Seeing Desert Native Landscaping as Bird & Pollinator Corridors

See the wildflowers in our basin? 

One of the joys of my day is to listen to the birds frolic as I tend the pollinator plants in our rainwater basin. Sure, I probably should have looked up how much water that spiderworts take before planting them. But what the heck! We have gathered plenty of rain in our slimline cistern and watering them gives me an excuse to be out there every morning. I also planted Arizona curve leaf, yellow and red salvia, and Mexican honeysuckle to add some color until the poppies, native globe mallow, desert senna and brittle bush returned with the recent rain to brighten our basin. 

Dan and I love to watch the birds gathering by the birdbath from our dining room window. We've counted 22 varieties using the eBird app. A neighbor mentioned that there used to be 100 varieties in the nearby Arcadia Wash. But loss of habitat, stray cats, and the use of pesticides has contributed to their decline. We feel it is more important than ever to extend the wildlife corridors like the wash to include desert lots and yards - so the birds can find food and safe shelter.

Currently our yard is a lovely bird habitat and pollinator garden, but it wasn't that long ago that it looked pretty stark. It's funny that people take so much effort to rake up all the fallen leaves and organic matter, when ants will gather it all up or it will break down and provide nutrients to the soil. Looking back at pictures (from different seasons) of our basin full of poppy stem or horse purslane mulch, I am surprised that the critters used it all up - leaving the ground pretty bare. But one of the promises of a native habitat is that different plants are in bloom or dormant at different times of the year. It might be difficult for neighbors who keep their gravel pristine (using poisonous Roundup) to understand that the spiney, dead-looking wolfberry in our basin will leaf out to provide shelter and berries for our beloved birds.

Ever since a neighbor reported the native bunch grasses (that are an integral part of a working rain basin), I have been very mindful about how some people see them. I've made an effort to trim off the seedheads along the property line so they don't spread into the neighbors' yards. Recently, I planted poppy seeds and watered them. Up came a bunch of grass. As the grass went to seed I was tempted to trim off the seedheads, but poppies were popping up between them. As I watched a charm of finches go to town on the seeds, I was grateful that I hadn't removed their food!

The problem is that some people only see "weeds" when something green sprouts in a yard. So I do my best to make it look intentional - keeping weeds off of our path, planting colorful wildflowers, and posting signs (like the ones pictured at the top of the page) that read, "Rainwater Harvesting Basin at Work," and "Plants for Birds." I also pull out any invasive non-native weeds like the wild mustard that would otherwise take over the whole yard. 

Unfortunately, the city encourages people to report grass and "weeds" over 6 inches. The crazy thing is that it is in direct conflict with their policy encouraging Green Stormwater Infrastructure. Best practices include planting native bunch grass to help the water infiltrate and build healthier soil.

When I was threatened with a $2000 dollar fine, I took it as a challenge and contacted the inspector at Environmental Services, his boss, and some like-minded city council members. I educated them about GSI policies and the importance of native plants in the basin. I even conducted a slide presentation for the Commission on Climate, Energy, and Sustainability requesting a letter of support. Which they sent. It's been years, and the neighbor who reported me has kindly stopped spraying Roundup in her front yard. 

So I was so disappointed to hear that Ann, a fellow naturalist, was being fined $10,000 for her "untidy" landscaping. This scientist has created a lush bird habitat with a variety of native plants that extends the bird corridor of Arroyo Chico. The complaint included "dead trees." But the trees were actually just dormant - beloved hackberry and ironwood trees. 

Ann's habitat has a dormant tree, grass & wildflowers. Would pollinators want her to thin it?  

Ann reached out to me for help (as the lead of Sustainable Tucson's Water Committee) and I suggested that she contact the inspector (who happened to be on vacation) and their boss. I made a few recommendations on how to make it appear a bit more "tidy." But the birds love the habitat she created. And the so-called "weeds" are wildflowers that haven't bloomed yet or bunch grass that feeds birds. Why should they suffer because some guy with boring gravel doesn't like it? 

I invited her to attend our water committee meeting on "Rainwater Harvesting and Keeping Cool with Storm to Shade." Storm to Shade is the organization responsible for maintaining Tucson's GSI. Ann shared her story to a sympathetic audience. Watch the meeting here: https://youtu.be/HU0a-7EUr7M

 Last I heard, the issue had been resolved and the inspector educated.

Maybe we all just need to learn to see desert yards with new eyes and understand that native plants look different depending on the season. And when you're tempted to call that little patch of green a "weed" remember that native plants are vital for creating healthy bird and pollinator corridors. Can we do that for the birds, please?

