Field Trip to Lower Cienega Creek: see sites of major erosion, learn about Riparian Habitat, and use hands on restoration techniques
 
COST: $30
MAXIMUM ATTENDEES:15
MINIMUM ATTENDEES:9
 
CATEGORY: Drylands Ecology and Ecosystems Services
 
ABSTRACT:
The field trip:
Join us as we make several stops along Cienega Creek, one of the few perennial streams in southern Arizona.  We will hike a short distance to visit a large headcut: an erosional feature that has migrated over 2,000 feet upstream and incised up to 12 feet of channel depth over the last two years. Presenters with a broad spectrum of expertise in riparian studies will take turns sharing information as we tour the creekside environment. Topics may include  botanical studies, habitat analysis, preserve and range management, and hydrologic monitoring and research. 

Finally, we will investigate appropriate restoration techniques that could be applied in tributaries or the upper portions of the watershed. We may also have the opportunity for hands-on instruction in water harvesting techniques that can be applied to increase the resiliency of the watershed.
 
Vans will leave from the symposium hotel at 7am and return by 2-3pm.  A box lunch and water are provided.  Bring your backpacks, water bottles, hiking shoes, hats and sunglasses!
 
Background:
Cienega Creek is protected as an Outstanding Arizona Water and is a great success story of preservation of riparian habitat, diverse wildlife, native fish population and relatively few invasive species.  Over a two-year study period funded through the ADWR Water Protection Fund, Pima Association of Governments monitored the impact of erosion (headcutting) on Lower Cienega Creek.  This headcut is correlated with decreasing groundwater levels, the collapse of long-lived vegetation, sediment loads variation, and change in habitat zones (pool/riffle/run ratios). 
 
Organized by:
Pima Association of Governments
Mead Mier and Claire Zucker 

Additional Speakers:
Pima County Regional Flood Control District – Frank Postillion and David Scalero
ASU School of Life Sciences – Juliet Stromberg

Possible contributors:
Arizona Riparian Council
Watershed Management Group
Sky Island Alliance
Bureau of Land Management
The Nature Conservancy

Itinerary:

1. 7:00 am.  Meet up at the symposium hotel
2. 8:00am. After a 40-minute drive to Vail, AZ, we will stop where Vail Road crosses the Pantano Wash. PAG will give everyone background information on the watershed: the creek’s significance to the region’s recharge and its rarity.  This is where Cienega Creek turns into an ephemerally-flowing wash.  Rest rooms and other last minute needs are available at the Quikmart.
3. 8:45. At the Marsh Station Bridge, 15 minutes down the road, Frank Postillion and David Scalero, Chief Hydrologists at the Pima County Regional Flood Control District, will lead us on a short walk down to the creek to share their Preserve Management Plans.  They will highlight the problems with ORV damage to the ecosystem.  This is a beautiful perennial section of the creek, with tall Cottonwood trees and pools of fish near where the Arizona trail crosses Cienega Creek.
4. 9:45. Drive ~5 minutes to the “RailRoad Horseshoe.”  Hike 0.5 miles past the cholla cacti, into the mesquite bosque, cut down into a tributary arroyo to where it meets perennial waters and then arrive at the headcut of the creek.  Mead Mier and Claire Zucker, PAG, will describe the years of erosion monitoring and findings of hydrologic studies at this location.  Here we see the de-wetting of a wetland and incision of the headcut 10 feet deep, causing long-lived vegetation to collapse. 
5. 10:30. Hike 0.5 miles more upstream within the shaded canyon walls, where we frequently see coati and barn owls toward the site of our piezometer monitoring wells locations.  As we walk, we will follow the trail of erosion as it made its way upstream 2,000 feet in two years. Juliet Stromberg, ASU’s School of Life Sciences, will describe her vegetation studies, which evaluate the correlation between species richness and persistence of streamflow. 
6. 11:00. AHS will provide a box lunch that we will ask each of you to pack in to this well-shaded perennial section of the stream. At this upstream end of the study area, we will be at a point where the headcut has not yet incised the streambed.
7. 12:00. We will return to the tributary wash trail to discuss which erosion restoration techniques to use in small sheet flow channels or upper portions of the watershed.
8. 1:00. Return to the vans for cool water and the drive back to the hotel.
9. 2:00. Field trip finishes