The most recent show of support came Wednesday, when the Tucson City Council unanimously passed a draft resolution in favor of the idea.

Since April, Pima County, Santa Cruz County, and the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation have all been part of the Santa Cruz River Urban National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches 90 miles from Mexico to Marana and centers on a future riverside park. Supports the creation of wards. Tucson.

The proposal is part of a growing coalition of civic leaders, community groups, and environmental nonprofits that see the creation of shelters as a way to draw public attention to the river corridor and efforts to restore it. is promoted by

Santa Cruz River Conservancy Alliance We currently boast support from 50 organizations and individuals.

“Everyone seems to support this idea,” said Arizona State Commissioner Mike Quigley. Wilderness SocietyOne of the founding members of the Union. “Everything is turning green.”

River advocates first proposed the refuge in 2021. Over the past year or so, leaders from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior have visited the area to learn more about the proposal.

Quigley said the establishment of a national wildlife refuge does not require Congressional approval. If the Fish and Wildlife Service determines that such a designation is warranted, the Secretary of the Interior may effectuate it through administrative action.

He said a decision could be made as early as early next year.

Currently based in Arizona 9 National Wildlife RefugesTwo of them are in Pima County: Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Sasabe and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge west of Ajo.

This will be Santa Cruz County's first wildlife refuge. urban shelter Anywhere in Arizona — A designation in which the Fish and Wildlife Service protects protected lands located within 40 miles of a population center of at least 250,000 people.

“It's not just about the water,” said Luke Cole, director of the Santa Cruz River Program, a Tucson-based nonprofit organization. Sonora Research InstituteUrban National Wildlife Refuge status provides the “best permanent protection” for green space and wildlife without forcing anyone off their land or restricting development or water use on neighboring land. federal protection.

“This is not a land grab,” Cole said.

Quigley said property owners within the so-called “acquisition boundary” along the river are free to sell their land to the government, place conservation easements to protect it from development, or make it part of the refuge. He added that he could choose to do so. not at all.

The result will be a haven made up of a “patchwork” of properties acquired gradually from willing sellers “like pearls on a necklace,” he said.

Already, one of Santa Cruz County's largest landowners has expressed interest in adding his property to the proposed river preserve.

Quigley said Rio Rico resident Andrew Jackson approached the coalition last year about land he owns and wants protected along about 12 miles of the Santa Cruz River. The property includes a running stream that feeds a lush gallery forest and mesquite bosque.

“It's just a natural riparian system, and that's what I want to see on the Santa Cruz in Tucson,” Quigley said. “I hope it happens in my lifetime. The first step is to get (more) water from the river.”

Jackson also owns a large tract of land in a portion of the canyon that flows into the river from the east side of Rio Rico. Quigley said setting aside this land would also protect an important wildlife corridor between the river and the surrounding Sky Island mountains. “From a wildlife perspective, these valleys are very interesting.”

Mr. Jackson made headlines last year when he floated plans for a 3,550-acre mixed-use development on about nine miles of Interstate 19 in Rio Rico.

He later withdrew the proposal after local residents opposed the community change project, but proposed adding an open space easement throughout the development to protect Santa Cruz and the surrounding riparian area. did.

Cole said the refuge designation opens up access to federal funding to support efforts along the river, including land acquisition and efforts to restore river flow by expanding releases from riverside improvements. He said funding could be awarded to pay for ongoing repair work.

The 184-mile river begins in Santa Cruz County's San Rafael Valley and flows south into Mexico before turning north and returning to the United States just east of Nogales. From there, it runs north through Rio Rico, Tumacacori, Tubac, Amado, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Tucson, and Marana before joining the Gila River at the southern tip of Phoenix.

Today, the Santa Cruz River is dry for much of its length, but its perennial flows over the past centuries have given rise to indigenous farming communities, Catholic missions, and, ultimately, Old Pueblo itself. did.

Efforts to restore the river are well underway in Tucson, where water diversion, groundwater pumping, and drought had dried it up by the mid-20th century.

Wednesday's city ​​council vote The issue comes as river advocacy groups mark 10 years of Pima County releasing treated wastewater into the Santa Cruz River and five years of upstream releases by the city of Tucson.

Sonora Research Institute Living River's latest report It highlights how this clean, stable supply has produced what he calls “transformative environmental progress” along waterways, including the reintroduction of native fish species and the growth of new riparian habitat. are.

Roughly 40 miles of the Santa Cruz River have water again, Cole said, thanks to about $2 billion in wastewater treatment improvements made by riverside communities in recent decades. He said these streams provide “increasingly quantifiable wildlife habitat” for everything from urban bobcats near downtown Tucson to rare jaguars crossing the mountain ranges of southern Santa Cruz County. ”.

Cole said the shelter designation will only accelerate that progress.

And it's not just the river that heals.

At a press conference before Wednesday's parliamentary vote, Rebecca Perez, the Wilderness Society's urban-to-wild program manager, said the proposed refuge would recognize “thousands of years of river management” by Indigenous peoples. He said it provides an opportunity to recognize environmental justice issues that lowlanders have struggled with for decades. -A community of income earners and minorities living along Tucson's once-neglected levees.

Perez said the coalition came together to ensure the shelter is developed in a way that truly reflects the community. Diverse grassroots membership This includes neighborhood associations, heritage organizations, environmentalists, academics, and outdoor groups.

conceptual design That's because the Refuge Through Tucson envisions an expansion of the restored riverbed linked by future parks and pedestrian bridge projects that will help maintain equitable access to Santa Cruz.

But the effort requires both dedication and patience. Quigley said restoring Tucson's once tree-lined river with facilities such as a permanent visitor center could take “years, even decades of work.” .

Declaring it a shelter is just the beginning, he says.