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May 7, 2025
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SEJ News: #SEJ2025 LIVE — On-the-Ground Coverage of Tours From Reporters in Our Student Newsroom
A team of student journalists reported on key environmental issues at the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference, which took place April 23-26, 2025 in Tempe, Arizona.
- Read Part 1, with more than two dozen reports from Day 1 of the conference.
- Read Part 2, with nearly a dozen reports from Day 2 of the conference.
- Read Part 3, with more than a dozen reports from SEJ tours.
The #SEJ2025 LIVE initiative comprised 16 student journalist fellows working under the guidance of eight newsroom editors from The Arizona Republic, with SEJournal editor Adam Glenn serving as a facilitator.
Student reporters were Amelia Monroe, Bella Mazzilli, Eleri Mosier, George Headley, Naomi DuBovis, Serenity Reynolds, Sophia Ramirez and Tufan Neupane from Arizona State University; Arilynn Hyatt, Jay Corella, McKenna Manzo, Natasha Cortinovis, Sedona Paige Hartley and Summer Williams from the University of Arizona; Katarzyna Michalik from Prescott College; and Nikki Shaw from Alaska Pacific University.
Newsroom editors were Greg Burton, Shaun McKinnon, Kathy Tulumello, Wyatt Buchanan, Sean Holstege, Mark Henle, Pat Poblete and Steve Kilar of The Arizona Republic, and Kendal Blust of the University of Arizona.
The program was supported by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Arizona Media Association’s Local News Foundation and the University of Arizona's School of Journalism.
Many thanks to SEJ’s Cindy MacDonald, for her extra-human copy and production editing work on this special report; and to Lisa Palmer, editorial director for events, and Aparna Mukherjee, executive director, for their role in formulating and supporting the #SEJ2025 student newsroom.
The stories are available open-source for other outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links.
SEJ Tour: Environmental Experts – Santa Cruz River Revives, But Indigenous Voices Are Missing
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| Environmental journalists attending the Society of Environmental Journalists' 2025 annual conference in Tempe witness clean water flowing through the reviving Santa Cruz River along the Anza Trail in northeast Rio Rico on April 24. Photo: Tufan Neupane. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
Published April 28, 2025
By Tufan Neupane
The Santa Cruz River used to be the source of life across southern Arizona. For thousands of years, it fed farms, supported wildlife and gave water to Native communities.
Beginning in the San Rafael Valley, it flows south into Mexico, bends west and then crosses back into the U.S. For at least 12,000 years, it was home to one of the oldest known agricultural sites in North America. Until the early 1900s, the river flowed without any major problems.
And then the river began to disappear.
Luke Cole, director of the Santa Cruz River Programs at the Sonoran Institute, a nonprofit conservation group working in the U.S. and Mexico, explained the change.
“The Santa Cruz River’s perennial flows stopped around 1910,” he said. “Then around 1940, the whole system dried out.”
Groundwater pumping, farming and growing cities pulled water from the land faster than it could be replaced. For decades, the Santa Cruz became a river in name only. Dry, dusty and forgotten.
The rebirth of the Santa Cruz River
In 2005, researchers from the Sonoran Institute and other groups found a serious problem along the Santa Cruz River.
About eight miles of cottonwood and willow trees had died. Cole said the trees were close to water but could not reach it.
The poor-quality water coming from the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant had created a slippery layer on the riverbed. Instead of soaking into the ground, the water just flowed over the top, leaving the trees without water. “All of these ancient trees were close to the river, but they weren’t able to access water,” Cole said.
After the discovery, nonprofit conservation organizations, such as the Sonoran Institute, worked with federal agencies such as the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), U.S. and Mexican Section.
John Light, area operations manager for the Nogales Field Office of the IBWC, said the wastewater treatment plant was upgraded with new technology in 2009. That upgrade helped improve water quality and allowed cleaner treated water to be released into the Santa Cruz River.
Scientists have been watching the river's recovery ever since.
One of the biggest signs of success came in 2015 when a small endangered fish called the Gila topminnow was rediscovered. It had been gone for 100 years.
“The return of everything from basic water quality to plants to endangered fish species shows how the river is healing,” Cole said.
Even though the river is seeing a rebirth, Cole cautioned it could dry up again if the flow of treated water stops. Keeping the river alive depends heavily on the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant. Light said managing an international plant is challenging. The plant must follow U.S. environmental rules, like the Clean Water Act, but Mexico has different standards.
Threats to the river’s health mostly start across the border in Nogales, Sonora. Joaquin Marruffo from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said flooding is a major issue because Nogales has no stormwater management system.
Industrial wastewater is another serious problem. Factories in Nogales, especially those involved in metal work, release water with heavy metals into the sewer system. Most of these factories are U.S.-owned and moved there in search of cheap labor.
The treatment plant was not built to remove heavy metals. Old sewer systems in Nogales often fail, causing raw sewage to leak into streams that eventually reach the river.
Next step: National wildlife refuge on Santa Cruz River
There has been a push for a new National Wildlife Refuge along the Santa Cruz River. About 13 miles of private land, covering parts of the river and nearby mountains, is being offered for sale to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permanent protection.
Creating a National Wildlife Refuge would give the river stronger legal protection, permanent funding and a better chance to survive in the future.
The idea has wide support from state and local governments, tribal communities, conservation groups and residents. The project is close to final approval. Cole believes the new refuge would be a major step for conservation. “It would be the blue-ribbon federal level of land protection for conservation purposes,” he said.
Where are the Native American voices?
Shecota Rae Nalwood Nez grew up in Tucson, surrounded by the desert landscape. As a child, she learned about plants, animals and how everything in the desert worked together in balance. She knew about the Santa Cruz River but often wondered why it was still called a river when it was always dry.
“It just never really made sense to me as to why we call this a river if there's never any water in it,” she said.
Later, she learned about the river’s deeper meaning for Native communities, especially the Tohono O’odham, the original stewards of the Tucson area. Along the river, there once stood a vast mesquite forest where families lived, held ceremonies and gathered. Learning about this history left a deep impact on her. “It also did have some grief and understanding of what has been lost and that that forest is no longer there,” she said.
For Shecota, the Santa Cruz River is more than an environmental site. It is a cultural landscape filled with memory, connection and loss.
“The O'odham treated (the land) as an extension of themselves,” she said.
While the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation started restoring the river in the 1980s with a focus on community and culture, Shecota said later Tucson city-led projects focused more on technology and infrastructure. She felt the city’s efforts missed the deeper relationship between the people and the river.
Shecota believes the story of the Santa Cruz River is not just about scientific success. It is about memory, survival and keeping cultural heritage alive.
“Scientific measurements alone,” she said, “cannot tell the full story of what the river means to Native communities.”
