On Wednesday, November 15, the City of Sierra Vista held an event providing details about the America the Beautiful Challenge Adaptive Management of Water Resources grant the city was recently awarded.
The $1.05M grant will fund ongoing groundwater and surface water monitoring in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and help manage the activities of the eight CCRN projects along the river. Read the full Herald/Review article here.
CCRN is pleased to announce the publication of its third Annual Report. Highlights of the 2022 report include a brief summary of how the CCRN works, cumulative benefits from CCRN projects, a map of current and future projects, and an illustration of what we are learning. The report was prepared by Montgomery & Associates, The Nature Conservancy, and Resilient Rivers in cooperation with the CCRN. Read the full report here.
On May 9, 2023, at 5:30 p.m., Copper Queen Library will host conservation photographer Dave Showalter as he presents his latest book, Living River: The Promise of the Mighty Colorado.
Living River takes readers on a journey through the endangered Colorado River from source to sea and illustrates how we can create a resilient watershed by changing our relationship with water.
Featuring stunning photography and powerful essays, Living River captures landscapes rich with wildlife, from the upper Colorado’s tributary Fraser River to the southwestern Gila and San Pedro Rivers. Showalter weaves in the stories of riverkeepers who work tirelessly to protect and preserve the river and its surrounding communities.
Living River is published by Braided River, the conservation imprint of Mountaineers Books. For more information, visit www.livingrivercolorado.org.
On Sunday, February 26, the Herald/Review published a magazine insert titled “Life in Cochise,” which includes a story about the collaborative efforts on the San Pedro. Following is an excerpt.
One of the most unique things about the San Pedro are the innovative conservation efforts that have focused on the river since the 1980s. It is now not only a river of hemispheric importance, but a river of landmark conservation agreements as well.
The SPRNCA is an area of ecological significance for many reasons. It is one of the largest unfragmented landscapes in Arizona, second only to the Grand Canyon, and the Audubon Society has called it one of the best examples of a desert riparian ecosystem in the United States.
The creation of the SPRNCA has led to many innovative and collaborative conservation efforts.
Read the full article here and check out the companion video.
The SPRNCA Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperative Monitoring and Management was designed to help the Partners in Adaptive Management — the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Fort Huachuca, the City of Sierra Vista, and the County of Cochise — achieve shared goals to ensure the following:
For more information, download the 2-page Partners in Adaptive Management handout here.
CCRN is pleased to welcome its newest partner, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. BLM manages the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation area (SPRNCA) and shares CCRN’s mission to conserve water resources.
“We look forward to contributing to this collaborative partnership that plays a critical role in helping protect the SPRNCA,” said Scott Feldhausen, BLM Gila District Manager. “The CCRN conservation and recharge projects are essential to the health of the river and the surrounding community.”
Mark Apel is the featured speaker at Science Café: Cochise County Water – a Tale of Two Valleys on Sunday, October 16, 3-5 p.m. This free event will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 19 Sowles Ave, Bisbee. Learn about the hydrology of the San Pedro Valley and the Sulphur Springs Valley, their challenges, and ways we can protect them. Register here.
The San Pedro River is one of the last undammed rivers in the American Southwest. It is critical to Cochise County’s economy. According to Bisbee City Manager Steve Pauken, the river is essential to the existence of Fort Huachuca.
Current dry mapping by the Nature Conservancy shows that one of the driest parts of the river right now lies between State Route 92 and the U.S. Mexican border near Bisbee. This has led to two new projects in Bisbee to recharge the river using water from its wastewater treatment plant.
Read the full Herald/Review article here.
The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center (WRRC) published an Arizona Water Factsheet on Cochise County that highlights the area’s water sources, uses, and challenges. The factsheet also discusses conservation and recharge efforts and mentions CCRN’s monitoring program. Read the Arizona Water Factsheet here.
On August 30, 2022, the Herald/Review featured a story with the following opening statement: “Positive signs are starting to show the benefits of the Cochise Conservation and Recharge Network efforts to capture storm runoff, control the deposit of sediment during flood events and recharge a 25-mile portion of the Upper San Pedro River.” The article uses the CCRN 2021 Annual Report to highlight the benefits of CCRN’s efforts, to present monitoring data, and to discuss the funding required to complete planned projects. Read the full story here.
Menu