Thanks to restoration volunteers!--Tucson Audubon Society

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Tucson Audubon Society
Santa Cruz River Habitat Project

Thanks for the Habitat!
Ann Phillips (archived from the May-June 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher newsletter)

The sun’s getting hotter, the snakes are moving around, and work at the Santa Cruz River Habitat Project is winding down for the 2002/03 winter/spring planting season. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to the many people and organizations who have contributed their time and materials to enhancing the riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River. During this season, with their help, we dug water harvesting basins and swales and extended planting to another 40 acres and seeding to another 50 acres. Thousands of plants went in along thousands of feet of irrigation pipe. We removed invasive tamarisk, and continued our work to control tumble weed and reduce erosion.

Twice a month between October and March, volunteers pitched in to help. We were very fortunate to have many people come out to help dig basins, plant seedlings and prepare seed for use at the site. Special thanks go to Craig Marken, who came for at least one volunteer day every single month! Ken Lamberton and his family pitched in on many workdays as well. We want to thank Craig, Ken and the many other volunteers who helped:

Paul Branson
Restoration project volunteer Coriann Breslaver
Marc Breslaver
Richard Buchholz
Jean-Francois Camson
Michael Ciccarone
Sarah Cohen
Bob Eiermann
Jerry Elian
Heather Ewing
Efren Fitz
Lacey Gaechter
Erin Gleeson
Floyd Gray
Windy Greer
Rome Hamner
Gayle Hartmann
Matthew Henry
Anna Hetsler
Ethan Householder
Jenn Jannusch
Sarah Jannusch
Bernadette Jilka
Carla Kuhn
Ken Lamberton
Karen Lamberton
Jessica Lamberton
Kasondra Lamberton
Melissa Lamberton
John Madden
Craig Marken
Gary Maskarinec
Cerelia Maskarinec
Genny Maskarinec
Luke Maskarinec
Lawrence Morgan
Kiyomi Morino
Michael O’Donnell
Jessie Ochs
Margot Pollans
Burt Perry
John Piazza
Donna Ryburn
Scott Ryburn
Sherry Sass
Kristina Shuford
Jon Titus
Diana Videtti
Bruce Weise
Allyson Wheelock
Peggy Wenrick
Wanda Wynne

Teacher Jennifer Valentine and three fellow teachers from Gallego Elementary School in Tucson, brought 93 kindergarten and 4th grade students to the site April 11 to help plant trees, make seed pellets and take a nature walk. Many hands did lots of work! After their visit to the restoration site, the Halberg Community Center at Trico Road and Silverbell Road hosted the children as they ate their lunches in the air-conditioned building. Mountain View High school students, and their teacher John Madden, conducted a study of top growth and root growth in native seeds planted in tall PVC tubes.

Some volunteers even came on non-volunteer days to help the Tucson Audubon staff work at the site or in the office. The Youth Corps of Southern Arizona generously sent a crew to help remove tumbleweed and deciduous tamarisk. Virginia Kratina assembled a field guide of color photographs of the species we have planted and seeded at the site. Doug Rautenkranz continues to assist us with GIS and mapping for the site.

Individuals, businesses, and agencies have contributed materials and expertise to our work greatly increasing our productivity and effectiveness at the site.

Bob Eiermann, and Joan and Bob Tweit, donated tools for use at the site.
Bob Dixon of the Imprinting Foundation provided his imprinter and his time to supervise imprinting and seeding.
Phil Jenkins from the University of Arizona Herbarium inventoried hydroriparian species at the site.
Rain Bird donated thousands of irrigation emitters and several thousand feet of poly dripline for use at the site.
Doug Raymond of Rain-for-Rent spent innumerable hours helping us design our irrigation system, and donated several thousand feet of irrigation drip line.
Mike Rupp of Rupp Aerial Photo, Inc. flew the site with professional photography equipment creating a set of incredible aerial photos.
The folks at the Avra Valley Fire Department allow us to keep our storage shed on their land.
Bernadette Jilka of Coronado Heights Nursery donated native trees and shrubs.
Lin Lawson of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality provided surveying equipment and spent several days supervising the measurement of river cross sections.
Gary Maskarinec of Wildlands Restoration donated native seed.
The City of Tucson has provided equipment, operators, fencing and experienced advice throughout the year.
Karen Lamberton donated photos she took of one of the volunteer days.
Virginia Kratina for help creating a site-specific field manual of plants.

We are very grateful for the funding we have received from the Arizona Water Protection Fund, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and through the US Corps of Engineers in-lieu mitigation program to conduct restoration work.

Thanks so much to all of you from all of us at Tucson Audubon Society!

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This page was updated on 02/22/06