Tufan Neupane is a graduate student of journalism at Arizona State University and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: Wolves, Prairie Dogs Share Territory, But Conservation Issues Are Different
Published April 29, 2025
By George Headley and Nikki Shaw
The endangered Mexican Gray wolf remains an ongoing conservation topic in Arizona, and during a tour by the Society of Environmental Journalists April 24, wolf advocates, wildlife biologists and ranchers talked about the challenges associated with the wolves and what can be done to protect the population.
Jim deVos, a wildlife biologist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, has been involved in the Mexican wolf recovery for over 20 years. He walked through the wolves' complex history and recovery status, as well as their genetic diversity.
“I believe that wolves are in much better shape genetically, because we have this lineage, this lineage and this lineage, and some years ago, they blended them together to increase the genetic diversity,” he said.
In the 2024 census of wolves, state and federal officials counted 286 individual animals.
There has been high tension with the wolves surrounding the ranching community, whose cattle have suffered losses due to predation by the animals.
Collaborative efforts have been underway with the White Mountain Apache Tribe on their 1.6 million acres of land. They work directly with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and tribal leaders to figure out ways of coexistence with the wolves and livestock.
Gage Hollingsworth, a wildlife biologist for Game and Fish, works with the White Mountain Apache Tribe and Fish and Wildlife under an agreement that the tribe will solely manage the wolves and monitor them throughout the year.
“One of the unique challenges that the tribe faces that the state and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service don’t, is that we aren't only managing for the wolves, we are managing for the people too,” Hollingworth said.
Sisto Hernandez, vice president of the Grasshopper Livestock Association on the White Mountain Apache reservation, works with ranchers on the land to implement nonlethal practices for the conservation of the wolves.
A "payment for presence" program is one way for ranchers to be compensated for the presence of wolves on their land.
Hernandez wondered if that idea would work with the broadening number of ranchers needing to be compensated.
“There is a challenge there, because on a smaller regional level, implementing that on our tribal lands wasn’t as difficult,” Hernandez said. “I don't want to put it out there like it was an answer for everyone, but it was an answer for our small 1.6 million acres.”
Prairie dog conservation brings a different set of issues
The Gunnison’s prairie dog is a small but vital keystone species in Arizona ecosystems.
Conservation efforts are aiming to increase the already declining population, which has been impacted by urbanization, habitat loss and diseases like the bubonic plague.
Babbitt Ranches is a huge, privately owned ranch. As part of relocation efforts, some prairie dogs will end up at the ranch, where about 850,000 acres of land is suitable habitat for the species.
Wildlife biologist Emily Renn works with the organization Habitat Harmony to relocate prairie dogs to areas such as the Petrified Forest, where black-footed ferret reintroductions have also occurred. Ferrets rely on prairie dog colonies for food and shelter.
Relocating the prairie dogs in the summer months, July and August, Renn said her goal number is affected by increased hunting of prairie dogs.
“I'm trying to do 100 prairie dogs a summer,” Renn said. “And then somebody can go out and basically shoot 100 prairie dogs in the morning.”
Jessica Simmons works for the planning department of Parks and Recreation in Coconino County. She coordinates with developers using conditional use permits to make sure that certain requirements are being met if developers want to build around areas where there are prairie dog burrows present.
“They are considered the species of greatest conservation need in all four states where they occur,” Renn said.
Another important strategy for managing Gunnison’s prairie dogs is limiting the outbreaks of diseases like the plague, which is a common cause of death in the species, by dusting burrows with a flea-killing pesticide.
Wildlife crossings increase safety for people, animals
The Arizona Game and Fish Department, in collaboration with the Arizona Department of Transportation, is working on wildlife crossings on Interstates 17 and 40 in northern Arizona.
The project is called the Northern Arizona Wildlife Connectivity Project, and it took nearly 30 years of planning for the beginning of construction on three areas. It is funded through the wildlife crossing pilot program from the Federal Highway Administration.
Scott Garlid, the executive director of the Arizona Wildlife Federation, said the federal funding needed for future wildlife crossings is frozen, as it is mainly funded on the federal level. While the future is uncertain for other wildlife crossing projects, development for the planned wildlife crossings will move forward.
“When that money is available, you want to be prepared and have your funding already approved,” Garland said. “You need to get the money there so that you're prepared for the next opportunity.”
Jeff Gagnon is the program lead for the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s wildlife connectivity program. He said the need for wildlife crossings stems from habitat fragmentation and vehicle collisions on the roads. As roads act as barriers for animals that can make it difficult to cross, a Northern Arizona University study found that these barriers can alter the populations genetically.
Allowing for wildlife crossings will dispel genetic barriers on both sides of the road, Gagnon said.
“From a gene flow perspective, it seems like the outcome is going to be pretty good,” Gagnon said.
Around 70% of collared elk did not cross the I-17 and I-40 corridors, according to Arizona Game and Fish. There have also been around 200 elk and deer per year killed in vehicular incidents on both the I-17 and I-40.
The state agency installed fencing to guide animals toward the wildlife crossings. It’s an eight-foot woven wire fence that has increased the success rate of the crossings dramatically, Gagnon said.
For example, Gagnon said, for another project, there was a 98% reduction in collisions after the fences were installed.
Construction is set to start for the project in the spring of 2025.
George Headley is politics editor at The State Press at Arizona State University. Nikki Shaw is a junior at Alaska Pacific University. Both are fellows of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: ‘We’re Not Going To Take It’: Indigenous Activists Keep Up Fight Over San Francisco Peaks
Published April 26, 2025
By Katarzyna Michalik
To most visitors, the San Francisco Peaks are a winter playground — powdery slopes, alpine air and the thrill of activities at the Arizona Snowbowl Resort. But to more than a dozen Indigenous Nations, the peaks are sacred ground — known for over 2,000 years as Dookʼoʼoosłííd.
Every flake of artificial snow that covers the mountain near Flagstaff is made from treated water and serves as a painful reminder for Indigenous peoples that their spiritual ties have been long overlooked.
“Sometimes it feels like you are on the losing end,” Cora Maxx-Phillips, a Navajo activist, said. “The corporate model of this world is so … freaking powerful that we cannot stand up to it … but we’re not going to take it, because we are hanging on to the traditional values.”
That pain — and defiance — echoes generations of Indigenous resistance.
Before European colonization, Indigenous Americans chose not to live on the mountain out of respect for its spiritual energy. Today, ski lifts cut across its face and the artificial snow covers the slopes. Plans for further expansion loom.
