Tucson Weekly: No Plain, No Gain (November 13

A Guided Tour Of Arroyo Chico Unearths Some Of Our City's Glaring Inequities.
By Kevin Franklin
THIS SATURDAY, THE Southwest Center for Biological Diversity will be leading an inner-city wilderness hike through Arroyo Chico, a wash that cuts through central Tucson.
The hike will introduce urbanites to an ecosystem that persists even in the center of town, show them where such places are and what's out there. Tucson's urban washes provide pockets of wilderness waiting to be explored.
Review "There are lots of birds and resident wildlife," says Shane Jimerfield, SWCBD assistant director. "We want to show people exactly what's in an urban wildlife corridor."
If you work your way through the low-hanging branches of sprawling palo verde trees and into the heart of a big wash, you find yourself in a very different world. The paved street, houses and traffic might be only a few dozen yards away, but the natural barrier and the descent into the bottom of the micro canyon separate you from that world. These tiny havens are where the wildlife you see in your neighborhood retreat. Cactus wrens and Inca doves nest in thick tangles of mesquite. Western spadefoot toads burrow into the wash bottom, emerging to produce another batch of mosquito larvae-eating tadpoles during the summer rains.
Desert tortoise and Harris hawks go about the business of surviving in Arroyo Chico. At night coyotes emerge to yip and yowl, raising their vocal flag proclaiming wilderness still holds territory deep within the city. They drive the local domestic dogs crazy.
It's amazing that creatures like coyotes can survive miles away from what most folks would consider suitable habitat, but here they are. At least for a while. This particular urban wildlife corridor is slated to be bulldozed, Jimerfield says.
As part of their flood control projects, the City of Tucson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Pima County Flood Control plan to channelize Arroyo Chico by bulldozing the wash and creating a flood retention basin adjacent to the Barrio San Antonio and Miles neighborhoods.
This is the continuation of the flood control projects begun over in Randolph Park and Colonia Solana neighborhood, just east of Country Club Road and south of Broadway Boulevard. But unlike the beautiful wash that was preserved over there, this part of Arroyo Chico is slated for a thorough reworking.
"The other portion of (the flood control project) was done in the Colonia Solana neighborhood and Randolph Park, in the golf course," Jimerfield says. "They put the detention basin in the golf course. The people over there fought diligently to keep them from channelizing the arroyo that goes through their neighborhood. They pretty much accomplished it."
He plans to point out this tale of two different neighborhoods during the hike: The Colonia Solana neighborhood is an example of how an urban wash can be maintained as a wildlife corridor. The city left the natural wash intact, and the area now serves as both flood control and urban wildlife habitat.
Arroyo Chico, east of Euclid Avenue and south of Broadway Boulevard, is on the opposite end of the spectrum. The area is used as a dumping ground for road debris from city construction projects and will soon be bulldozed to fit an engineer's blueprints, not the desires of the residents.
Jimerfield believes it's no coincidence that Colonia Solana, with its million-dollar homes and high-powered residents, kept its wash. Meanwhile, Barrio San Antonio and Miles neighborhoods, with their modest homes and largely Hispanic population, get dump trucks with road debris...and soon, the bulldozers.
"Can you imagine a truck dumping a load of concrete and debris in the Colonia Solana neighborhood?" asks Jimerfield. "Those people would be up in arms. But (Barrio San Antonio) has to deal with this every day.
He says the tour will start in San Antonio, showing both the human and wildlife activity there. "There are lots of birds, both resident and migratory, and other wildlife. We'll be going through all the problems, too--everything from feral cats to the dumping by the city and the issue of channelizing the wash."
Jimerfield hopes the hike will both introduce people to the concept of urban wildlife corridors in general, and inspire them to get involved in preserving the lower sections of Arroyo Chico.
"We've lost 90 percent of our riparian areas in this state," he says. Losing another one, especially in the center of the city, is unacceptable.
The free hike, sponsored by the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, is from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, November 15. Call Shane Jimerfield at 623-5252, ext. 302, for information and directions.

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