Watershed Management Group

Watershed Management Group (WMG) develops community-based solutions to ensure the long-term prosperity of people and health of the environment. We provide people with the knowledge, skills, and resources for sustainable livelihoods that honor River as Teacher and steward our precious natural resources. We are committed to engaging with and learning from a diverse cross section of the community, including Mexican, Indigenous, and Multigenerational communities with strong ties to the land; low-income community members; and people of all ages and gender identities in conservation and advocacy efforts.

Our 50-year Vision is to restore our heritage of year-round, free-flowing rivers in Tucson and the Santa Cruz Watershed. In order to make this vision a reality, we practice and teach about living hydrolocal: valuing and stewarding local, renewable water resources instead of depleting distant watersheds and rivers.

WMG engages with community in several ways, including by:
1. Welcoming 3,000+ people every year to free classes at our Living Lab, our rainwater-fed educational campus
2. Teaching hundreds of families through our Sustainable Desert Living series about growing rain gardens, cultivating native trees and plants, installing and maintaining composting toilets, and other practical ways to live in harmony with the desert
3. Offering professional opportunities to those historically underrepresented in the community conservation field through our apprenticeship program

4. Building a cadre of professionals in green jobs through our week-long Water Harvesting Certification, training 70+ people this year

The River Run Network is a Watershed Management group of over 4,500 volunteers working to achieve our 50-year vision and focused on the binational Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers.

River Run Network events and projects include:
1. Creek walks, clean-ups, restoration workshops, community science efforts, and conservation at home
2. Regular flow monitoring of Tucson's creeks and rivers as well as an annual binational beaver survey
3. Removing the invasive, water-hungry Arundo donax from the Tanque Verde Creek, with our ambitious goal of complete removal now in sight!

WMG's Living Lab is a community demonstration site for sustainable desert living in mid-town Tucson. It offers exhibits, classes, and tours, serves all ages from across the border region, and attracts national and global visitors, reaching about 3,000 people annually. The Living Lab features water harvesting features, native habitat, a food forest, composting toilets, passive solar, and data monitoring systems. Our campus is nearly entirely supported by rainwater. All of the hydrolocal classes at the Living Lab are offered for free thanks to generous donations from our community.