Maxx-Phillips once posed a question in a podcast to illustrate the depth of the insult and question the difference between two cultures and their belief systems: “The Old Testament talks about Mount Sinai as a sacred place, where Moses made his offerings, where he received the Ten Commandments. … This mountain is where our medicine men make prayers and offerings for spiritual renewal. … Would Moses have allowed using reclaimed water on Mount Sinai to make artificial snow?”
For her, the answer is obvious. Yet decades of legal battles and protests have done little to slow development.
Erosion worsens at base of mountain
Beyond the cultural wounds, the land itself is suffering.
Hart Prairie, a sweeping grassland at the base of the peaks, is now interlaced with erosion gullies — a phenomenon once unknown here.
“The surface of the prairie itself is being eroded, gullies are being cut into it from this runoff from the mountain,” said Richard Hereford, a retired research geologist for the United States Geological Survey.
Hereford’s research found that nitrogen levels were 105 times higher and phosphorus 1,300 times higher than natural conditions. Such excess nutrients can alter soil chemistry, damage native vegetation and harm wildlife.
The source? Likely the artificial snow made with reclaimed wastewater, used to extend the ski season.
“For us, this place carries a lot of traditional medicine that grows from this mother,” said Dianna Sue Uqualla, a Havasupai elder. The quaking aspen “is a powerful tree in our way of the Supai people, and it only grows here. You cannot take it and replant it.”
Across Arizona and the Southwest, the pattern repeats: mining, water extraction, development — all chipping away at lands held sacred by Indigenous nations.
“We’re all connected,” said Ka-Voka Jackson, director at Hualapai Cultural Resources. “This isn’t just about skiing. It’s about life, about healing places being destroyed.”
What happens when Earth says 'enough'?
For Indigenous communities, protecting the San Francisco Peaks goes beyond one mountain: It’s about defending a worldview — one that sees land as living, not as a commodity for profit.
“The entire paradigm of Indigenous nations revolves around the sacredness of life,” Maxx-Phillips said. “That’s in deep contrast to greed and materialism. Where will that get us when the Earth finally says ‘enough’?”
The fight for the peaks is not over. The scars are deep, but so is the will to protect what remains.
As the sun reflects off the final patches of snow, it also shines on Maxx-Phillips’ tears — part grief, part defiance.
“One day,” she said, “we’ll look into our grandkids’ eyes. Will we say, ‘I’m sorry, I did nothing'? Or, ‘Forgive me. I tried all I could’?”.
She brushed the wetness from her cheeks.
“If you’re going to stand with us to protect the sacredness of this mountain — of life itself — we invite you. But come with trust. With respect. With honor.”
Arizona Snowbowl and its parent company, Mountain Capital Partners, did not respond to requests for comment.
Katarzyna Michalik is a doctoral student at Prescott College and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: How President Trump’s Tariffs Impact America’s Generation of Nuclear Energy
Published April 26, 2025
By Amelia Monroe
One of the nation’s largest nuclear power plants generates energy for Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. It’s almost completely run on other countries' uranium.
Foreign producers, including Canada, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Australia, account for 99% of the uranium used by U.S. nuclear generators in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“We as a country have to rely on the rest of the world. We don’t have the capacity as a country to do everything ourselves,” said John Hernandez, vice president of site services at the Palo Verde Generating Station, one of the nation’s largest nuclear energy producers.
How Trump's tariffs impact the generation of nuclear energy
In December 2023, 25 countries declared goals to triple the global nuclear generating capacity by 2050. The declaration included plans to curb overall greenhouse gas emissions and keep rising temperatures below a 1.5 degrees Celsius max.
Since President Donald Trump took office, he has imposed a slew of tariffs on numerous countries in an effort to drive manufacturing back to the United States. Uranium is currently exempt from all tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Amber Reimondo, energy director at the Grand Canyon Trust, said the idea of U.S. uranium independence is impractical, and new trade policies are making that worse.
“The United States has about 1% of global uranium reserves. … If everybody is actually building these nuclear reactors, the United States is way far back in terms of our ability to obtain those uranium supplies,” Reimondo said.
“We’re only making our problem worse by picking enemies with some of our friends. Canada and Australia, if we’re serious about getting uranium, those are the places that have what we need and it is a pipe dream to think we can get it here,” Reimondo said.
The Palo Verde Generating Station sits 55 miles west of downtown Phoenix. The facility produces nearly 4,200 megawatts of electricity across the Southwest, supplying energy to over 4 million people.
Nuclear energy is harnessed through uranium pellets, which Hernandez compared to about the size of a gummy bear. This pellet accumulates about the same amount of energy as one ton of coal, 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas or three barrels of oil.
Domestic production of uranium has remained stagnant since the 1980s, largely due to the low-grade deposits accessible on U.S. soil.
According to the World Nuclear Association, uranium is graded by the average weight percentage found in the ore mined. On average, deposits gathered in the U.S. read about 0.1% of uranium. In comparison, mines in Canada produce ore that has concentrations above 20%.
How uranium becomes fuel
There are four steps to the fuel cycle of uranium pellets:
- Uranium is purchased as an inert substance.
- It’s converted to gas.
- It’s concentrated.
- It's transformed into fuel.
Palo Verde contracts individually for all four of these steps.
"By philosophy, we don’t purchase any of the four steps from Russia or China. We haven’t in decades,” Hernandez said. The bulk of their uranium is sourced from countries like Kazakhstan or Canada, and they do participate in the spot market — sourced material from independent players throughout the world.
Hernandez did not confirm the exact amount of uranium Palo Verde purchases from other countries.
On May 13, 2024, former President Joe Biden signed into law the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, which bars imports of Russian uranium products through 2040. The ban on Russian imports was part of Biden’s investing in America strategy, which distributes private sector investments that would incentivize an increase in U.S. manufacturing.
American uranium production ticks up, still lags behind world market
The Department of Energy was awarded $2.7 billion in an attempt to spur growth of the U.S. nuclear fuel supply chain. The Biden administration tapped six companies to compete for this funding. Each received 10-year contracts that guarantee the disbursement of at least $2 million.
The spending set out to maintain the longevity of the country's current fleet of 94 nuclear reactors and develop the domestic capacity to produce its own uranium fuel supply.
Nuclear energy provides nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity.
Since the allocation of funds, five U.S. facilities in Wyoming and Texas have spurred a 24% increase in domestic uranium production throughout 2024.
Despite the growth, over 4,000 mines remain inactive in the United States, according to the Energy Department. At last count, the active uranium mines produced about 121,296 pounds.
This pales in comparison to uranium production throughout the world market.
Nearly two-thirds of the world’s production is sourced from Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia, which combine to over 33,131 metric tons, or 73 million pounds of uranium.
