(Music Open w/GFX)
(birds chirping) (soft music)
- I grew up in Armory Park around the corner.
And when I was a kid I'd come down here
and just kick cans and spray paint stuff.
I never thought that there would be water or life down here.
'Cause when I was walking through,
it was just a desolate dry wash.
And so when The Heritage Project started back in 2019
and effluent water was released back
into the Santa Cruz, immediately I noticed green
once the water reached this area down under
the Cushing Street Bridge.
I was like, "Oh, what happens if it keeps getting greener?"
And it did, it just kept getting greener.
It kept getting greener every day, more and more animals.
I would see tracks of raccoons and tracks of javelina,
more and more birds that I hadn't seen on the river before.
But then I was also noticing more and more tamarix
and buffelgrass and trash that was dumping in.
And so I started making the point to come down every Sunday
and just spend the morning removing waste,
taking out invasives, and chatting to folks
that were on the river.
(splashing water)
Over time, folks just started asking questions
and asking if they could come help out.
And now, we have like a rotating crew
of between 15, 20 folks that just love Tucson
and want to see the Santa Cruz flourish.
(volunteers chatter)
Both sides of my family,
we've been in this region of what's politically known
as the US and Northern Mexico for generations.
And I was born and raised here.
I was actually further up North about First and Roger
and I would make my mom come drive me downtown.
'Cause I loved it.
It's like going back in time, seeing all the exposed brick,
and they used to have the old street car running and things.
And I remember like looking down on this area
and it was just filled with trash
like the water wasn't running.
And this is the most lush that I've ever seen it.
It brings me a lot of joy.
Just seeing how revitalized it is, how green it's becoming
and being able to do this work too.
It just adds to that.
I'll sleep good tonight. (laughs)
- [Angel] Oh, these are cool birds.
These are shorebirds.
So they call it killdeer.
You see these little fibers?
Fibery hairs right at the joints between the leaves
and the stem?
That's how you know for sure that's problematic.
Once the Buffalo grass commandeers an area,
it is almost impossible for native plants
to squeeze their way through.
It's important to acknowledge too,
that buffelgrass isn't the only invasive plant
that we're threatened with down here
in the Southern Arizona Borderlands.
We have tamarix and there's also stinknet
and Russian thistle, aka tumbleweed.
We see all those plants in the river.
They drain and they cover ground
and they take up habitat that could be used
by native species.
Like nurse trees that eventually could provide habitat
for more animals and more native plants.
Those things are all snuffed out
by these invasive plant species.
Yeah, once that scooped up, we can toss it in the bin.
(volunteers chatter)
Then, this is native seed mix.
So it's got grasses and wild flowers, mainly grasses.
By replenishing the seed bank, hopefully,
we're not just removing buffelgrass
but we're actually stitching this a little bit more.
So it's not just a band-aid, but we're actually
getting a little deeper regenerative healing taking place.
There's so much to learn when these plants come back
of what it actually means to have a healthy riparian area
in an urban ecosystem.
Get in here and step down on all the buffel.
There's historic accounts in the early 20th century,
recording the Santa Cruz
as just one of the most biodiverse areas I've ever seen
with these huge mesquite bosques,
cottonwoods lining the river.
These 70 foot tall trees with rustling leaves.
That's something that I could never imagine,
having grown up along the river.
And so this reconciliation work is not to restore this river
to what it once was because the most likely never will be.
There's now a million some odd folks
in the greater Tucson area
that are going to make the water table a little upset.
(volunteers chatter)
But what we can do is we can restore connection
to this canvas of her life.
Big coyote.
Booking it across.
- [Woman] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's amazing.
- [Angel] Yeah, they're beautiful.
(woman laughs)
(gentle guitar music)
- [Isaiah] You're building a network
not only in your immediate community, but across the world.
So that's a concept for me that I call the joy angels.
And it's not one size fits all,
but if you're doing work kind of like this,
you just feel closer.
You don't feel so alone.
You don't feel so alone in the battle.
And like, yeah, I'm making a difference.
- [Angel] This looks great, man.
Absolutely killing it.
Nice dismount too.
That's 10 for 10 on the style points, bro.
Reconciliation is a phrase I use because
in this process of learning and removing invasive species
and forming connection with each other
and the river and the non-human stakeholders,
like the vermilion flycatcher
and the coyote that we keep seeing,
we gain a deeper understanding and sense of place.
We can't ever make it perfect.
There's no such thing, I don't think.
But what we can do is be down here
and making new memories and new experiences on the river
and removing mistakes that have happened and Polar Pop cups
and Carl's Jr. bags and buffelgrass and tamarix.
And maybe one day this will be a place that is
a little reminiscent of what it was
for thousands and thousands of years.
(serene music)
(birds chirping)