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Water Security Begins Upstream, With the People Who Know the Catchment

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The global water picture is alarming. Practical local stewardship—from rain gardens to wetland restoration—remains one of the clearest places to act.

The World Meteorological Organization reports that 2024 brought record heat, climate extremes and water disruption across the planet; only one third of river basins experienced normal conditions. In many places, the same year brought drought to one community and destructive flooding to another. The lesson is not that every place needs the same infrastructure. It is that water planning must begin with how a particular landscape holds, moves and shares water.

Amaterra’s support for Sabino Creek restoration and rainwater harvesting remains relevant because it joined education, local design and hands-on restoration. Small works can matter when they are part of a catchment view: slowing runoff, replenishing soil moisture, protecting riparian habitat, reducing pollution and helping neighbours understand their shared dependence on water.

The next generation of such work should pair low-cost monitoring with local knowledge. Map water sources, but do not publish sensitive locations without permission. Track groundwater or stream conditions, but invite farmers, youth, elders and restoration workers to interpret the trends together. A rain garden, a restored wetland or a repaired cistern is not a substitute for public water policy. It is, however, a real demonstration that resilient water systems are built through local care as much as through distant plans.

There is room for hope because water projects are visible and teachable. A school garden can show how mulch, soil and shade retain moisture. A creek clean-up can lead into a discussion about upstream runoff. A citizen-monitoring group can create records that help agencies see patterns they might otherwise miss. The strongest projects connect these small actions to wider policy: groundwater protection, green infrastructure, safe sanitation and fair access. Water security is not delivered by a single device. It is built through many forms of care, coordinated across a living landscape.

Nature-based measures are most valuable when they are paired with equity. A rainwater tank can reduce pressure on a household, but it should not become an excuse to neglect public supply. A restored wetland can improve water quality, but residents should have a role in deciding how it is maintained and accessed. A neighbourhood mapping project can reveal flood risk, but publishing it without care may create stigma or property pressure. The practical work therefore includes governance: who maintains a project, who pays, whose knowledge is included and how benefits are shared.

A catchment view is especially important in drylands and rapidly growing towns, where water may be diverted, pumped, paved over or polluted long before its effects become visible downstream. It encourages people to notice connections: soil health and infiltration, shade and evaporation, groundwater and surface flow, road design and flood risk, vegetation and bank stability. This does not mean every household must become a hydrologist. It means that public decisions should be informed by the people who see how the landscape behaves during ordinary seasons and extreme events.

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WMG’s Sabino Creek Restoration Campaign

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In 2015 Amaterra provided $1000 for seed funding to support Watershed Management Group’s Sabino Creek Restoration Campaign launch.

Photo from the Watershed Management Group's website at https://watershedmg.org/rivers

Photo from the Watershed Management Group’s website at https://watershedmg.org/rivers

The campaign’s goal is to restore habitat and surface flow to Sabino Creek, located downstream of Sabino Canyon, the most visited natural area in Tucson.  Sabino Creek is located in a shallow groundwater area, where groundwater is 50 feet or less and still supports riparian habitat.  This and other shallow groundwater areas are declining as groundwater pumping increases from area residents and as development encroaches.    The campaign is a long-term, multi-faceted program including an educational/advocacy program with local residents; on-the-ground restoration efforts in private and public spaces; and policy actions to protect and enhance shallow groundwater areas.

Some of the things to be accomplished in the next two years:
  • Facilitate a stakeholder group to develop a restoration plan for Sabino Creek.
  • Lead watershed restoration workshops in public spaces in the Sabino Creek watershed, such as schools, ranches, or trailheads. Lead hands-on watershed restoration workshops with private residences in the Sabino Creek watershed, focusing on rainwater and greywater harvesting, green infrastructure, and small-scale restoration practices such as one-rock check dams.
  • Partner with four schools to teach our Shallow Groundwater Youth Advocacy Program, including two schools located within Sabino Creek watershed.  In 2014 this program was piloted with Western Institute for Leadership Development, a Tucson charter high school.
  • Run a public marketing campaign to raise awareness and inspire action to restore Sabino Creek. Publish the “Get Wet Guide: Sabino Creek,” an interactive guide highlighting recreation opportunities, cultural destinations, wildlife, and ways to protect/restore shallow groundwater areas. Create a series of 3 “Get Wet Videos” about the importance of shallow groundwater areas and a specific call to action for Sabino Creek.


For more information about Watershed Management Group, please visit their website at www.watershedmg.org

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2014 Amaterra $1000 grant to assist NSS in the following two projects

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SEED CLIPPER CLEANER
We (NSF) are purchasing a seed cleaner and screens to make our seed processing more efficient and to provide higher quality seed for our seed distribution programs. The new seed cleaner costs $5,800 and is partially funded for $3,500 by a USDA SARE grant that NS/S received to work on heirloom wheats in Arizona. The seed cleaner uses different types and sizes of screens for cleaning a variety of crops. At the Conservation Farm, we grow and clean a lot of crop diversity, therefore we will also be purchasing a set of 13 screens for the seed cleaner that cost $60 each ($780). This seed cleaner is a small-scale, 2-screen type that is an appropriate model for small-scale farms. It will be available to our farming community to use, including Borderlands Restoration who work on native plant seed conservation for land restoration. It is an example of appropriate technology that is transferable to other small farms and it could be run on solar power.

OVERHEAD SPRINKLER SYSTEM
We are in the process of improving our water and energy conservation on the Farm by switching from flood irrigation to overhead sprinkler irrigation. The Farm has always pumped water up to an irrigation pond using a lot of electrical energy in order to flood irrigate. The pond is now in a endangered species restoration project with Fish and Wildlife that requires a continuous level of water to be maintained in the pond. For this reason, and for reducing the Conservation Farm’s water and energy use, we have decided not to use the pond to flood irrigate. We are looking to fund the equipment for an aluminum sprinkler irrigation system that will include mainlines, moveable hand-line sprinklers, and valves. This system will replace the gated PVC pipes that we have been using to flood irrigate. The aluminum pipes and metal sprinklers will be more durable and eliminate PVC from our farm landscape. PVC is a material that breaks down under UV in 3 to 7 years and it is not recyclable when it wears out.

Thank you Director Nancy Wall for arranging this grant.

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