Stewardship Engagement
In partnership with the following groups: the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the City of Sedona, the Arizona Community Foundation, and the National Forest Foundation; Oak Creek Ambassadors have monitored heavily-used recreation sites. They’ve made a positive impact by talking to visitors, picking up trash, human and dog waste, monitoring water quality, and presenting at local and regional events. This program has engaged hundreds of volunteers, educated thousands, and have kept over 30,000 lbs of trash out of the watershed. Additionally, maintenance and coordination of a network of 31 pet waste stations have kept over 38,000 lbs of pet waste from polluting Oak Creek.
Pet Waste & Trash
pounds removed
The Oak Creek Ambassadors were funded in previous years by a grant from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). More recently, the United States Forest Service (USFS) and smaller grants from the National Forest Foundation, Arizona Community Foundation, and the City of Sedona have been crucial in continuing this highly successful program. In 2020 and 2021, the Ambassadors worked under a grant from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. This project allowed the Ambassadors to not only remove trash from popular areas during high-use times in Oak Creek Canyon, but monitor water quality, overall use, the effectiveness of several improvement projects.
The program has proven a great success and we hope that we are able to receive future funding for this groundbreaking, and highly effective educational outreach program.
Please watch the documentary Loved to Death: The Story of Oak Creek to see first-hand what it’s like to be an Oak Creek Ambassador!
