Written by Dexter Kopas, Senior Crew Member.
Good day, all you Arizona wilderness enthusiasts! What a joy it is to be back with the Wild Arizona faithful after a summer away for bike racing and touring in Europe and Vermont. How I’ve missed the molding of each unique trail segment with my own hands. The silent observation of flickers, javelinas, butterflies, Cooper’s hawks, deer, and other critters. The hours spent creating tier lists of everything under the sun with the help of your tool-wielding comrades. Yes, returning to this crew and this work is like putting on that old pair of well-worn, well-fitting leather work gloves. Familiar, warm, comfortable. Now, we put those gloves to the task.
On this bout of environmental stewardship, we were treated to a two-for-one special. Four days were spent easing back into the rhythm of things, working on Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) projects in our backyard. This collaboration with the City of Tucson allows us to make a difference right in our community while going home each night. A win-win! But what is GSI? GSI is a system of utilizing rainwater to create vibrant natural spaces, thereby reducing hazardous flooding potential, promoting aquifer replenishment, and beautifying urban settings. For about a year, we’ve been maintaining two small parks full of native Sonoran Desert plants to keep them humming along. This time, our work involved pulling invasive plants, picking up trash, clearing sediment traps, and maintaining rock erosion-control structures the crew built this summer. We can now say the Sunland Vista GSI site has no invasive plants! Yup, not a single tiny sprout of Bermuda grass hiding beneath a mesquite. Or so we hope… Of course there’s always something else if you look for long enough. It’s been fun learning to identify local flora with the help of my knowledgeable crewmates. One, Sam, has grown such an eye for it that I hereby nominate him for the illustrious title of “Grassman of the Year”.
Sam holds a large puncture vine plant. Photo by Dexter Kopas.
Rebekkah and Dexter degrassification. Photo by Jonathan Patt.
Halfway through our hitch, we split up. Sam stayed back in Tucson to table at Tucson’s biannual Cyclovia event promoting human-centric streets in our fair city. There he showed folks how to use a crosscut saw to cut a souvenir “cookie” of wood. Meanwhile, Rebekkah, Max and I journeyed further afield to the Chiricahua Mountains, where we met Field Operations Director Jonathan on the Snowshed Trail. There we spent four days expanding on work started by the Tohono O’odham Youth Field Camp earlier in the month. The name of the game was widening the corridor, fixing up water bars and drains, widening narrow sections of tread, and degrassification. Grasses were expertly identified by Jonathan, whom I shall hereby nominate as the “Rookie Grassman of the Year”. Tanglehead, sprangletop, blue grama, Lehman’s lovegrass… You show the man a grass, he’ll tell you what it’s thinking. In all, we maintained over 2 miles of trail, while fixing up 19 drains and cutting four logs along the way
Which leads us to the highlight of the hitch: a 20-3 Seattle Seahawks victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night, whose enjoyment was made possible by Max’s Starlink. On our way out of the Chiricahuas, we stopped to grab lunch at the classic Portal Store. On that note, wishing you all a Happy Halloween, and we can’t wait to head out again soon. Next time, we’ll be on boats.
Go Hawks,
Dexter
Dexter and Max Portal Store. Photo by Rebekkah Sutherland.
one of the perks of working in a neighborhood park. Photo by Dexter Kopas.
Lizard. Photo by Jonathan Patt.
