Water Management

An assured supply of Water is one priority for those living in Arizona.  On a recent field trip, we toured a pump station and learned about the Central Arizona Project (CAP), a project appropriated by federal and state authority to bring water from the Colorado River to Central Arizona.
    Central Arizona obtains water from three sources: groundwater, runoff from surrounding watersheds, and the CAP.  At first, groundwater use was mostly unregulated.  As a result, this source was overused, which led to empty aquifers and fissures developing as the ground sank into the voids created. Since 1980, state regulations have managed groundwater use. 
    Surface water runoff is managed by Salt River Project, where runoff water and snow melt from nearby mountainous areas collects in the Salt River and Verde River.  The river water is then captured in reservoirs behind a series of dams so the flow can be managed.
    CAP delivers Colorado River water from Lake Havasu, on the state's western border, to Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties in Central Arizona through a 336 mile system of pumping stations, concrete-lined canals, and aqueducts. Computer controlled commands send signals to various parts of the system to regulate water flow.  There is even a means to store excess water in underground "banks" for future use.  In addition, CAP is working with other groups to develop alternative water supplies, including desalination of ocean water.
     Awareness, management, and conservation will continue to play important roles in the future of Arizona's water sources.
   

MAC Farm Desert Ag-Ventures

We recently spent a day at the Maricopa Agricultural Center (MAC), a 2100 acre research and educational center operated by the University of Arizona. We watched videos and listened to lectures about desert agriculture, had a question & answer session with one of the faculty members, and toured a couple areas of the complex, including the cotton gin, vegetable garden, and siphon irrigation field.
     MAC research focuses on plants currently grown in this area, including cotton, small grains, and alfalfa, plus potential new specialty crops for arid land including guayule, hesperaloe, jojoba, and lesquerella.  Quayale is a desert native shrub which can be used for rubber production; it has less protein than natural rubber and makes a latex rubber that can better tolerated by persons with latex allergies.  Hesperaloe is a long-lived perennial plant native to Mexico; it produces long thin fibers useful in paper production and is being studied as a new crop for the desert southwest. Jojoba is a native evergreen plant whose seeds contain a liquid wax used in cosmetics and for industries that require heat resistant lubricants. Lesquerella is being studied as a potential oilseed crop, similar to castor beans; it grows with very little water use.
    The irrigation program at MAC deals with all facets of agricultural irrigation from water delivery to how crops use that water.  The research acres have both ground water wells and irrigation canals, so they can replicate most any method used by local farmers.  MAC maintains a weather station that records temperature, wind speed & direction, rainfall, etc. on an hourly basis, then stores that information for historical uses.
    One researcher described how important GPS is to farming...from crop yield reports generated row-by-row as the farmer harvests a crop they can determine which parts of a field need more or less moisture, pesticides, or fertilizer.  Sensors on equipment can then accurately deliver those based on the GPS locations of the areas identified.  GPS also allows accurate planting and weed control...machines can get closer to the plants during cultivation to remove weeds, so less spraying is needed.
    Besides entertaining "snowbirds", the facility hosts visitors and researchers from across the nation, and internationally.

December 2013 Day Trips

In December, we took several day trips while the kids were here to visit. One day was spent near Tucson, visiting the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This site is a combination of botanical garden and zoo, featuring desert plants and animals in natural habitat settings. The hummingbird enclosure was fun, as the tiny birds buzzed by your head as they flew from flowers to feeders.  If you were wearing red or pink, they would even stop momentarily and explore your clothing. Trails, surrounded by cacti and brush, led to enclosures of bobcats, coyotes, prairie dogs, javelins, desert tortoise, etc. The Earth Sciences Center had a limestone cave and hands-on mineral and meteor displays. An art gallery, aquarium, and restaurants are also part of the complex.



On the way to the Desert Museum, we drove through parts of Saguaro National Park.   This park preserves some of the densest stands of giant saguaro cactus, a symbol of the desert southwest.  These giant cacti can live up to 200 years; they reach heights of 50 feet, with arms reaching out in unusual configurations.  They are slow growing plants, taking up to 15 years to grow a foot high, and up to 75 years to form their first "arm".



Another trip was to Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch just south of Casa Grande. An hour or so of fun was had by all, feeding and interacting with the animals on the ranch...including donkeys, deer, goats, ostrich, prairie dogs,and geese. Most exciting was the Rainbow Lorikeet Forest, an enclosure of noisy colorful birds, the lorikeet, These birds would fly to you and eat nectar out of the cups you were holding (even removing the lid from the cup if you hadn't already done so).


On the way to the airport in Phoenix, we spent a while walking in Papago Park and climbed up for a close view of landmark "Hole-in-the Rock".  Hole in the Rock is a natural geological formation where the sandstone hill has been eroded to create a hole clear through the rock. It was a fairly easy climb on rough trails up the back side of the hill and into the hole. Historically the formation was likely an observatory used by early inhabitants to record positions of the sun during different seasons. Markings on surrounding rock correspond to seasonal solstices and equinoxes, creating a type of calendar system.