Amelia Monroe is a junior at Arizona State University and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: In Arizona’s High Country, Restoring Forest Health Is a Group Effort
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| Tour participants group around wood piles during an all-day tour of a forest restoration project in the Coconino National Forest near Payson on April 24. Photo: Summer Williams. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
Published April 25, 2025
By Bella Mazzilli
Interagency collaboration is vital in environmental conservation efforts, and the partnership between Salt River Project, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, the National Forest Foundation and the Arizona Game and Fish Department is no different.
These organizations and agencies have partnered to further their individual efforts of wildfire mitigation and forest conservation. The agencies, led by SRP, presented a tour group from the Society of Environmental Journalists with an array of visual examples of their processes in the forests surrounding Payson on April 24.
The agencies have partnered with the goal of fostering growth and rehabilitation in northern Arizona’s forests and reducing the chances of major wildfires. The interagency collaboration is called the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, established in 2010, which aims to restore and manage forest areas at high risk. These areas include the Kaibab, Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino and Tonto forests.
Elvy Barton, SRP's senior manager for water and forest sustainability, led the tour. She explained the intricate relationship between the agencies, but also emphasized the delicacy of the relationship between humans and the forests in northern Arizona.
The function and existence of prescribed burns, or human-initiated controlled fires, demonstrate how intentional human collaboration can help intentional forest growth.
“Relationships (are) what gets the stuff done,” Barton said.
The collaboration between SRP and the other governmental agencies allows for a multiplicative effect on the power and impact of the individual work of each agency, according to Barton.
Thomas Torres, state forester at the Department of Forestry and Fire Management, said the Good Neighbor Authority was established nationally and implemented in Arizona to protect and restore the Tonto and Kaibab national forests in the northern region of the state.
“(The authority) has allowed Arizona to become the producer of nearly a quarter of the U.S. timber production,” Torres said.
Torres said without these partnerships to preserve and rehabilitate the forest lands in northern Arizona, metro Phoenix would feel detrimental effects.
“A lot of the logging here goes down to Phoenix,” he said. “The goal is to build a healthier forest for all of Arizona.”
Trevor Seck, Arizona forestry program supervisor for the National Forest Foundation, said the foundation is an official partner of the U.S. Forest Service and this specific partnership “bring(s) people together to restore and maintain the forest(s).”
For the final stop of the tour, Barton led the group to a lookout point on the Mogollon Rim. She said it showed an example of the culmination of the interagency partnerships and conservation efforts made by SRP.
She left the tour group with a striking image: One section of the forest in the Mogollon Rim was densely populated with thin, column-like trees, and across a narrow road, a clearing with a few trees sprinkled throughout. The dense section seemed crowded and unruly. The other, intentionally cleared and conserved.
Barton explained that the dense section of the forest is an example of nature left to its own devices, and the clearing across the road is SRP’s involvement in the process. The area was also the site of a lightning-caused fire in September 2024, which was managed to help with forest health.
“Nature was allowed to play its role (here),” Barton said.
Bella Mazzilli is a reporter at State News Magazine at Arizona State University and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: What Happens When Colorado River Drought Plans End in 2026?
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| The solar-over-canal project at the Casa Blanca Canal on the Gila River Indian Community in Phoenix, Arizona, on April 24. The solar project is the first project in the Western Hemisphere. Photo: Arilynn Hyatt. |
Published April 28, 2025
By Arilynn Hyatt
With seven states, 30 tribes and Mexico, the Central Arizona Project and the Gila River Indian Community addressed the uncertainty of the Colorado River Basin water shortage at an April 24 tour at the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalist Conference.
Facing water shortages in the Colorado River Basin in the early 200s, the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines and later the 2019 Drought Contingency Plans were created to mitigate water use.
These plans expire in 2026. New agreements could potentially lead to less availability of water.
“We’re looking at a new water supply someday. It might not only be Colorado River water going through the canal system,” said DeEtte Person, communications strategist for the Central Arizona Project.
The Central Arizona Project is a 336-mile-wide system that delivers Colorado River water across the state. The system includes four tunnels, 10 siphons, 14 pumping plants, 39 radial gates and more than 50 turnouts.
The Colorado River Basin has been in a prolonged drought, being categorized as Tier 1 shortage, DeEtte said.
Being in a Tier 1 shortage means Arizona, along with other states, is facing reductions to the amount of water allocated under the agreements. The seven states under the agreements also use a priority system, said Patrick Dent, assistant manager over water policy at CAP.
The Colorado River Basin allocates 2.8 million acre-feet of water to Arizona annually, with 60% of that water coming through CAP, and the rest used on the Colorado River, Yuma area and tribal lands, according to CAP.
“Those on river uses were established in a time before the Central Arizona Project and consequently, for the most part, have higher priorities,” Dent said.
Most of the shortages fall to CAP, which has its own priority system on whose water supply gets cut first. Excess groundwater, agricultural districts and municipalities are on the bottom of the CAP priority list, Dent said.
As states begin negotiations over new water agreements, Cynthia Campbell, director of policy innovation for the Arizona Water Initiative, said the uncertainty surrounding 2026 means Arizona is starting to consider options.
“There are scenarios where you could be talking about at certain times of the year, or maybe on an ongoing basis, there might be such low levels of water in the canal that you don’t have enough head to operate the water treatment plant,” said Campbell.
Campbell previously worked as the water resources management adviser for the city of Phoenix, where she managed the water resource portfolio and advised city officials.
She said Arizona cities know there will be cuts to CAP in the post-2026 water agreements; the question is how much.
“That's where the real difficulty comes from,” she said.
About an hour south of the CAP headquarters, cottonwoods and trees lined the rivers in a lush green valley 100 years ago, before water became a hot commodity.
Now, the Gila River Indian Community is trying to recharge the aquifers on its land to bring back the indigenous plants and ensure more water availability for the future.
It’s the Managed Aquifer Recharge site 5, (MAR 5), better known as the Gila River Interpretive Trail. There are multiple recharge sites throughout the reservation, all tasked with the same job: to store groundwater.
“Tribes play a key role in this,” said Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community.
Tribes have their own water rights, typically through litigation. The Gila River Indian Community and other Arizona tribes fight to make sure water remains untouched on their lands.
“Think of it like a bank account,” David DeJong, director of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, said.
The irrigation project’s goal is to develop a water delivery system that is beneficial to the community and its resources.
The community puts water in the ground to restore the aquifer, then they market that water. Municipalities, companies and farmers can buy “credits” from the Gila River Water Storage, LLC. Anyone who buys from the company can take water from the canal at a later date or pump groundwater from an active management area, DeJong said.
MAR 5 can store up to 40,000 acre feet of water per year, according to the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project.
With this process, the land not only benefits but so do the companies that buy credits and the community’s economic growth, DeJong said. Since the creation of the recharge sites in 2015, the community has recharged 178,691 acre-feet of water on the reservation, which can supply around 536,073 single-family households.
