Past Events

April 22nd, 2025

Congressional District 6 Water Project Tour

On Earth Day, 2025, The Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative was honored to take part in a tour showcasing four innovative water projects across southern Arizona, demonstrating key strategies to improve water availability, safety and security in Arizona in the face of increasingly diminished Colorado River and groundwater supplies. The day brought together a diverse group of leaders and stakeholders including Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District Representative Juan Ciscomani, staff from the offices of Senators Kelly and Gallego, and fellow partners of SCWC.

The tour offered a special opportunity to showcase SCWC’s Local Drought Response Planning Initiative and our broader efforts to strengthen water resilience across the Santa Cruz watershed. SCWC Co-Lead Catlow Shipek highlighted how SCWC brings together more than 40 partners for watershed-wide coordination and emphasized the critical role of sustained federal funding in supporting initiatives like ours.

Other projects featured on this tour included the Tucson Airport Remediation Project (TARP) by Tucson Water, Metro Water's Shannon Well Site, Marana Water's Advanced Metering Infrastructure, and the City of Tucson's Non-functional Turf Replacement Program. These projects as well as SCWC’s drought planning emphasized how water and the need to protect it can be a unifying effort that reaches across political boundaries. We are grateful to Audubon Southwest, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and Business for Water Stewardship for organizing this impactful tour and for creating space for collaboration.

Together, SCWC is working to achieve water resilience through collaboration not just on Earth Day, but every day.

April 2nd, 2025

Spring Forum and Drought Planning Workshop on Tanque Verde Creek 

At SCWC’s 2025 Spring Forum and Drought Planning Workshop, around 70 participants, including long-standing SCWC partners and new collaborators, came together to share knowledge, connect, and explore the Tanque Verde Creek.

We began the day with a blessing from Chairman Austin Nunez of the San Xavier District. Opening remarks were made by Lisa Shipek, Executive Director of Watershed Management Group and SCWC Treasurer, who encouraged participants to move beyond the often-cited “tragedy of the commons” narrative. Instead, she invited us to adopt a “care for the commons” mindset, one that centers community well-being over self-interest to protect shared spaces for future generations.

Participants then connected with the creek in one of two ways, by collecting vegetation data for our Riparian Health Assessment or by creating ephemeral land art from natural materials guided by artist Kimi Eisele. During lunch, we enjoyed Yaqui storytelling from Pascua Yaqui Artist and Pima Country Public Health Department Tribal Liaison Marcelino Clemente Flores, who also created plein air artwork throughout the day.

We also heard a presentation from Tucson Water Director John Kmiec, who shared updates on innovative Tucson Water projects, emphasizing that Tucson Water has recently received a large Federal grant to help further diversify Tucson’s water portfolio by constructing an advanced water purification plant. The treatment facility will provide safe, purified drinking water that will be small portion of water that will be blended into other water deliveries in parts of Tucson that have been impacted by declining aquifers and PFAS. 

The day concluded with drought planning focus groups, where participants discussed topics such as drought messaging, management, policy, and community resilience, helping shape the future of SCWC’s drought response recommendations. A recurring theme in these discussions was the importance of effective and inclusive drought communication and the need to center people, culture, and place in drought planning.

Through art, science, and storytelling, the Spring 2025 SCWC Forum fostered meaningful connections and collaborations between people, place, and water along the Tanque Verde Creek. Read the full summary here. 

December 5th, 2024

Fall Forum on Lower Sabino Creek

Santa Cruz Watershed Collaborative partners gathered on lower Sabino Creek to spend a day connecting, sharing ideas, and participating in activities around the theme, "Creating Resilience in Times of Local Drought: Protecting our Local Aquifers, Rivers, and Forests". Over 40 people participated from over twenty partner organizations and agencies.

We collectively grounded in place hearing about the history of lower Sabino Creek, having previously flowed perennially while being an area of great significance to many cultures and peoples over time. Now, groundwater sits about 5-10 feet below the creekbed. Though the area has been impacted significantly and has the added stress of a current drought, what we all came to see throughout the course of the day was just how resilient this ecosystem is, too. Bennett Encinas from the Tohono O’odham Nation graciously gave a blessing for the day, setting a tone of connectedness.

For the remainder of the morning, four groups conducted a riparian health assessment, cataloging 440 observations, nearly half of which were riparian trees. That afternoon, we heard talks from four presenters about their work related to lower Sabino Creek, connecting the dots in many ways to drought. Eleanora Demaria, Chief Hydrologist with Pima County Regional Flood Control District, spoke on Post fire and flood impacts to Lower Sabino Creek. Edgar Martinez, the Watershed Program Manager with US Forest Service, presented Hydrologic data from the Sabino Creek Watershed. Michael Stanley, Retired Manager of Mount Lemmon Water District, spoke about the Mount Lemmon drought status change and response. And Catlow Shipek, the Senior Program Director at Watershed Management Group spoke on the Results of well monitoring data on lower Sabino Creek. 

The day concluded with a focus group centered on discussions about drought triggers and drought communications. We wrapped up the day with some exciting partner updates and celebrated the rain that began to fall just as we wrapped up the forum. Read the full summary report here.