The following is AN original production of AZPM News.

This week on Arizona Illustrated, stories of restoration in the desert from the Santa Cruz riverbed.

(Angel) I never thought there would be water or life down here.

To the barrios of South Tucson.

(David) We have pride in here.

There's so much culture.

We gotta show that in our streets too.

See how this cute rodent is helping to repair the San Pedro River.

(Joaquin) Why do I need to be doing restoration when a beaver can do it better than we do?

and they're cute!

And the salt cedar is an invasive desert plant that's crowding out native species.

(Tony) It's how they become these clusters of gigantic non-native trees that spread like a cancer throughout our wash ways.

(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated from the Baker Center for Public Media.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And today we're going to show you stories of restoration and renewal.

First up, you'll see how one group is removing invasive species and reseeding native plants along a stretch of the Santa Cruz River right near downtown Tucson.

- I grew up in Armory Park around the corner.

And when I was a kid I'd come down here and just kick cans and spray paint stuff.

I never thought that there would be water or life down here.

'Cause when I was walking through, it was just a desolate dry wash.

And so when The Heritage Project started back in 2019 and effluent water was released back into the Santa Cruz, immediately I noticed green once the water reached this area down under the Cushing Street Bridge.

I was like, "Oh, what happens if it keeps getting greener?"

And it did, it just kept getting greener.

It kept getting greener every day, more and more animals.

I would see tracks of raccoons and tracks of javelina, more and more birds that I hadn't seen on the river before.

But then I was also noticing more and more tamarix and buffelgrass and trash that was dumping in.

And so I started making the point to come down every Sunday and just spend the morning removing waste, taking out invasives, and chatting to folks that were on the river.

(splashing water) Over time, folks just started asking questions and asking if they could come help out.

And now, we have like a rotating crew of between 15, 20 folks that just love Tucson and want to see the Santa Cruz flourish.

(volunteers chatter) Both sides of my family, we've been in this region of what's politically known as the US and Northern Mexico for generations.

And I was born and raised here.

I was actually further up North about First and Roger and I would make my mom come drive me downtown.

'Cause I loved it.

It's like going back in time, seeing all the exposed brick, and they used to have the old street car running and things.

And I remember like looking down on this area and it was just filled with trash like the water wasn't running.

And this is the most lush that I've ever seen it.

It brings me a lot of joy.

Just seeing how revitalized it is, how green it's becoming and being able to do this work too.

It just adds to that.

I'll sleep good tonight.

(laughs) - [Angel] Oh, these are cool birds.

These are shorebirds.

So they call it killdeer.

You see these little fibers?

Fibery hairs right at the joints between the leaves and the stem?

That's how you know for sure that's problematic.

Once the Buffalo grass commandeers an area, it is almost impossible for native plants to squeeze their way through.

It's important to acknowledge too, that buffelgrass isn't the only invasive plant that we're threatened with down here in the Southern Arizona Borderlands.

We have tamarix and there's also stinknet and Russian thistle, aka tumbleweed.

We see all those plants in the river.

They drain and they cover ground and they take up habitat that could be used by native species.

Like nurse trees that eventually could provide habitat for more animals and more native plants.

Those things are all snuffed out by these invasive plant species.

Yeah, once that scooped up, we can toss it in the bin.

(volunteers chatter) Then, this is native seed mix.

So it's got grasses and wild flowers, mainly grasses.

By replenishing the seed bank, hopefully, we're not just removing buffelgrass but we're actually stitching this a little bit more.

So it's not just a band-aid, but we're actually getting a little deeper regenerative healing taking place.

There's so much to learn when these plants come back of what it actually means to have a healthy riparian area in an urban ecosystem.

Get in here and step down on all the buffel.

There's historic accounts in the early 20th century, recording the Santa Cruz as just one of the most biodiverse areas I've ever seen with these huge mesquite bosques, cottonwoods lining the river.

These 70 foot tall trees with rustling leaves.

That's something that I could never imagine, having grown up along the river.

And so this reconciliation work is not to restore this river to what it once was because the most likely never will be.

There's now a million some odd folks in the greater Tucson area that are going to make the water table a little upset.

(volunteers chatter) But what we can do is we can restore connection to this canvas of her life.

Big coyote.

Booking it across.

- [Woman] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, that's amazing.

- [Angel] Yeah, they're beautiful.

(woman laughs) (gentle guitar music) - [Isaiah] You're building a network not only in your immediate community, but across the world.

So that's a concept for me that I call the joy angels.

And it's not one size fits all, but if you're doing work kind of like this, you just feel closer.

You don't feel so alone.