Additionally, the community has started a Solar-Over-Canal pilot program at the Casa Blanca Canal — “a concept that we actually looked at about 10 years ago, when reclamation did a couple of studies encouraging the Central Arizona Project to consider solar over a canal,” DeJong said.
The $5.6 million project has generated 488,098 kilowatt-hours, which is enough energy to power 1,000 homes for eight hours. The goal of this program is to generate enough solar energy to offset the reservation’s power demand.
“We’re trying to find a way to conserve every drop as possible,” he said.
The Gila River Indian Community still has to study if the panels are more solar efficient over the canal or not. DeJong said they are hoping to publish data over the next three years.
In the meantime, the Gila River Indian Community will continue to keep the federal government accountable when it comes to water rights.
“Water connects us all. Water is life,” Lewis said.
Arilynn Hyatt is a junior studying journalism at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: ‘A Green Oasis Is Not Realistic’: How Buckeye Is Planning for Sustainable Growth
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| Buckeye Mayor Eric Orsborn speaking to a group from the Society of Environmental Journalists conference on April 24. Photo: McKenna Manzo. |
Published April 27, 2025
By Sedona Hartley
The mayor of Buckeye, Arizona, and a water planner for the city met with a group of journalists from across the U.S. to discuss its rapid growth plans, and its leaders' hope of transitioning from a bedroom community where over 90% of its residents commute for work into a bustling business hub featuring mixed-use land development and a more walkable community for its citizens.
The meeting on April 24 was part of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference.
Among Buckeye officials' top concerns are ensuring they acquire enough water rights to support their potential growth as the largest Arizona city by land area, over 640 square miles. Buckeye has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, with its population ballooning from just 8,000 people in 2000 to 120,000 people by 2025.
Eric Orsborn, who was reelected in 2024 to a second term as mayor after running unopposed, hopes to facilitate smart growth in his community over the coming years. He said he wants Buckeye to become a pioneering community while avoiding mistakes other Arizona cities have made.
Here are some highlights from remarks by Orsborn and Bobby Anastov, Buckeye’s water resources manager.
City working to expand water portfolio, increase water use efficiency
As Arizona has transitioned much of its land from farming to residential uses, water use has dropped.
Buckeye once was an agricultural community, and one acre of farmland would use four times more water than four houses on that tract. Even so, water is a pressing issue when developing in the desert, especially for Buckeye as a newer community with plans for rapid expansion.
Anastov said he is always looking to grow and diversify the city's water reserves and supply.
“I look at things sort of as a short-term and long-term solution," Anastov said. "When I say short term in the world of water, I'm thinking of five to 10 years, which might sound like a lot of time, but in the water world, ten years comes pretty quickly."
He looked at the city's existing water assets and realized that effluent — wastewater — could be used to expand the city's water portfolio, he said.
"We send a portion to parks, recreational areas, and other open spaces, where before it was just going to waste,” Anastov said.
He said the city was also addressing residential water demand by ensuring builders adhered to new home water efficiency guidelines, which reduce average water use levels from 130 gallons per day per home to 100 gallons per day per home.
Another program that has been implemented to help the city reduce overall water usage is a water conservation rebate program, Anastov said. The program rewards residents who replace their grass with more water-efficient landscaping, install smart irrigation controllers and plant drought-tolerant plants.
“What we are trying to do is bring the best quality of water that we can to our residents at a reasonable cost,” he said.
Transplants from East, Midwest and California coming to Buckeye
Buckeye is continually seeking to attract new, diverse businesses to the city, with a primary focus on the advanced manufacturing and technology sectors. The city recently saw the addition of two new warehouse/distribution centers from large nationwide brands, Walmart and Five Below.
The expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in metro Phoenix was also expected to bring significant investment and create many jobs for Buckeye residents.
“We get a lot of people moving in from all over the country, and a lot of transplants that come out from the East Coast and the Midwest," Orsborn said. "There are a lot of people that are coming from California right now, and businesses specifically moving out this way. A lot of people are moving here for opportunities and following businesses here.”
Buckeye mayor says city working to build walkable communities
Buckeye is planning for a high-density development of its land, including multifamily housing options and access to different types of transit throughout the community.
The city is in the planning stage for a 920-acre, densely built-up area, similar to downtown Tempe, that would include spaces for living, working, eating and leisure.
“What we're really trying to do is get intentional about areas like this, and create those walkable communities for people,” Orsborn said.
The city is also incorporating many master-planned communities that include single-family homes. Teravalis, formerly known as Douglas Ranch, is a new development in the works that will span 3,000 acres of land, with over 8,000 homes planned.
The master planned communities will bring a faster growth rate as the city “currently facilitates between 2,200 and about 3,500 permits for single-family dwellings a year,” Orsborn said.
Planning to ensure wildlife can continue to thrive
Buckeye's planners have placed an emphasis on preserving natural wildlife habitats. They are working on a plan for a wildlife corridor so animals such as bighorn sheep can continue to traverse the areas between the White Tank and Belmont mountain ranges.
“One of the things that we learned from Phoenix and some of our neighboring cities is, when you have a mountain that's a live mountain, and you build homes and developments all around it, it closes off that mountain from all of the wildlife movements back and forth," Orsborn said.
"We've identified what these corridors look like and where they are, and now we get to design that in before development happens out in these areas.”
Buckeye plans to set aside 36% of its total land for open space that will remain undeveloped, including around the White Tank Mountains.
Mayor: 'A green oasis is not realistic for Arizona anymore'
Buckeye and the nearby cities of Goodyear and Avondale have hosted classes led by their conservation departments to teach residents how to support environmental efforts in their communities.
Topics include which plants are best suited for their area and how to care for them over the seasons.
“To be more efficient on the water side of things, we are really scaling back how much turf and outdoor water use there is," Orsborn said. "So you're not going to see these vast green spaces that are not active going forward. Instead of having grass in front and backyards and real lush landscaping, it's going to be leaning more toward xeriscape and highlighting native plants. A green oasis is not realistic for Arizona anymore.”
Sedona Hartley is a senior at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: Three Ways Community Groups, ASU Are Fighting Extreme Heat in Phoenix
Published April 26, 2025
By McKenna Manzo
Imagine walking down the sidewalk to grab groceries or catch the bus, the sun beating down with no shade in sight.
Your skin is on fire, and there is no escape from the heat.
For many residents in Phoenix, this isn’t just a momentary state of discomfort; it is a regular reality.
Grassroots organizations in Phoenix are coming together to address climate-related heat issues at the community level. Here's how.
