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Tucson Audubon Society
Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Proposal
by Kendall Kroesen,
(520) 206-9900
The Santa Cruz River valley in southeastern Arizona drips with nature, cultural diversity and historic riches. Sky Island mountain ranges, riparian waterways, and desert oases draw birders and other nature lovers, while historic sites and celebrations attract history buffs. Diverse cultural traditions, foods and events attract the adventuresome.
Yet few tourists think of the
Santa Cruz valley, in itself, as a destination. Until now, there has been
no way of packaging natural, cultural and historic resources in a way that
both attracts visitors and provides a framework for protecting all these
resources.
Now there is a mechanism for doing just that: the National Heritage Area program. National Heritage Areas are nominated by local organizations and designated by the United States Congress. They are specifically areas "where natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography."
If ever there was such a place, it is the Santa Cruz valley. Defined as the upper and middle watershed of the Santa Cruz River (from the Mexican border to the Pima/Pinal County line), it is a region with a cohesive story of people from diverse eras and cultures living in a beautiful and challenging Sonoran Desert setting. (Geographically, this area is actually tri-national, including U.S., Mexican, and Tohono O’odham lands. Of course, Congress cannot designate land in Mexico, but the Heritage Area would be the first of its kind to establish cross-border linkages.)
Included in the area are some of the region’s distinctive mountain ranges such as the Santa Catalina and Santa Rita Mountains, whose wildlife has affinities to both the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Rocky Mountains. Tucson Audubon members know them as the home of Elegant Trogons, Blue-throated Hummingbirds, and a host of other birds. The proposed Heritage Area also contains the north-south course of the river itself, which is an important reproductive habitat and migratory corridor for innumerable birds.
The Santa Cruz valley’s deep history is exposed at many historic sites and buried in innumerable fragile archaeological ruins. Native Americans have been in the area for thousands of years. Some of the earliest Native American agriculture was developed along the Santa Cruz River 4,000 years ago or more. Where the river flowed above ground, like the stretch from San Xavier to Tucson, dense settlements evolved (particularly during Hohokam times).
The region is also one of the centers of Spanish exploration and missionization in what is now the U.S. The story of the Coronado Expedition, Father Kino, the Anza Expedition, and the subsequent growth and decline of mission settlements is one that is told at Tumacácori, Tubac, San Xavier, and many other museums and historic tours of the region.
Modern culture in the region is also diverse. The Hispanic tradition is at once centuries old and constantly renewed by contact with modern Mexico. Large Native American populations steep the region in ancient traditions. And people from all walks of life celebrate their varied traditions at events such as Tucson Meet Yourself, the Anza Days celebration at Tubac, Easter celebrations at the Pascua Yaqui Reservation and many others.
Sometimes natural, cultural and historic resources come together in one place. For example, birders stroll through the tall riparian forests near Tumacácori looking for Summer Tanagers in the same place where Native Americans grew crops and Spanish colonists ran their cattle!
The real beauty of the National Heritage Area is that it brings only blessings, and levies no federal regulation of private property. It provides a framework to identify and celebrate the existing resources that make the region distinctive—and to provide for their preservation. (In the case of private land, conservation is voluntary. Funding and know-how may become available to help landowners achieve their own conservation goals.)
Here are additional, specific benefits: national and international recognition of the area’s heritage; assessment of natural, archaeological and cultural resources; consolidation of efforts to preserve and promote resources; long-range resource management planning by local stakeholders; and promotion and long-term economic benefits of increased heritage tourism and ecotourism. Last but not least, the Heritage Area designation would bring federal matching funds of up to $10 million for projects to preserve, restore and promote important historic and ecological resources.
Recognition and increased tourist visitation can turn the attention of local residents and municipalities toward preserving those resources. "Birding trails," such as the Southern Arizona Birding Trail, bear witness to this process. When birders visit and leave their money, communities suddenly pay more attention to the bird habitat that brought them there. The Heritage Area idea is a birding trail writ large. It would greatly enhance our ability to develop plans and funding to protect our extensive natural and cultural resources.
Tucson Audubon supports—and is involved in—the effort to create the Heritage Area. For more information about the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Area proposal, go to the Center for Desert Archaeology’s website at www.cdarc.org, or call Jonathan Mabry at 881-2244.
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This page was updated on 07/13/06