You don't feel so alone in the battle.

And like, yeah, I'm making a difference.

- [Angel] This looks great, man.

Absolutely killing it.

Nice dismount too.

That's 10 for 10 on the style points, bro.

Reconciliation is a phrase I use because in this process of learning and removing invasive species and forming connection with each other and the river and the non-human stakeholders, like the vermilion flycatcher and the coyote that we keep seeing, we gain a deeper understanding and sense of place.

We can't ever make it perfect.

There's no such thing, I don't think.

But what we can do is be down here and making new memories and new experiences on the river and removing mistakes that have happened and Polar Pop cups and Carl's Jr.

bags and buffelgrass and tamarix.

And maybe one day this will be a place that is a little reminiscent of what it was for thousands and thousands of years.

Next, we'll show you how the Barrio Restoration Coalition is dedicated to cleaning up landscaping and beautifying the streets and neighborhoods in South Tucson.

- We got a project called Barrio Restoration, basically cleaning up the streets of South Tucson.

Today is our third community cleanup.

Team, follow each weed-eater.

All right, and if so, if you wanna get weeds with the shovel there... We have people from the Barrio Restoration Facebook and Instagram here today.

I got my family members showing some support.

We got some city officials here as well, so they're kind of all jumping onboard to make a difference here in the neighborhood.

I'd say maybe 20 people so far, and I still have people showing up here in the meantime.

Probably when the hot dog stand gets here, more people will show up as well.

- [KP] Barrio Restoration, David Garcia.

The homie David, he invited us out here because he's helped us a number of times in Western Hills, Las Vistas.

- [David] You guys like the bike?

(laughing) - My name's KP, and I'm an organizer.

I work in food security right now, but I'm also working in just anti-gentrification work and taking care of our spaces.

Tucson, Arizona, has become a home for me, and so I wanna take care of my home with my abilities in any way that I possibly can.

We're cleaning up invasive plants, invasive weeds.

You can just see all along the roads and all along the sides how it's unmaintained.

And we're just trying to clean these spaces up so that we can plant trees that grow in people's yards that create bountiful amounts of shade.

And then, if people wanted to use these spaces for gardening, we wanna be able to do that type of stuff.

(yard equipment whirring) - Yeah, well, I actually live in the northwest side, so I'm far from here, but I don't think that should matter.

It's Tucson.

We should be more tight.

It doesn't matter if you're from the north, west, east; we're all from Tucson.

And I feel like we should take care of it and really appreciate what we have.

With COVID and everything going on, I wanted to really start meeting my community and helping others and really just do something more proactive and more with my community.

I feel like we've lacked that in these last couple years, and it's important.

It's hot, I will say that, but everyone made me feel super welcome.

It really is a positive energy that we have out here.

(soft acoustic guitar music) - Well, there's Tucson, and then you have South Tucson, all right?

And South Tucson is my hometown.

I mean, my whole family's on South Tucson, you know?

We've lived here for many years.

I just know that there's hard workers here, hard workers that beautify other areas, get paid, but don't get paid enough to do very much else.

I don't know how funds and stuff like that get allocated to kind of take care of areas.

I feel like maybe we're being neglected somehow.

We have pride in here.

There's so much culture, but we gotta show that in our streets too.

And if we do that, we can represent our neighborhood a little bit better, and all you need is a shovel.

And you create respect at the same time.

You gotta be the spark in the neighborhood to get that going.

We got Sonoran dogs, we have YOPOS hot dog stand.

Their hot dogs are feeding our community, but they're also supporting Barrio Restoration and the neighborhood.

The food isn't just for our volunteers.

I mean, I hope that we can get some of the people in the area to come out and eat too, just kinda get to know what we're doing.

- I think it's important because people need help.

People need help every day, especially right now; we're in a pandemic.

And I think now that we haven't been able to be close to one another, share space with one another, we need to be more collective in our efforts in every way, right?

'Cause you can live anywhere in the world, but it's nothing without community.

People are nothing without other people.

And it could be a community of any kind, right?

As long as you have it, people are a lot happier, a lot more sustaining.

And I think if people are well-intentioned and they aren't trying to be a part of gentrifying areas and things like that, it's definitely always welcomed.

Just come in, do your part, speak to people, know people, become a familiar face.

If you have any ideas or any expertise, lend that in any way that you possibly can and help people survive on a daily basis.

- When I look around and I see everyone working, it fills my heart, it really does, and it makes me wanna do more.

It makes me wanna be able to do it next week or even do events myself.

And look, now there's about 40-50 people here, and that's an amazing accomplishment.

