Local officials in Tucson are throwing their support behind a plan to create an urban wildlife refuge along a portion of the Santa Cruz River that runs through the city.
The Santa Cruz River once ran all the way from the Patagonia Mountains, into Mexico and back north through Tucson. But large parts of it no longer run today. Tucson water officials have been replenishing the stream in Tucson for the last few years using reclaimed water, and a project called Santa Cruz River Urban Wildlife Refuge Coalition is now asking for federal protection for the stretch.
Rebecca Perez is urban to wild program manager at the Wilderness Society, one of the groups part of the Santa Cruz River Urban Wildlife Refuge Coalition. She told the Tucson City Council the project was a community-led initiative that wants to push back on the idea that the Santa Cruz isn’t a river at all.
“It is a living river that offers life for not only plants and animals ecologically, but also to our communities,” she said.
The 12,000-year-old river has been stretched thin and disappeared in some areas because of drought, water pumping and other factors. Perez said establishing the refuge was a way to honor the river’s history, the Indigenous stewardship that kept it alive, and the current efforts to replenish it.
“The lifeways, the diverse lifeways that exist along the river ... the research, the recent efforts to conserve the river as well as all the culture and history,” she said.
Community organizations and environmental groups say creating a federally-recognized wildlife refuge could provide safe haven for wildlife and allow land to be set aside.
The Tucson City Council passed a resolution of support for the project.