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Tucson Audubon Society
Restoration Project Archive
This page archives articles related to Tucson Audubon's Santa Cruz River Restoration Project.
Habitat
Restoration: In the Trenches
by Kendall Kroesen and Ann Phillips, May-June, 2002 Vermilion
Flycatcher newsletter
In the past four months Tucson Audubon’s Santa Cruz River Habitat
Restoration Project has made great strides. About 25 acres of rip
arian
area, disturbed river berm, and former agricultural fields have become
richer habitat for birds and other wildlife. Over a thousand shrubs and
trees have been planted and hundreds of pounds of native seed distributed.
Scores of water harvesting swales and basins are ready to collect monsoon
and winter rains around new plants.
The project site is on City
of Tucson land in northern Pima County, very near the famed Pinal Airpark
Pecan Grove birding site. It’s at the northern extent of 23,000 acres of
farmland purchased by the City of Tucson in the 1970s and 1980s for
associated groundwater rights. This land has been retired from farming and
is in various stages of natural recovery. 
Work
on portions of the restoration site is serving as a model to the City to
show how recovery could happen on other retired farmland. Improving
ecological connectivity to these nearby habitats is an important goal of
long-term work at the site. The ecologically rich Brawley/Los Robles Wash,
which passes through the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge in the Altar Valley
far to the south, passes within a quarter mile of the site. The Santa Cruz
River and its tributaries connect the restoration site to sky islands
surrounding the Santa Cruz Valley to the southeast. To the west, the site
comes to within one mile of the newly established Ironwood National
Monument!
The Tucson Audubon Society has a 99-year right-of-entry agreement with the City to restore habitat and monitor wildlife on 1,700 acres. Restoration work is concentrated in the northeast portion of the site. The work is funded with in-lieu mitigation money for section 404 of the Clean Water Act and by grants from the Arizona Water Protection Fund and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Treated effluent, flowing
down the river from Tucson, provides water for a burgeoning 1.5-mile
riparian area. This same effluent is used to water new plants through a
simple irrigation system. Willows, cottonwoods, and seepwillow line the
river, and javelinas, badgers, raccoons, foxes, snakes, lizards,
and rodents already find harbor under them. Barn owls, burrowing owls, and
many other species nest at the site, which also plays host to many
migrating and over-wintering birds.
Educational outreach, funded by the Arizona Water Protection Fund grant, has already been used to train Mountain View High School science students on rapid biodiversity assessment and restoration techniques. The students are growing seeds from the site in their school nursery to see which species benefit from being planted in deep tubes instead of shallow pots. They will report their results in a teen environmental summit being held at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum April 5, 2002.
In addition, students from
Sunnyside, Tucson and Desert View High Schools and from other schools
throughout Pima County have “pelletized” native seed 
for
distribution at the site. Seed is pelletized by mixing it with native clay
and water, and then rolling it into balls or pushing it through a mesh
that breaks it up into small pieces. In this innovative technique, the
clay dries around the seed and provides a protective coat that reduces
predation by birds, insects, and rodents. In the next heavy rainfall the
clay dissolves and exposes the seed precisely when germination conditions
are most favorable!
Of course, the small trees, shrubs and newly sprouted seeds will have to go through their “childhood and awkward teenage phases” before the site is fully transformed. Plants will be watered for several years until they can survive on their own. Since making the system self-sustaining is another important goal, plants are placed in deep earthen basins with stout downhill berms so that rainwater will be concentrated around them. The use of deep organic mulch reduces evaporation from the soil, and gradually breaks down to add nutrients.
Plant species are chosen for the site based on their historical presence in the area, successful use in other restoration efforts, recommendations from experts, suitability to site soil, their benefit to wildlife, and other criteria. The mix of plant species is also important. New plants are arranged in groups and tucked in around existing plants to create “guilds” (an association of plants that benefit each other and enrich the entire habitat).
As work proceeds, the site teaches us lessons: Which plants like to grow where? How do the sun, wind, and rainfall affect the site? Which plants are attracting which birds and insects? There is so much to learn, since every restoration site is unique. Much of what we have learned is set forth in a very interesting site assessment report that will soon be available in the TAS library!
What does the future look like? Tucson Audubon currently has funding for restoration on about 60 acres—work that will be completed in the next two years. Restoration will proceed on additional acres as more funding becomes available. Monitoring the success of the project will continue beyond the restoration work. TAS has a long-term commitment to recovery of this land, as does the City of Tucson, which has provided extensive in-kind assistance in the form of fencing, equipment, and water for irrigation.
