Managing Semi-Arid Watersheds: About the Watershed Management Project

The purpose of the project, for which this web site is one of the primary manifestations, is to bring to the public the knowledge and data gleaned from the Arizona Watershed Program. Our goal is to take the years of accumulated watershed management research and package it in a form that is useful to a broad spectrum of the public. The challenge is to provide information that other researcher will find useful as well as information that teachers, students, pubic administrators, and the general public can use.

Research Studies

Research studies were performed by the USDA Forest Service from 1930s to 1980s to evaluate the usefulness of watershed management techniques for increasing water yields and other multiple resource benefits within the Salt and Verde River Basins of Arizona in the United States. One area of study was the 275,000 acre Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed in north-central Arizona. Research results from Beaver Creek were used to develop a template for information from all research sites in Arizona currently being developed on this web site. Research information from Beaver Creek is documented in a variety of publications covering many aspects of watershed management for which an annotated bibliography of nearly 700 references was compiled.

Field Days

In addition, two field days were held on the Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed, which is also a Biosphere Reserve (part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program), to provide experimental and hands-on learning to a local audience and to act as a text bed for materials on this website.

• Field Day on Beaver Creek, October 7, 1998 - Mayer High School Future Farmer's of America visit Beaver Creek and learn about watersheds
• Field Day on Beaver Creek, September 30, 1999 - Heritage Middle School and Chino High School students learn about watersheds at Beaver Creek

Web Site Organization

The website is generally designed by levels, going from the most general to more specific facts and information about watersheds in the Southwest to facilitate navigating through the site. Links in the sidebars of the home page provide general background information concerning the watershed management program in Arizona. Since the focus of watershed management research was in the Central Highlands of Arizona, this is a major link for accessing more detailed information available on this web site. This page provides links to such information as the climate and vegetation of the arid and semi-arid Southwestern United States (Central Arizona Highlands) and the history of watershed research in the area. Here users can obtain background information for any of the seven major vegetation types found in the region and access to more specific information and actual data from experimental watersheds in the various vegetation types.

Give Access to Real Data

A major contribution of this web site is the access it provides users to the basic data collected from the various research studies.  Basic routines are available that enable users to develop relationships between parameters, but more important is the opportunity for users to download information into a spreadsheet for more thorough analyzes at a later time.

Participants

The participants in this project are the Rocky Mountain Research Station Flagstaff Lab of U.S. Forest Service, The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, and The University of Arizona's Arid Lands Information Center, with funding from the International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC). Our goal is to provide a unique reference and educational tool on arid and semiarid watershed management using information and experience developed from research in different vegetation types in Arizona. The first materials were put on the web in December 1997, and new material will be added, and maintained, as we develop it during the life of this project.