Arizona’s State Department of Water Resources has compiled a clear and concise data source on water resources for our state. Check out the “Water Your Facts” section of the site for easy-to-understand facts about this precious resource.

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Water and Birds in the Arid West: Habits in Decline
Audubon Southwest has a fascinating and educational report on creating a sustainable water future for birds and people in the American West.

Lower Salt and Gila Riparian Ecosystem
From the Arctic Slope in Alaska to the Mississippi Delta, and from the Northeast’s Long Island Sound to the wetlands of the Everglades, the power of Important Bird Areas (IBAs) cannot be overstated. Audubon is leading the way to protect these iconic places and the birds that depend on them and mobilizing their network of Chapters to act as stewards. Check out this interesting webpage on the ‘Important Bird Area’ (IBA) of the Lower Salt and Gila River Ecosystem.

Western Rivers Action Network [PDF] Audubon Southwest has created an informative fact sheet on the economic valuation of river ecosystems to the State of Arizona. Check out ‘River Economics’ and then join their network!

The Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, a center of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, created “The Hardest Working River in the West” an ArcGIS StoryMap focused on the key water sustainability issues in the Colorado River Basin. Through data visualizations and stories, the web-based StoryMap highlights the places, people, and policies that have historically shaped and will continue to shape water and land management surrounding the 1,450-mile Colorado River.

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An enduring yet fragile ancestral landscape, the great Gila River spans the river valley and surrounding desert between the cities of Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona. The Great Bend of the Gila is a place that has shaped the diverse histories and heritage of the American Southwest and is an ancestral landscape that has been inhabited by Indigenous Peoples since time immemorial. This storymap produced by Conservation Lands Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and Archaeology Southwest with support from the Respect Great Bend of the Gila Coalition provides an historical overview of this great region and why it is so important to protect these vital lands.

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This website captures the history of the Rio Salado Project from its conception in the Arizona State University College of Architecture in 1966 to the dedication of the completed Tempe Town Lake in 1999. It provides a historical overview and timeline, documents, and past leadership who conceived, designed, and constructed the Tempe Town Lake and its associated amenities.

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The WRRC at the University of Arizona is a robust center for research, engagement, outreach, and education in water resource management. As the state’s water resources institute, WRRC plays a leadership role in critical water policy and decision making in Arizona.

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The Salt River Project (SRP), a community-based water and energy company, has a website full of useful facts on the Valley’s water supply and issues of drought. SRP has provided water and power to the Valley for more than a century and has a wealth of information, both historic and current.

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There is substantive literary content on this topic, but this is a quick and interesting Arizona article about a non-native insect that poses a complex threat to a non-native invasive tree species that permeates the Salt and Gila River corridor.  The beetle has not yet been found in the corridor, but it is likely to inhabit the river ecosystem in the future, with possible significant effect on fire management, flood control, water quality, and economic development.

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The water supply of Earth is a required element for life to exist and thrive. The water cycle is a continuous cycle that keeps water moving on and around Earth in different forms. The different stages of the water cycle include evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. Each stage of the cycle leads to the next stage, and each stage is an important part of a process that helps to water plants, fill cisterns, dry up puddles, and remove floodwaters.

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