Gamifying effective tree planting in community workshops
Planting trees in the right places — where residents want and need them — takes collaboration between the people living in a place and the people doing the planting, said Paul Coseo, an associate professor of landscape architecture, urban design and environmental design at Arizona State University.
Coseo is part of an ASU design group developing community workshops to reduce urban heat and increase health and wellness through the use of shade.
In the fall, the team worked with a south-central Phoenix community to enhance neighborhoods through urban forestry. Coseo said that people in the car-oriented, semi-industrial area were spending every day walking through sun-soaked streets to areas that the design team recognized as community assets — places with services that people need. They wanted to make those treks more bearable.
The team developed workshops to break down the data and science of shade and heat into something community members could easily understand. Information from those workshops was used to decide where trees should go.
“It is really critical to translate science into something people experience,” Coseo said.
In the first workshop, community members played a board game called "Dreams of Shade." They started by sharing their personal “shade stories” to help them identify some guiding values for tree planting. The participants then physically mapped out dots on a neighborhood map while navigating “wild cards” like underground utilities and irrigation challenges.
The second workshop was a community data fair, where residents could review, add to and discuss ideas collected so far. Coseo said it was an open and conversational framework built on the idea that community members have the right to inspect their data.
Training people to care for tree canopies for the long term
Combating extreme heat is not only about educating people in real time, but also creating a set of skilled people ready and willing to care for the urban canopy in the long term, community organizers said.
“The hottest neighborhoods with the fewest trees are the neighborhoods that have lower incomes, less economic opportunities, less job opportunities and less educational opportunities,” said Jennifer Clifton, assistant director of community economic development with the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service at ASU. “We are looking to change this.”
The Urban Nature Project, led by the Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, is working to plant tree canopies in some of Phoenix’s hottest neighborhoods and train people who can maintain them.
Unlimited Potential, a metro Phoenix nonprofit, in collaboration with groups such as the Arizona Conservation Corps and the Orchard Community Learning Center, has implemented a workforce development program that functions like a place-based trade school.
Community residents are trained on the technical maintenance skills needed to manage tree planting and care. Twenty-three of the first 24 participants of the program completed it. Many have already secured jobs, Clifton said.
“We are trying to create career and entrepreneurship pathways for any sector that supports the whole life cycle of a tree,” she said.
Developing community networks to solicit feedback on heat, shade
Unlimited Potential has harnessed community health workers, people who live and work in the neighborhoods that they serve, to solicit feedback from residents on heat, shade and health.
Tawsha Trahan, the group's director of healthy communities, said that these workers are trusted messengers of the community and their input is significant in determining how shade is implemented. Most have certifications requiring hundreds of hours of education and service, she said.
The nonprofit has used the information gathered by community health workers to inform the Urban Nature Project's work.
“We were able to collect all these data points from all these different sessions around the Phoenix area for either shade, whether that’s structural or tree shade,” Trahan said. “We had over 2,000 data points that the city of Phoenix and others were able to bring to the table with this Urban Nature Project.”
McKenna Manzo is a senior at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: Desert-Adapted Crops Thrive in Central Arizona, Allowing Farmers To Stretch Water Supplies
Published April 29, 2025
By Naomi DuBovis and Eleri Mosier
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| Katrina Cornish, director of the U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Center in Maricopa, Arizona, holds guayule seeds. Photo: Naomi DuBovis. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
It might be hard to imagine crops thriving in the hot, dry climate of central Arizona. But one crop, called guayule (pronounced why-yoo-lee), has caught the attention of farmers and researchers for its potential economic benefits and adaptation to desert climates.
Guayule has been found to have several benefits, notably that processing it into rubber doesn't involve toxic chemicals that can harm humans and the environment, unlike traditional rubber production.
The shrub is native to the Chihuahua Desert in Mexico, said Katrina Cornish, a global expert on alternate rubber and latex production and director of the U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Center in Maricopa, Arizona.
“We have an agreement with Mexico where we're going to be able to mine the diversity they have down there, which has been fantastic,” said Cornish, during a presentation for the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Cornish said the supply of conventional crops used in rubber manufacturing has struggled to keep up with ever-increasing global demand, especially in the wake of a disease that spread to rubber trees in multiple countries and decimated the population in 2019. The only solution that mitigated the spread, she said, was the reduction of transportation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If COVID hadn't hit when it hit, we’d still be screaming in agony for what happened in 2019 in terms of global rubber supply.”
Guayule uses less water than other crops
Guayule’s ability to thrive is dependent on its adaptability to the arid Southwest climate.
Arizona farmer Will Thelander said germinating guayule can be difficult because of the size of the seeds, but the water savings are significant compared to other crops. Guayule only needs around 2.5-3 acre-feet of water over the course of a year. By comparison, Thelander said, wheat would need that amount of water over four months.
“You can water over longer periods of time, which makes it available for us to continually let those pumps run, and we can grow a lot (more) acres,” he said. “So if you can grow a hundred acres of wheat, let’s say, with the same amount of water flow, you can grow 200 acres of guayule.”
For farmers like Thelander who have to pay for each acre-foot of water, maximizing plant yield while minimizing water use is important.
“Sometimes you hear stories in the news. … It's like, ‘Oh, farmers are wasting water’'” he said. “Who wastes something they have to pay for?”
Farmers have to adjust operations for desert-adapted crops
Identifying crops that can conserve water is especially important as water supplies from the Colorado River dwindle and groundwater remains limited. Paul Brierley, director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, said groundwater regulations have received pushback from rural communities.
“It’s never popular to cut back on a resource like water, so it has been really contentious,” he said. “I have been in those discussions where we’re trying to frame what we think is a good structure for that regulation, and you’ve got the Legislature that’s got their own idea.”
But farmers’ willingness to start growing desert-adapted crops is not guaranteed.
Some farmers are hesitant to switch up their crop varieties because it would require that they switch their equipment and operations, said Thelander. Their tractors are designed for crops like corn, cotton, and alfalfa, so altering the growing practice is not easy.
Arizona has been in a drought since the mid-1990s based on statewide precipitation patterns, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Changing the structure of crop farming while also keeping up with the growing drought issue will require work, but farmers like Thelander are willing to put in the time.
“With the water cuts that we’ve all been knowing about coming for a while,” he said, “any sort of thing that we can put in the ground that uses less water is great for the entire area.”
Naomi DuBovis and Eleri Mosier are journalism students at Arizona State University and are fellows of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: Environmental Conference Explores the Two Sides of Metro Phoenix: Housed and Unhoused
Published April 29, 2025
By Serenity Reynolds
As the scorching Arizona summer nears, the lack of housing, especially for homeless people, frustrates advocates for their well-being and those who are trying to combat what they call housing discrimination and a misuse of urban lands.
