Because of COVID-19, we are seeing massive increases in visitors fleeing to the creek and Sedona trails, which means increases in littering and habitat degradation, significantly impacting the fragile riparian ecosystem. And it’s an eye-sore! Our small team is working tirelessly to pick-up after visitors, so that creek sites are pristine upon their arrival, hopefully encouraging them to leave it…
Thanks to our volunteer cleanup efforts since 2019, there have been 3,105 pounds of trash removed from the watershed. Litter is not only an eye-sore, but it contributes to habitat and water quality degradation. Over the course of a year, we have educated over 1000 people and recruited over 240 volunteers, totaling 1,080 volunteer hours. We also recruited many volunteers…
Can you say creek crossing? We had SO much fun hiking with NAU freshman along the West Fork Trail on April 17th, 2019. The enthusiasm, curiosity, and desire to become stewards for this special area was so inspiring to see from these students! The goal of this hike was to give many who hadn’t been hiking before or visited this…
On October 23-25th 2018, Oak Creek Watershed Council hosted Verde Valley students at Red Rock State Park for Water Quality Field Days. Six middle school classes, a total of 160 Verde Valley students, attended WQFD and participated in being “Citizen Scientists” and environmental stewards for their local waterways. Oak Creek Watershed Council partnered with the UofA Cooperative Extension Mobile Water Quality Lab.…