(soft acoustic guitar music) It's the world that we're trying to change, and I feel like it starts by one step at a time, and this is one small step to something that can be bigger in the future.

- They're doing amazing work.

David is a community warrior and a community leader.

And we're all community leaders in our own way and we can all help and we can all get out here and do our own part.

We wanna all thrive and live fruitful lives, and I think that we're all pushing towards that.

- [David] I've been landscaping for the majority of my life.

My grandfather took me on my first cleanup when I was seven years old.

I honestly feel like what I've learned and what my grandpa showed me about cleaning yards, and I wanna show the kids too, this is our turf, you know?

This is the south side.

This is where we live.

This is full of pride, yet it takes hard work.

It takes a bit of sweat equity, right?

How we doin', how we doin'?

- Teamwork.

- All right, makes the dream work!

So, I've been at it for three years now, just a little bit at a time, making my presence in different neighborhoods, just trying to spread the word and inspire the people to do the same.

It's all about community.

It's all about getting people together.

And it's pretty amazing of how many people showed up today just to make this happen.

My grandpa, I've always wanted to make him proud, and I think I'm making him proud by using what he showed me to make a difference in the community.

While many of the environmental issues facing southern Arizona are man-made, it doesn't mean that humans are always the solution either.

In fact, beavers are helping to restore natural habitat along the San Pedro River here in southern Arizona and in northern Sonora, Mexico.

As soon as someone spots something, please stop and let people know.

If it's a chew What we're going to do is stop and see if there are other chews in the vicinity, like in our viewshed.

So we're going to.

So what is a chew?

So like when a beaver comes and chews on a tree.

Yeah.

So you might see, like, little chew marks.

You might see like a downed tree.

They're here.

We are looking at the health of the river, looking at beavers.

For the first time.

We are doing this binationally.

We have a saying in Mexico when it comes to river restoration.

Mejor castor que tractor.

It's better a beaver than a tractor.

Why do I need to be doing restoration when a beaver can do it better than we do?

And they're free and they They propagate.

And they're cute.

How can we work with beavers for restoring watersheds?

Restoring rivers in the Sonoran Desert?

The San Pedro River is such an interesting system.

It starts in the in the region of Cananea, Sonora, and Cananea is a mining town, and it flows north across the border somewhere south of Sierra Vista.

And it joins the Gila River in Arizona.

There are some stretches where you have still perennial flow.

It's it's a little bit on a sad condition because the last ten, fifteen years it hasn't flowed that often.

Except when it's raining.

I work alot with river restoration and river conditions and the health of the watershed, and beavers do a lot of good for that.

I called this four, number four.

Okay.

Yeah.

So these are fresh beaver chew chips.

We just found the beaver chew down there some fresh chips, and we're going to send these to Cochis college.

We're working with Steve Merkley, biology professor over there doing some DNA sampling off these chips to better understand the population of beavers out here.

This is both a labor of love and, of necessity, a work that has gone on ever since the first Beaver discovered his purpose on earth to cut down a tree, strip the branches and build a dam.

Beavers are misunderstood, you know, when they're creating their dams, they're cutting down trees.

And, you know, we all love trees and hate to see a nice riparian tree get cut down.

Like in the short term, it may look like, okay, they're degrading this environment, but in the long term, you're going to see really nice improvements in that river habitat because those dams will slow down that water will wet more of the floodplain, you're going to see more cottonwoods and willows pop up, more groundwater resources, which I think everyone can appreciate In Arizona.

I'm not aware of any real beaver based programs in a meaningful way that are happening in the state.

There used to be beavers in the San Pedro.

At some point it was called the Beaver River.

And then with the extinction of of beavers, now we're seeing the river as it is right now, thanks to the cows we had the river how it looks.

Cows kind of erode the soil, kind of changed the vegetation cover of that of that geography.

What's going on with beavers in the San Pedro?

One beaver dam was found clogging up an agricultural canal near the Colorado River, others were causing problems in a livestock reservoir, while still others caused problems in a sewage treatment plant near Phoenix.

The Beaver were captured in humane traps, examined and approved for relocation by veterinarians.

They implanted beaver with radio transmitters, then transported and released them into the San Pedro River.

The first beaver was released on the 3rd of March 1999.

By 2006, they made it into Mexico, so they migrated south from Arizona.

They migrated south into Sonora on the San Pedro.

In Mexico we didn't reintroduce beavers.

The beavers came to Sonora from Arizona.

That was that was very interesting in around that time, 2006, somebody counted up to 140 beavers.

And then suddenly that peak went down.

2017, 2018 BLM stop monitoring beavers.

Nobody else was monitoring beavers.

