and conducted phenology observations for Nature's Notebook. They...
October 12, 2023WMG, with support from you, our River Run Network Members, has been advocating for the release of beavers along Cienega Creek since 2019. Now, the final Environmental Assessment (EA) was released for the proposed plan to release beavers along Cienega Creek! This Final EA supports what we were hoping for, Alternative A. This would re-establish beavers in Ciénega Creek, with the option to also use Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs). We are very hopeful about the progression of...
Hi, my name is Julia and I am the River Run Network intern for Fall 2022 - Spring 2023. I started my internship with Watershed Management Group in August 2022 and my first Arundo pull was a warm September day. I remember seeing this invasive plant all around the Tanque Verde Creek, taking up so much space in the creek. It seemed like removing all of the Arundo from the creek would be impossible to do just by hand. As my internship continued, I realized that eradicating Arundo from the...
This year’s data tells us we had less days of flow throughout most of the city compared to 2021, due to less than average rainfall during both our monsoons and winter rainy season. However, some of the sites highlighted in the report had increased flow through our rainy seasons, and the city has added another effluent release site to the Santa Cruz river, upping flow days near South Tucson.
In the 2022 water year, Tucson received 7.41” (NOAA) compared to our 11.92” average;...
My name is Andrea Troyer and I am the River Run Network Program Coordinator at Watershed Management Group. I moved to Tucson in August 2022 through a year-long volunteer program after graudating from college. I am from the East Coast in Virginia, and so many people asked me prior to leaving, “Why are you moving to Tucson to work with water? There’s no water there.” My knowledge of rivers and hydrology was based on Virgina's consistent rains and constant rivers, so I wasn’t quite sure...
WMG is one of three winners of the Colorado River Basin Water Scarcity Challenge, offered by The Gates and Walton Family Foundations. The selected organizations will work with Quantified Ventures (QV) – at no charge, thanks to grant funding – to design, finance, and scale investible, cost-effective solutions that deliver beneficial outcomes for Colorado River Basin ecosystems and communities.
WMG has been working towards a hydro-local future, where we value and steward our local water...
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My name is Matthew Jensen. I’m the River Run Network Intern with Watershed Management Group here in Tucson. Every day, I wake up, I go to class, go to work, and live my life. Every day, I drink lots of water because everyone needs water to live. When I was younger, it was easy to think that water was almost infinite, all I had to do was turn on the sink and there it was. Even now, it’s hard to think that the necessities of our lives are in danger. But why? Right now,...
The River Run Network has a recurring monthly initiative to help remove trash and continue to care for our creeks and rivers. Join us along the Rillito River, Pantano Creek, Santa Cruz River throughout the year as we clean up along the river and share more of this beauty with others.
As tributaries to the Santa Cruz River, it is important to keep trash and invasive species out of these creeks! The River Run Network has Flow365 Monitors at these sites, and we hope to share more of this...
The Tanque Verde Challenge Continues ~ Help Us Remove Invasive Arundo and Restore the Flow!
Join WMG’s River Run Network in continuing our effort to completely remove invasive Arundo from Tanque Verde Creek!
Since winter 2021, we’ve been hosting volunteer work days to remove Arundo donax, a thirsty invasive plant that drinks up to 3-4 times as much water as native plants and crowds out native species. We’re focusing this work in a middle stretch of Tanque Verde Creek, where Arundo is...
