Summer Plant Walk : Waterman Restoration Site
Sunday 17 August, 2025, 7 am to 10 am
Directions : Turn off I-10 onto Avra Valley Rd (Exit 242), turn west and drive 19 miles straight ahead. Turn left after the brown Interpretive Sites sign and drive one mile, bearing left.
Bring : Plenty of water and wear a hat.
Limit: 15 participants, RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Join Arizona Native Plant Society conservation chairman John Scheuring 
on a stroll through this impressive desert restoration site 15 years after getting a monoculture of buffelgrass under control and installing passive water harvesting. The setting is a limestone foothill slope snuggled at the base of the Waterman Mountains on Ironwood Forest National Monument.
We will see many of 130 native species growing on the 18 acres with focus on the keystone species that serve to restore and maintain the desert. Trailing four o’clock, Desert Hibiscus, Prickly lettuce, Desert Fairy Duster and various Abutilon species will be in bloom. In addition we will see actively growing bio-crust composed of a mix of mosses and lichens. We will see transplanted saguaros rescued by TCSS as well as the successful use of discarded Christmas Trees to reduce erosion in channels and headcuts. We will walk slowly over uneven ground for about a mile.
For more information on the Waterman restoration project visit https://aznps.com/the-waterman-restoration-project/