And then some of us start wondering, well, what's going on with those beavers?

And and nobody kind of knew what was going on with the beavers except for a couple of individuals in the Sierra Vista region.

And and that was Mike Foster.

My first love was just hiking along the river and the beaver weren't even here.

They let them go in about 1999, 16 Beaver, I began seeing all kinds of evidence of beaver here, which was really cool.

So I was hired at the Sierra Vista Public Schools back in 1984, and I was the audio visual technician.

I loved photography, but then when we got video cameras, all of a sudden there was movement.

You could almost feel the breeze, you could almost smell the air.

So video is just so much more real to me.

I'm a dyslexic person, so visual things mean a whole lot to me.

It shouldn't be that hard to get video of beaver because they have dams and they live at the dams, but their habits are that they don't come out in the daylight, at least in this part of the country.

And so I would have to get there about dusk.

That's when they come out.

And I became friends of the biologist at the Bureau of Land Management.

I would tell her the kind of things that I had seen while I was out and then she would write them down.

And so that eventually evolved into a thing where I would tell her the dams and we would record them and then come up with an estimate on the number of beaver along the river.

And then the numbers started changing.

You'd see fewer dams.

I think the most likely thing is that mountain lion numbers increased, but it could also be humans hunting them.

Some humans just don't like beaver and they, you know, blame them for all kinds of things that go wrong.

Or there could be some disease we really don't know.

But one of the things I've been doing is running around the United States trying to find areas where they have beaver that they don't want.

Maybe we could go up and get some beaver and bring them back and release them here.

And that's a big involved process.

But, you know, hopefully we can do that.

It used to be just me and one guy out there doing the 45 miles of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and then a watershed management group out of Tucson became aware of it and approached me and they said, Could we become involved?

And it was kind of like the army coming over the hill.

This whole interest in Beaver has really snowballed in the public.

Now there are books being written about it, and there are other beaver organizations around the country.

So, you know, beavers are the cool thing nowadays.

So we had an event here at the Living Lab, Beavers and Brews, Castoriando Con Chelas.

So it was a bilingual event and we had some of our Mexico partners come up.

We really wanted to get the word out about, okay, there are beavers.

We saw fresh evidence.

We counted them on either side of the border.

There's definitely a population there.

I would like to toast to bringing these beavers back to be keystone species again and the Santa Cruz and San Pedro watersheds to help us recharge our aquifer, restore wetlands, release the beavers.

So when we work with conservation, yes, it's for nature is for the species that we work with like beavers but that brings so much well-being to society as well.

To have a river flowing the joy, that's also part of our work.

Because we need it.

We need nature.

We benefit so much when we have a healthy watershed.

The Sonoran Desert has thousands of native plants that are beneficial to our environment, but other species can thrive here as well, making them invasive and undesirable.

Like this one, the salt cedar.

(Tony) This is Salt Cedar or Tamarix aphllya It is one of many species of the Salt Cedar family that is invasive in the state of Arizona.

They are all listed as noxious weeds.

This species was introduced back in the late 1800s by a lot of Spanish settlers to plant along people's houses, and shade them from the bright sun, and grow very fast, and provide that air conditioning that we all need in the desert.

But unfortunately, now it has escaped that cultivation in people's yards and has gone into our river ways, and is outcompeting all of our native plants, sucking up the water that we hold near and dear here in the desert, and out here, competing our cottonwoods, knocking out the willow populations.

They create this incredible monoculture of just Salt Cedars.

[ QUAIL CHIRPING ] Here in the bottom of the Santa Cruz, Salt Cedars have the potential to reach heights of 60 feet.

This is one gigantic individual that has a few smaller individuals growing at its base.

And that's how they just become these clusters of gigantic non-native trees that spread like a cancer throughout our washways.

The leaves for this plant are very scaly, they almost look like pine needles.

They are covered in salt, and this plant is called a Salt Cedar because it's able to deal with high soil salt concentrations.

It's able to thrive in that.

They build up the salt content in their needles and then they drop those needles to the ground, creating an even higher density of salt at their foot, which outcompetes all of the native plants, it suppresses them from growing, and enables their species, specifically to grow in their footprint.

That accentuates the problem of its invasive capabilities.

Salt Cedar is rarely ever used by native creatures at the very top of a dead old tree, but you don't see little birds using it for nesting.

You never see insects using it.

It's probably due to the salt content in its leaves again.

It's just not something that is palatable to our native creatures.

Thanks for joining us for Arizona Illustrated from here at our new home at The Baker Center for Public Media.

I'm Tom McNamara, we'll see you again next week.

(upbeat music) Open your eyes