A new report card for the Verde River gave the watershed a C+. Environmentalists who watch the river closely say the grade is more than meets the eye.
The score comes from the nonprofit groups Friends of the Verde River and The Nature Conservancy. It’s designed to assess the health of the Verde, its tributaries and the communities around them. The watershed scored high in categories like recreation and bird habitat, but received low marks for water quality.
The river runs through northern Arizona before filling reservoirs in the Phoenix area.
An earlier report card, released in 2020, also landed a C+.
David Gressly, executive director of Friends of the Verde River, said the stagnant score partially has to do with how the group measures water quality. The previous report card included a low score for “water quality certainty” which caused the group to ramp up water quality sampling. As a result, the 2025 report card scored high in water quality certainty, but the results of that sampling meant low marks for water quality itself.
“Now the certainty is much higher because we actually have a comprehensive program to monitor,” Gressly said, “But at the same time, we've discovered there's some problems, too. So the positive of getting better data also might mean that you're collecting data that shows some negatives that you weren't aware of before.”
Gressly said his group is now drawing data from 50 monitoring sites around the watershed and aims to reach 80 in the future.
The 2025 report card also highlighted the importance of macroinvertebrates as indicators of water quality. That term mainly refers to the small, buglike creatures that flyfishers try to mimic with their lures. Friends of the Verde River said it wants to expand collection of data about macroinvertebrates to get a more robust understanding of water quality.
The “habitat” category of the report showed some of the biggest improvements over the past five years. Riparian bird habitat, meaning areas for birds to live near rivers and streams, got an A grade. Upland habitats – areas further away from the streams themselves – showed some improvement, too, and Gressly said the next few years would bring a push to clear invasive species and keep improving that upland habitat.
The report card also spelled out a need to reduce the amount of sediment flowing downstream in the Verde River. Sediment — tiny particles of sand, silt, decomposing plants and other matter — can pile up at the bottom of reservoirs. Sediment buildup is a major driver behind a proposed multibillion-dollar dam expansion at Bartlett Reservoir, which stores water from the Verde River.
Recreation scored high, and the report highlighted strong access for kayaking, swimming and fishing. It noted a need to spread out recreation activities to reduce overuse within the Oak Creek region, which includes heavily trafficked areas near Sedona.
Gressly said adding a second report card to the archive will help identify patterns and lead to better protections for the river in the future.
“Now that we have two reports out,” he said, “We have the beginnings of a trend line so that we can really monitor this more effectively across time, and I think it will become increasingly a powerful tool for decision makers to use to make appropriate decisions on safeguarding the watershed.”
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