NPR Senior Climate Editor Sadie Babits and freelance Journalist Kyle Paoletta showed examples of deep housing disparities to attendees of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Tempe in late April.
One hot spot for homeless encampments is the Arizona Canal. The desolate and nearly silent area lacked greenery, had rundown housing, and no place for shade as the sun beamed down.
Erik Sanchez, executive director for the “Make America Safe Again” project, visits the area daily from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. and cares for as many as 600 people. He said that’s when homeless people don't expect anyone else to be around.
Sanchez’s frustration lies in the fact that there is excessive unused land in Phoenix for more shelters, centers, and resources to be built.
Sanchez said he and the volunteers who are part of the MASA project offer not only food and water, but also housing and resources to help people take steps to get off the streets.
For people seeking housing, there are usually loopholes or gaps found in insurance, credit, documents, etc., making it harder for homeless people to find housing and easier for them to turn back to the streets.
In the summer, the price of having no shelter can be steep.
Sometimes, Sanchez will find numerous people passed out because of a lack of water, which is not a good mix with drugs, he said.
People can get their skin stuck to the hot pavement if they pass out.
Some die.
He stressed the need for homeless centers or rehabilitation for people to at least have a roof over their heads.
It’s a different picture 15 minutes away, where environmentally conscious communities and residential housing projects are flourishing.
Encanto Village in midtown Phoenix is known for big shady trees, manicured lawns and historic custom homes that often go for more than $1 million on today’s market. Encanto is less than 2 miles from a sprawling downtown homeless encampment known as “The Zone,” which stood throughout the pandemic.
Not far to the east of the canal encampment, the car-free neighborhood of Culdesac Tempe, near Arizona State University, emphasizes building communities and environmental connection.
With white buildings and biodegradable gravel, the neighborhood traps less heat, resulting in a significantly cooler area during the hot Phoenix summers.
Homeless centers and housing projects are opening. Earlier in April, the Native American Connections started a new downtown Phoenix housing project serving homeless veterans and seniors, which offers housing, health services, and treatment for those with substance use disorder.
But the 20,000 people Sanchez cares for annually show that more communities are needed.
Serenity Reynolds is a junior studying journalism at Arizona State University and is a fellow in the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Tour: Arizona Specimen Collections Help Scientists Track Changes in Species Over Time
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| Cactus Specialist Noemi Hernandez Castro gives a tour of the Desert Botanical Garden cacti greenhouse to attendees of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference on April 24. Photo: Sophia Ramirez. |
Published April 26, 2025
By Sophia Ramirez
A crowd gathers around a woman in an apron using a pocket knife to slice into a prickly pear cactus.
The scene looks like something that might happen in a kitchen, but she is not cooking.
She is a botanist, serving at one of Arizona’s many biological repositories that preserve specimens to track evolution.
Joni Ward is a plant registrar for the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Anyone can visit the garden, which features a mix of native and international plants. But few are given access to their herbarium and cactus greenhouse, which store thousands of ecological specimens.
Joan Meiners, a climate reporter for The Arizona Republic, hosted a tour on April 24 for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference. The group visited several biorepositories, one of the most widely used tools for studying environmental changes.
“Luca Ghini in Italy started this whole concept" in the 1500s, said Wendy Hodgson, a research botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden. “That simple idea of pressing plants and drying them and gluing them on cardboard or paper. Really, it's not high tech.”
Ward’s newly prepared prickly pear specimen will dry in a specialized locker before being cataloged by species, location and time of collection.
“We take great pride in making really good specimens,” Hodgson said. “It does take a lot of time, a lot of patience.”
Researchers can request plants that have been cataloged for over 80 years. They use these specimens to understand genetic changes or adaptations in species over time.
“Someone can extract DNA from these plants — we can do that now,” said Andrew Salywon, herbarium curator at the Desert Botanical Garden. “They didn't even think about it back at the time. So we don't know how these specimens are going to be used.”
The herbarium collections have been used in projects to track pesticide resistance and loss of habitat. They are increasingly used to track the effects of climate change over time.
Biorepositories are also concerned with animals. The Natural History Collections at Arizona State University include repositories for bugs, mammals, plants and more.
The ASU Hasbrouck Insect Collections has over 2 million cataloged and individually pinned specimens. Collections Manager Sangmi Lee said she oversaw the integration of a private collection of over 1 million species and was working to digitize the full collection, which includes insects from all over the world.
“I've been working on this collection from Panama, Africa, Australia, New Zealand — all over,” Lee said.
Like they do with the Desert Botanical Garden's collection, researchers request samples to observe changes in species over time. Entomology experts also visit the insect collections to identify possible new species.
ASU's Natural History Collections also has a vertebrate collection of primarily small animals. The collections workers are trained to skin, stuff or preserve animals in liquid to keep a record of vertebrates.
The specimens are made available for researchers who might be interested in doing population genetics or interested in pathogens, said Laura Stegers, collections manager for a partner biorepository.
“Researchers have requested samples to study valley fever, hantavirus," she said.
Stegers demonstrated making a "study skin," a specimen that preserves the skin and fur characteristics of small mammals. Researchers use these skins to identify species of mice, rats or shrew.
They also preserve skeletons.
“The skeleton we clean using live dermestid beetles,” said Stegers. “When the colony is crazy active, they can clean something about this size in 48 hours.”
Sophia Ramirez is a senior at Arizona State University and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Mini-Tour: Indigenous Food Educators Share Their Knowledge of Sonoran Desert Plants
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| Twila Cassadore, left, and Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns speak to a tour group with the Society of Environmental Journalists on April 25, at Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: Jay Corella. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
Published April 25, 2025
By Sophia Ramirez
Two Indigenous food educators showcased the abundance of the Sonoran Desert during a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference on April 25.
Their wisdom, while better in person, could be used in any hiker’s self-guided tour.
The group started in Papago Park, public land in the middle of metro Phoenix, looking up at a butte formation called Hole in the Rock before going deeper into the desert and looking for palo verde trees.
“These flowers, you can make tea out of them,” said Twila Cassadore, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. “The pods, which you maybe find on some of the more younger trees out here, they taste like edamame.”
Cassadore identified a domed nest made of sticks and weeds under the tree, a home for a wood rat. She said they build two within a 30-foot radius, and they will never leave that habitat. She also said they were delicious.
“Using this beautiful animal that's been gifted to us by the Creator, … young people engage in this hunt,” Cassadore said. “And when they engage in this hunt, it's like watching a full soccer game.”
To find a wood rat nest, look for a mound of twigs under a larger tree, like a mesquite. On closer inspection, the mound is a complex arrangement of interlocking branches.
Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns, who is Pascua Yaqui and Cora, found another common occurrence in the desert, a nursery plant.
