FRIENDS OF THE SANTA CRUZ RIVER (FOSCR)
This is an occasional blog about the state of the Santa Cruz River, issues that FOSCR is dealing with, and opportunities to participate in events related to the river. The blog will be pasted of our website (https://friendsofthesantacruzriver.org) and Facebook site(https://facebook.com> FOSCRAZ). The blog will also be sent directly to FOSCR members, provided we have an email address.
ANNUAL MEETING
APRIL 29, 2023
Santa Fe Ranch, 169 River Rd, Nogales, AZ
85621
Maiden voyage of our new Drone Picnic
Activities: bring your own picnic or enjoy food truck fare, including deluxe Sonoran hot dogs; musicians, bring your own instruments and join our guitarists; enter the name the drone contest and win a prize in the judges pick the name you submit; watch the drone christening and its first official flight. We look forward to seeing you and your families and friends.
Directions f rom Nogales. Take state route 82 -- (Patagonia Hwy, this is the is the overpass across from Zulu's Restaurant) for about five miles past Santa Cruz River and the Little Red School House to North River Road. Left on North River Road for about three miles, across cattle guard and dirt road. At mesquite corral turn left for the operations area and right for the main house.
Directions from Tucson/Tubac. Tale I-19 south to first Nogales exit, Grand Avenue (only left exit), continue straight for about 5 miles, passing Mariposa Road, to St Rte 82 (Patagonia Hwy), turn right on Hwy 82, passing over Grand Avenue and then continue as per Direct ions f rom Nogales, above. Can't miss it, but if you do, office telephone is 520-287-7051.
The monsoon exceeded expecta/ons, according to The Nogales Interna/onal.
As of August 29th, the average rainfall in Santa Cruz County, extracted from a number of different rain gauges, was 15.2 inches. And rain has con/nued through October. There is a lot of water flowing in the Santa Cruz, a lot of trash and boGle dams, and recurring sewage contamina/on from flooding and system failures in Sonora, Mexico. In some spots—especially in flat areas with a high-water tables, such as the Tumacacori Na/onal Historic Park and Rio Rico —the river has shiQed its course, meandering in direc/ons different fro m previous years. In some spots the river flooded parts of the Anza trail, leaving squelchy puddles deep with mud that made walking and biking difficult
The monsoon rains also created glorious growth, masses of wildflowers, and twinning vines, as well as all colors and kinds of morning glories that seem to knit the heavy ground growth—amaranth, old man’s beard, sun flowers — together with shrubs and trees to create walls of vegeta/on on either side of the Anza Trail.
From top to bottom, morning glories, old man’s beard, amaranth (also know as pig weed and carless weed), and sunflowers.
In some spots the river flooded, especially in flat areas with a highwater table, such as is found in the Tumacacori Na/onal Historic Park, and south of the Guy Tobin Trailhead in Rio Rico. Occasionally, the river shiQed its course, meandering in new direc/ons.
For the first /me since the start of the pandemic, FOSCR par/cipated in a clean-up. In February 2021, we worked together with Jesse Zamarano, founder of Santa Cruz Shining Arizona, a non-profit the cleans up trash in the county. FOSCR worked with Shining on a river clean up near Ron Morris County Park .
We cleaned up 230 bags of trash, 130 tires and one propane tank on a mile and a half of river.
Of concern to everyone who cares about the Santa Cruz River is the development of South32 Hermosa/Taylor Underground Mine, currently under development near Patagonia. The silver, manganese, zinc, and lead, which are the focus of the first phase of the development, are submerged by groundwater. To obtain the minerals, South32 plans to pump 6.5 million gallons of water a day into Harshaw Creek, from where it will flow into Sonoita Creek, and onward to the Santa Cruz River. It is uncertain how these flows will be monitored, what they will do to the water supply in Patagonia and Sonoita Creek and how they will affect the Santa Cruz River. FOSCR is represented by the President of our Board of Directors, Ben Lomeli, a hydrologist, who aGends the South32 Advisory Board mee/ngs. We will keep you posted on developments with regard to South32.
One of FOSCR’s major contribu/ons to the health of the Santa Cruz River is River Watch, a team effort that monitors flows, water quality, and the aqua/c and plant life of the river and Nogales Wash. For about thirty years, on the last Monday of each month River Watch par/cipants are “Cer/fied Ci/zen Scien/sts” who measure flows, take and analyze water quality samples, maintain a data base, and report findings to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
During the River Watch data collec/on on the morning of March 27th, 2023 the Santa Cru River was flowing strong, (measured as 19.18 cubic feet per second), steady, and somewhat murky past Chavez Siding Crossing. Nogales Wash was flowing clear and steady, (3.21 CFS measured upstream at Ruby Road Bridge crossing, and barley flowing across the dry river bed of the Santa Cruz River.
River watch monitoring March 23, 2023