The City of Tucson has posted the project site with “no trespassing” signs. For the foreseeable future, access is limited. Escorted educational and birding trips to the site are scheduled to begin in Fall 2002. At that time, visitors will be able to enjoy our new birding and restoration demonstration trail, currently under construction.
Wonderful volunteers have worked many hours at the site helping dig, plant, pelletize seed, and water. Our progress there is a direct result of this fantastic help. We also have received invaluable assistance from a number of scientists and technical experts who have served as volunteer technical advisors, sharing their insights and advice during meetings and visits to the site.
After spring planting finishes in March, fieldwork will consist of periodic watering and weeding through the hot pre-monsoon season. Once the rains start, planting will start again in areas of the site where large volumes of water collect. Next fall and winter, we will do extensive planting and seeding again to prepare for the onset of winter rains. If you would like to help at the site, please e-mail, call or write us to be put on the volunteer list. We will send out e-mail notifications of upcoming volunteer days and post them in the Flycatcher and web page. To add your name to the e-mail notification list, contact Kendall Kroesen. If you have questions about the project, feel free to call the restoration project office at 206-9900.
We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to the many people who have assisted at the site this fall and winter: Bob Dixon, Ann Carr, Dr. Phil Rosen, Mark Briggs, George Hentz, Bob Perrill, Floyd Gray, Heidi Lim, Walt Kavanagh, Chris McVie, Sheila Enos, Kathy Tschida, Rome Hamner, Diana Oliver, John Oliver, Linda Stitzer, Hannah Stitzer, Glenn Furnier, Mark Blackman, Aida A. Castillo-Flores, Margaret Wilch, Tucson High School Ecology Club, Wendy Burroughs, Richard Watson, David Watson, Heather Watson, Ann Widmer, Cori Carveth, Dr. John Madden, Mountain View High School Environmental Science Class, Jason Eckstein, The Nature Conservancy, Tucson Water, and the City of Tucson.
A Birder Ponders the Santa
Cruz River Habitat Restoration Project
Kendall Kroesen (November, 2001 Vermilion Flycatcher)
As a volunteer for the Tucson Audubon Society I have begun to understand
the scope and importance of the conservation activities in which TAS
personnel are engaged. However, lately I have been involved in one of the
most forward-looking and important of all of them: The Santa Cruz River
Habitat Restoration Project. (See the article by Ann Phillips in the
September, 2001 Flycatcher.) The project area is in Marana, just south of
the well known Pinal Air Park Pecan Grove. Recently, as I walked along
Santa Cruz River channel helping with a bird count, I mulled over the
truly epic scope of this effort.
During the last several decades the water table in Tucson, Green Valley, and many other parts of Southern Arizona has plummeted, leaving many areas high and dry. Stretches of the Santa Cruz River, the Rillito, and many other streams and springs that used to harbor beavers, pronghorn antelope, abundant birds, and sustainable communities of agricultural peoples, are now dry, incised channels. Today these channels seem to function mostly as the butt of jokes for tourists who point out the apparent misnomer, “river.”
Local Audubon members may know, however, that mature riparian corridors such as those along parts of the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers can be host to as many as 400 species of resident, migrant, and wintering bird species. These include some 75 percent of all the species that migrate between Mexico and the United States. Where water and stream-side vegetation are still intact, there is some of the densest breeding bird activity in the US (reaching 800 or more breeding pairs per 40 hectares). Preserving and re-establishing healthy riparian corridors in Southern Arizona are as critical to wildlife conservation as any other goal for which Audubon members have fought.
The Santa Cruz River channel in Marana, where I was walking, was historically not one of the river stretches with perennial water. Still, the valley through which it passes serves as a flyway. Migrant traps in the area, like the Pinal Air Park Pecan Grove, regularly host scores of migrant species as well as those accidental species that squeeze so much passion from local birders. (Such locations might just as well be called birder traps!) Unfortunately, the bird-attracting qualities of the Pecan Grove have declined in recent years due to decreased flows of agricultural waste water and the death of some of the trees.