When seeds sprout under a more established plant, they are protected from the sun and may live to adulthood. Look for a smaller plant growing at the base of a larger one. There may be even smaller seedlings at the base of the protected plant.
Lazos-Ferns and Cassadore filled the tour with stories of their casual desert plant consumption, as typical as picking up fruit from the grocery store. Lazos-Ferns identified several barrel cactuses, a common desert fixture with pineapple-shaped fruit.
“I use them in my salsa, because whatever the makeup of that thing is, they prevent stomach problems or indigestion when you're eating really hot food,” said Lazos-Ferns.
The fruit are ready to be picked when the cactus gives them up easily, and the plant’s spines no longer curl over the fruit, Cassadore said.
The secondary purpose of the tour was to highlight the value of Indigenous knowledge for society at large. Native desert plants are common in landscaping across Arizona to use less water, a practice called xeriscaping.
“Science now is coming up to par with Indigenous knowledge,” Lazos-Ferns. “Plants have feelings, they move, they fear.”
Sophia Ramirez is a senior at Arizona State University and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Mini-Tour: How Environmental Leaders in Phoenix Are Revitalizing the Rio Salado
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| A baby bird in the orphan ward of Liberty Wildlife on April 26 in Phoenix, part of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference. These birds are cared for by volunteers and staff until they are ready to take flight. Photo: Jay Corella. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
Published April 28, 2025
By Natasha Cortinovis
The Rio Salado, once a healthy river that sustained Indigenous communities in central Arizona, faced deep degradation over time.
Dams, sand and gravel mines and industrial facilities polluted the riverbed. It was transformed into an informal landfill for trash and waste, scarring the heart of metro Phoenix.
But in the last 50 years, environmental leaders began to imagine how it would be to have the beautiful river of its ancestors around them again.
This culminated in Rio Reimagined, a revitalization initiative targeting over 55 miles of the Rio Salado and its tributary, the Gila River. The effort spans eight cities and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa and the Gila River Indian communities.
The project seeks to recuperate people’s connection to the Rio Salado, revitalize its ecosystem for biodiversity and wildlife, and promote economic and social growth.
“We try to reenvision the future along the banks of this river,” said Maggie Soffel, senior director of the Rio Reimagined project at Arizona State University. “How do we rehabilitate the river’s health, make sure we remove invasive species, restore habitat for the animals, and make sure the people living along its banks are healthy?”
An idea for restoring social ties is to create a system of trails that run along its banks.
“And for the tribes, this river was an essential resource,” Soffel said. “It still holds cultural and spiritual significance today, although it's dry. … They want it restored.”
“Everyone would want the water back in the river,” she said, pointing to the dry riverbed of the Rio Salado.
In the few pockets of water that persist or were reintroduced, there's a family of beavers that likes to dam up the water.
“I released a beaver in the riverbed, so I know they’re there,” said Chris Sat, director of development at Liberty Wildlife.
If it is the appropriate habitat, Liberty Wildlife staff releases an animal in the riverbed after nursing it back to health.
This Phoenix-based wildlife rehabilitation and conservation organization plays a vital role in the Rio Reimagined initiative. It nurtures Arizona’s native wildlife along the Rio Salado through the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned animals, river and species education, and community engagement.
It treats over 12,000 animals annually, from reptiles and mammals to different bird species, including the big birds of prey.
“There's two big bald eagles here that will soon become foster parents to an orphan baby bald eagle,” a certified veterinary technician at Liberty Wildlife, Jan Miller, said. “When the baby learns from its kind, it will know how to be an eagle and will be released.”
In partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Liberty Wildlife also hosts and distributes non-eagle feathers to 254 Native American tribes across the United States for religious and ceremonial purposes.
“We want to sustain native cultures, but also, unfortunately, every year thousands of birds are taken out of the wild and sold to the black market,” said Robert Mesta, the director of the group's feather repository. “If we can provide a legal source of feathers, at no cost, then they won't buy them from the illegal markets."
The repository distributes feathers from the biggest and smallest birds in North America.
The purpose: keeping ancestral cultures alive and conserving a healthy North American bird population.
Natasha Cortinovis is a master's student at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
SEJ Mini-Tour: ‘It Brings the Class to Life’: ASU Students Can Study Sustainability With Virtual Reality
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| An attendee explores the Arctic Experience VR course using a joystick in ASU's Dreamscape Learn virtual classroom, April 26, on a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists. Photo: Summer Williams. Click for more images from the tour, at AZCentral.com. |
Published April 30, 2025
By Summer Williams
What if college students learning about science, sustainability, climate change and the environment could travel around the world as scientists and researchers without ever actually leaving the classroom?
Dreamscape Learn, a collaboration between Dreamscape Immersive and Arizona State University, is making it possible.
Students at ASU can enroll in courses that use the latest virtual reality technology, taking them around the world and through cinematic scenarios related to environmental sciences and studies. They can even be part of a team that collaborates with professionals in the VR field to design and build the programs used in classes.
“We have something here at ASU called ‘Education Through Exploration,’” John VandenBrooks, associate dean of immersive learning, said during a tour for the Society of Environmental Journalists on April 26. “That’s the idea that the students are the explorers; the students are the scientists; the students are the agents of their own education.”
This idea drove the design of Dreamscape’s integration within ASU. When students enter the main area of Dreamscape Learn, called the “Departure Lounge,” they are encouraged to feel transported somewhere out of school.
“It makes (students) think, ‘I’m actually going to do something, and I’m the person who’s in charge of it,’” VandenBrooks said.
VandenBrooks, along with RaeAnn Fox, the senior director of Dreamscape and Realm 4 project acceleration, and other ASU faculty, guided environmental journalists through a mini-tour of Dreamscape Learn in the ASU Creative Commons. The tour took participants through one of the course experiences designed by students and cinematic entertainment experiences developed by Dreamscape Immersive.
“Some of these experiences that (students) have created have been deployed five different semesters,” VandenBrooks said.
The participants went through the Arctic Circle, one of the six student-built virtual experiences created with ASU’s Global Futures Laboratory, as an introductory course for students in sustainability.
They also experienced two cinematic adventure experiences, the Alien Zoo and the Curse of the Lost Pearl, to show the future possibilities of VR technology in educational settings.
ASU was the pioneer for this collaboration with Dreamscape Immersive. The company now licenses products to other universities around the country, with 15 other institutions deploying similar educational VR initiatives in their programs.
Fox emphasized the opportunities and benefits VR technology offers for enhancing students’ learning in the classroom.
“When you, kind of in a sense, experience it, it sticks,” Fox explained. “It brings the class to life.”
Summer Williams is a journalism student at the University of Arizona and a fellow of the SEJ student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 18. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.
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