River News Now Breaking News Travel

Arconsanti, Arizona - Teams of scientists and local volunteers will walk the rivers of Arizona starting at sunrise on Saturday to map where the rivers run wet - and dry. Annual mapping of perennial surface waters aids water managers in understanding the state’s river systems during the driest time of year.

The Agua Fria River is one of the rivers slated for wet/dry mapping. The Arizona Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials, or NEMO, program, based at The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center, is coordinating a volunteer effort to do the mapping.

On Saturday, the volunteer groups, some walking and others on horseback, will map a river segment. The command post is the Arcosanti Cafe at Arconsanti near Cordes Junction. Many of the volunteers are coming from nearby Prescott.

More than 70 citizens have been trained on the protocol for identifying and recording the wet and dry areas of the river. This protocol was developed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy on the San Pedro River and has been utilized since 1999. Global Positioning System technology is used to record where the water starts and stops, and to produce the final maps.

This project will bring together local citizens and representatives from government and nonprofit organizations including the BLM, the Upper Agua Fria Watershed Partnership, Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument, Arcosanti and the Arizona Riparian Council. Roughly 24 miles of the 82-mile-long Agua Fria River that flows through the Agua Fria National Monument will be mapped, along with various reaches north and south of the monument.

Wet-dry mapping also will occur along the San Pedro River, beginning at 6 a.m. This year marks the 10th anniversary since wet-dry mapping efforts began along the San Pedro River.

Volunteers there are split between the southern reach of the river and the Benson area. The two groups are expected to converge on Saturday as early as 11 a.m. as they each finish their stretch of the river.

Last year a total of 120 miles of the river were mapped in the United States and Mexico. Previous maps can be accessed online at http://www.azconservation.org and
http://www.srnr.arizona.edu/nemo/review/wd_SanPedro_AllYears24x30.pdf.

The San Pedro efforts are coordinated jointly through The Nature Conservancy, the Community Watershed Alliance, BLM, CONANP (Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas), Arizona NEMO and others.