More Information: 

Identify the birds you see or hear with Merlin Bird ID: https://ebird.org/home

Good Weeds vs. Bad Weeds blog

Our Yard the Bird Feeder

Video: We turned weeds into wildflowers by Brad Lancaster

Tucson neighbors transform alley into pollinator garden

 #lovemyrainbasin

Building Community with Rainwater Harvesting Projects

Dan and I were on a mission to photograph some examples of rainwater harvesting for the new website soon to be launched: Desert Lifestyle Tucson.

During our self-guided tour of Dunbar/Spring, we captured more than rock-lined catchment basins and cisterns. There were signs of community - a community that Brad Lancaster carefully crafted along with his guerrilla curb cuts...

... including signs displaying before and after photos of the neighborhood project. It's a story I love to share - how this once stark, crime-ridden neighborhood became an example of Green Stormwater Infrastructure and community building.

The streets are now lined with large native shade trees nourished by stormwater runoff. Neighbors followed Brad's example, and installed their own curb cut basins to take advantage of the monsoon rain that had threatened to flood the foundation of some of their houses. The once illegal curb cuts are now an integral part of the city's Green Stormwater Infrastructure policy.

Evidence of community collaboration expands throughout the neighboring streets with traffic calming chicanes and medians decked with edible desert plants and cool art, a well-used bike lane and lovely, well-worn walking paths through lush canopies of full mesquite, palo verde, and ironwood trees.

Crime has actually declined as neighbors came outside to enjoy it.

We spotted another neighbor out enjoying the shade of the native vegetation in the traffic circle.

Dan and I caught some of that neighborhood spirit and gathered a few pieces of trash.

We got in one last shot of Brad's neighborhood...

... before heading across Stone for a yummy vegetarian lunch in the shade of saguaro ribs at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, La Indita.

We took with us inspiration for community building projects for our neighborhood.

More Information: 

The Water Harvester: An Invitation to Abundance

https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2022/07/the-water-harvester-an-invitation-to-abundance/

Tucson's Green Stormwater Infrastructure: An Example to Other Cities

Tucson is known for many things: the heat, delicious Mexican food, lovely winters that attract snowbirds (and other birds), outdoor recreation, ranking 48th in school funding, and our friendly small town feel. We have a lot to be proud of too - from our biking trails (the Loop rocks!) to our City of Gastronomy designation.  It may surprise you that Tucson is also known for our innovative water programs. Tucson far surpasses Phoenix in water conservation and rainwater harvesting installations. Our Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) program is still fairly new, yet it is already gaining a reputation as an example for other arid cities. 

Brad Lancaster (who installed the first guerilla curb cuts in the now lush Dunbar-Spring neighborhood) has become a world renowned water harvesting champion. Brad and other water harvesting enthusiasts, including Watershed Management Group, advocated for the city's Green Infrastructure program. On September 4, 2019 the Mayor and Council approved the GSI Program Proposal!

GSI is any constructed landscaping feature that uses stormwater in combination with natural processes to perform ecological services. Those services include managing stormwater (to prevent flood damage), using rainwater to support shade trees and other desert plants to cool our city streets, create a habitat for desert critters and sequester carbon to fight climate change.  

It is recommended that Green Stormwater Infrastructure be installed to irrigate many of the trees that are being planted as a part of Mayor Romero's #Tucson Million Trees program.  

You may have noticed curb cuts directing street water into right of way basins with native plants...

properly maintained right of way basin

Unfortunately, not all GSI installations are good examples.  A series of basins constructed on Stone Avenue had palo verde trees that fell over because they were planted in the bottom of the basin and got root rot. Live and learn. One of the first principles of rainwater harvesting is to observe how the system works and then adjust accordingly.

You may have seen some unsightly basins filled with trash and weeds. One of the issues with the basins is they need to be maintained. They tend to collect trash and invasive weeds like buffel or bermuda grass that block the entrance of the basin and prevent it from working properly.  

A group of water professionals and citizens learn how to monitor GSI

The city is aware and is making strides in correcting the issue. On May 1, 2020, a new Green Stormwater Infrastructure fee was included on utility service statements for residents and businesses within the City of Tucson.

The city's new GSI Program will:

*Provide a funding source for maintaining hundreds of existing GSI features in city neighborhoods
*Support growing more trees and plants on streets, and in parks and public areas using stormwater as a primary water source
*Address and reduce flooding issues on neighborhood streets
*Put rain/stormwater runoff to beneficial use irrigating plants
*Reduce stormwater pollution
*Shade and cool streets, sidewalks, bikeways, and parking areas
*Beautify neighborhoods
*Provide an affordable alternative to building and maintaining expensive underground stormwater infrastructure*

This fee is assessed based on customers’ water use at a rate of 13 cents per Ccf (about $1 per month for the average residential customer), and will raise about $3 million each year to build and maintain projects throughout the city that capture stormwater runoff from public streets and parking lots, and divert it into vegetated water harvesting areas. These kinds of projects are called green stormwater infrastructure, or GSI.