Fortunately, there is potential in this area for bird habitat, and a birder trap, of proportions vastly exceeding those of the Pecan Grove. The stretch of the Santa Cruz River channel where I was counting birds, though historically dry, now holds a perennial flow of effluent from the Roger Road and Ina Road Waste Water Treatment Plants. For many years riparian vegetation has begun to spring up along this channel. This vegetation has met with serious challenges such as off-road vehicles, cattle incursions, and bulldozing by local farmers to try to prevent flooding. But now this stretch of the channel, and the surrounding retired farm land, is owned by the City of Tucson. The habitat is in the capable hands of Tucson Audubon’s Ann Phillips and Scott Wilbor. An extensive plan for revegetation and habitat restoration is under way, with major strides being made already simply by keeping out the off-roaders, cattle, and bulldozers. Cottonwoods, willows, mesquites, desert willows, and many native shrubs are making a comeback.
Walking from one count point to another, slogging through sand and pestering bugs, it was easy to forget about the long-term picture and just think about the work at hand. Just then Scott and I saw a female northern harrier flying low across the river channel. In her wake, a splash of mourning doves ascended from the mesquites and willows. Then, like something out of a Spielberg movie, a peregrine falcon stooped into view, hitting a dove only meters in front of us. The dove tumbled, and the falcon wheeled and caught it in mid air. It carried the dove lightly on the wing toward some unseen perch.
Many experiences such as this have turned my thoughts from the hard work at hand to the to the long-term potential of the site. The Santa Cruz River Habitat Restoration Project is the size of scores of Pinal Air Park Pecan Groves. The restoration project will build on existing vegetation to provide a large tract of native shrubs and trees. It will provide shelter and food to a wide range of species, and including those hundreds of birds species that use riparian woodlands. It has the potential to be very important to maintaining healthy populations of many plant and animal species, and to be one of the largest migrant traps, and birder traps, in Southern Arizona. It has entrapped me already.
Update on Restoration Work on the Santa Cruz River
by Ann Phillips (October, 2001 Vermilion Flycatcher)
The Santa Cruz River Habitat Project (also known as the North Simpson Farm
Project) is progressing to the planting stage. Last spring, a hardy group
of volunteers worked with staff to plant around 125 trees and shrubs along
the northeast boundary of the property. These plants receive water from an
irrigation tailwater ditch that runs along the northern perimeter of the
property. Plantings consist of Mexican elderberry, mesquite, palo verde,
hackberry, acacia, desert willow, and other native species, which will
provide bird habitat as well as intercept tumbleweeds that blow across the
site toward the farm fields to the north. The new plantings mimic existing
plant guilds here, which include mature Mexican elderberry trees dripping
with ripe purple fruit.
This planting is just north of 55 acres of flat land that was seeded and imprinted late last winter. Imprinting is a technique that makes triangular impressions in the ground that press seeds into the soil, and catch rainwater and detritus to help support seed growth. Seeding was done with salt bush, mesquite, native grasses, and wildflowers. We look forward to seeing this imprinted area flourish after summer monsoons and winter rains. Imprinting is intended to stabilize the soil and decrease tumbleweed growth, while providing additional habitat (quail love saltbush!).
This fall will be our biggest planting effort to date. We will be working in the river channel to remove invasive tamarisk and replace them with native cottonwood and willows. Up over the channel banks we will be planting desert uplands species, with the goal of connecting habitat along the river with the upland areas next to it.
We will also launch our education and outreach program this fall, funded by the Arizona Water Protection Fund. This includes working with Marana schools to help grow out plants, bringing classes to the site to learn more about restoration and riparian habitat, and having some school children help with restoration work. We have talked to a number of education and community groups about this site and how they can get involved.
The City of Tucson continues its helpful support of this project, which is taking place on City land. They are currently fencing and posting the site to make it more secure for restoration work and are taking the lessons from restoration efforts here and applying them to their extensive Avra Valley land holdings.
Scott Wilbor, (Field Project Manager and Conservation Biologist) and I (Project Manager) continue to be the primary staff on this project. We owe special thanks to the following people for their help:
Dr. Bob Dixon for seed selection and imprinting; Doug Rautenkranz for mapping and site GIS work; Carl Rauthenkranz for site GIS work; Laura Davis, Julia Fonseca, Anastacia Gutierrez, Kendall Kroesen, Brad Lancaster, Rod Lancaster, Lyn Jacobs, Mike Pollack, Doug Rautenkranz, Barbara Rose, Mike Simons, and George Wince, for their help in planting trees last spring; the members of our Technical Advisory Committee for their excellent guidance; and City of Tucson staff for site management.
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This page was updated on 02/22/06