Rewilding Arizona

Summary: What happens after a wildfire burns through our desert? Volunteers help restore it! Join Cheryl and Kiersten as they discuss some great volunteer programs helping the Arizona desert rewild itself.

For our hearing impaired listeners, a transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

Show Notes:

www.naturalrestorations.org/lower-salt-river-restoration-2022

https://www.friendsofthetontonationalforest.org/projects

https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2021-11-12/national-forest-nears-end-of-seed-planting-project-to-defend-against-parasitic-mistletoe

Background bird song: Naturescapes Backyard Birds www.naturescapes.com

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Transcript

Host Voice: Welcome to The Feathered Desert’s What’s That Bird? A three-minute glimpse into the birds we share this amazing desert landscape with.

Cheryl Intro:

I picked up a wilderness/wildlife conservation magazine the other day, and found it filled with amazing people doing amazing things to help their wilderness areas in their states, especially after the wild fires we have had in the west in the last few years. Without reforesting and replanting of our wild areas after intense fire storms well birds and people would be in trouble. So, I wanted to know what was happening in my state of Arizona? I was pleasantly surprised by what I uncovered when I went looking for the unsung heroes/heroines of restoration.

Kiersten: Let’s start with the Lower Salt River Restoration project. Now we have talked about the restoration of the Verde River up by Cottonwood, (Earth Day Podcast), shared information about the San Pedro River, and the actions being taken to protect it (Southeastern Region of Arizona Podcast) now it is time to give some notice to the Salt River.

The Salt River is about 200 miles long and it flows through eastern Arizona starting at Roosevelt Lake. It makes it way through the mountains to Apache Lake, then Canyon Lake, and finally Saguaro Lake. Then lower Salt River weaves it way through Mesa, Tempe, and then south Phoenix. The Salt River provides metropolitan Phoenix area with up to 60% of its irrigation and drinking water needs. The Salt River is home to wildlife and bird life and wild horses. It is known for the outdoor activities like kayaking, fishing, hiking, and tubing.

In 2017, a fire burned the lower Salt River on the Tonto national Forest. The fire lasted 4 days and burned 800 acres. It was spurned on by invasive plant species such as tamarisk, which had been established in the area for decades. Seeing a need a volunteer organization called Natural Resources.org was started in 2017. With the help of U.S. Forest Service staff this volunteer group has removed 1,489 million pounds (744 tons) of trash, removed 41,950 square feet of graffiti off of rocks and boulders from the lower Salt River wilderness areas. This group launched a replanting program in 2020 and they have planted more than 27,900 tree & cacti in the Salt River wilderness areas.

Cheryl: There are erosion and soil mitigation projects going on in the Tonto National Forest starting in spring. Boyce Thompson Arboretum-near Superior has a replanting program within the property around it to help with erosion after the fires in 2021. I did find one reforesting project that is in its final phase in the Tonto National Forest. The U.S. Forest service is continuing a project to plant 500 Southwestern White Pine Seedlings on the Pleasant Valley Ranger District. The U.S. Forest Service says the 25-acre project is part of a management plan to treat dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant native to western forests. It’s been infecting Ponderosa Pine Trees within the Colcord Campground area. 150Ponderosa Pines are lightly to moderately infected and 350 trees are severely infected. Dwarf mistletoe survives only on living trees by taking water and nutrients from them often leading to the tree’s death. The newly planted southwestern White Pines aren’t susceptible to the mistletoe infection.

Ponderosa Pines’ can not catch a break between fires, drought and dwarf mistletoe...what’s a pine tree to do? Alright, I found a group that has some truly outstanding projects going on and they are always looking for volunteers.

Kiersten: Friends of the Tonto National Forest, is a volunteer organization that truly works hard for our wild life and wilderness areas.

One of the projects they have under their...