As I mentioned, one of the first principles of rainwater harvesting is to observe how the system works and then adjust accordingly. The city's new GSI system is no exception. There have been some incidents in which city maintenance workers (some outside contractors) weren't aware of how GSI systems work and have unwittingly harmed the system by removing vital native vegetation or over-pruning desert trees. This is very frustrating and disheartening for those who worked hard to install or maintain the systems.

I have attended Low Impact Development (LID) meetings where these issues have been discussed. The city reps listened to our concerns and are doing what they can to solve them. They are working on solutions that include setting up a monitoring system and implementing training for maintenance workers. Dan and I recently participated in both.

Here we are learning how to use the monitoring app on our cell phones.

 

The apps were used to record the type of water harvesting feature (in this case traffic calming chicanes), inflow and outflow, whether or not the inflow is obstructed with sediment, materials it is made out of (rocks or mulch), the kind of vegetation, invasive weeds, if it needs maintenance.  There was also a place to post pics. 

Dan took lots of pictures including this chicane that was overgrown with bermuda grass. 

While Dan was busy taking pics,  I went ahead and picked up some trash. I felt that if we want to be a good example we need to leave the neighborhood better than we found it.  

Dan and I spotted a lot of invasive buffel grass in the basins. I didn't want it to spread throughout the neighborhood, so I decided to pick what I could out by the roots. It was pretty easy to pull out in the soft basin soil. I was careful not to let the seeds disperse since that would totally defeat the purpose, right? So I carefully broke off the stem below them (see pic below) and placed the seeds in a plastic bag I found nearby. Then I sealed the bag tight so they won't fly out when the trash truck picks it up. 

If you decide to do this kind of work, it's recommended that you wear protective clothing like closed toed shoes, a shade hat, light weight long sleeve shirt, long pants, and gloves. (I know. I know. I didn't. But I wish I had.)  Also be mindful of your surroundings, especially traffic. 

While we were checking out one basin, I got a nice surprise. I found some volunteer sorghum. I went ahead and gleaned the seeds to plant in our greywater basin. We've found that sorghum (from the birdseed the squirrels planted in our yard) helps the water to infiltrate better. Not to mention...the birds like it! 

It was great seeing city and county employees (including those from Tucson Water) who had rallied for Green Infrastructure join interested citizens (like me and Dan) on a Saturday morning to see how our green infrastructure is doing.  They really do care! 

And they didn't just leave it there.  After recording the needs of the GSI, the city held excellent maintenance training that included how it works, how to identify useful native plants vs. invasive, and how to properly prune (or not prune) desert trees.  Attendees included city workers, landscapers, U of A maintenance personnel and even some interested parties from New Mexico and Mexico! 

Makes me proud to be a Tucsonan! 

More Information: 

For the Love of Tucson: Creating a Desert Oasis to Combat Climate Change

Support Tucson's Green Stormwater Infrastructure Program

I am so excited about the City's Proposed Stormwater Management Program. Installing more Green Stormwater Infrastructure is one of the most impactful actions we can take to make Tucson water independent and secure in the future.  As a citizen advocate, I have attended G.I. planning meetings at the Pima Department of Environmental Quality. I'm so impressed by the incredible the work that the  city and county are doing to implement Green Stormwater infrastructure using guidelines by Watershed Management Group.  To really be sustainable, we need these systems to be built all over town and to be maintained.

The proposed green infrastructure is important for a sustainable future for Tucson.  Please, support the Proposed Stormwater Management Program and Fee by familiarizing yourself with their proposal and providing your feedback in the following survey and showing up at the Mayor and Council Study Session.  

Take this quick survey on the proposed stormwater project here.

UPDATE: 700 people participated in the survey. 80% were positive or extremely positive. There was discussion on extending the survey past the original date - September 4, 2019 (the date of the Mayor and City Council meeting.)

TAKE ACTION 

I encourage you to write your city council member to show your support. 

Find your city council member here:  https://www.tucsonaz.gov/gov/ward-maps

On September 4, 2019.the City of Tucson's Mayor and Council held a study session on a new funding program to support the development and maintenance of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) across the city to reduce flooding, promote shade trees, along with many other benefits.

Catlow Shipek from WMG shared:

Thanks for your support! We had ~20 supporters in the audience which was acknowledged by the Mayor and Council members.

The motion proposed by Councilmember Durham and amended by Councilmember Romero passed unanimously to direct the city manager to implement the fee review process for a $0.13 per CCF volumetric water use (includes public notice and town halls) will include a fee equity review (comparison of larger commercial to residential) and not be applied to qualified low income customers.

We will be sure to keep folks abreast of developments as it will come back to M&C for formal adoption after the public review process. Here's to a more livable and sustainable Tucson!

More information: 

Scaling up Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) - Watershed Management Group

How Pima County is tackling flooding issues that come with Monsoon Storms - 9 on Your Side