Earth Day at Marana Parks and Natural Resources
PCMN was invited by our partners at Marana Parks and Natural Resources to table at their earth-day themed Concert in the Courtyard on April 20th. Vicki Ettleman (C3), Peggy Ollerhead (C3) and Izetta Feeney (C6) enjoyed introducing families to the signs and tracks of their desert neighbors! The family-friendly event featured food trucks, a country western dance band, and Earth Day themed tabling partners.

Mission Garden Earth Day 2023
Great fun and outdoor educational opportunities were evident at Mission Garden’s Earth Day on April 22nd. Speakers shared their personal and historic knowledge about acequias ( engineered water canals). Over 300 people attended, many of them families who enjoyed events led by a number of our PCMNs.

Melissa Mundt, Cohort 5 and from PCNRPR – our chapter sponsor, worked with Mission Garden Youth Education volunteers exploring the acequia with families; dip netting for macro-invertebrates. Finding dragonfly and mayfly larvae to show the acequia’s waters are of good water quality.

Xerces Wildlife Biologist Saff Killingsworth and Chris Robie (06) shared the wonders of our native bees of AZ. Did you know there are over 1,300 native bee species in AZ making us a hotspot for bee biodiversity not just in the US but in the world?

Linda Doughty and Izetta Feeny (both 06) guided people through the steps to download the iNaturalist App and support the 2023 City Nature Challenge.

Jane Davenport (01) assisted with any First Aid needs.

Wildflower seed ball making with the Cooperative Extension, highlighted Elise Gornish’s work including a new children’s book about Ecological Restorations.

Samantha Brewer with Nature’s Notebook created a scavenger hunt unique for the flora and fauna of Mission Garden. Melissa has encouraged this talented woman to register for the PCMN class of 2024!

Guests could also make a cienega in a jar and learn more about bats with Mission Garden volunteers. Archaeology Southwest was there too.

THANKS to all for the great team work on Earth Day at Mission Garden!

MARK your calendars for August 18th for Critter Night at Mission Garden from 5:30-8:30. If you have an AZ critter that you would like to share/table about please contact Chris Robie at christinerobie8@gmail.com.

Both posts along with photos submitted by Peggy Ollerhead, Cohort 3

Submitted by Jean Loney, Cohort 1

Taking a trip to the lower Salt River to see the wild horses was a dream come true. Leaving early on a Sunday morning in late March from Tucson we drove onto Power Road from Loop 202 which turned into N Bush Highway. At Tonto National Forest we paid our fee for parking so that we would be able to pull out and stop at the various areas to search for the wild horses. Being told that we shouldn’t be disappointed if we didn’t see them on our first excursion, we kept our hopes in check.

At each stopping point along the way we would get out and wander down to the Salt River and walk along in search of these majestic beauties. Our first 3 stops were unsuccessful and we were wondering if this may have been a long trip for nothing. But it was a beautiful day, slightly overcast at times and the wildflowers were in bloom so it didn’t seem like a total loss. Once we passed Saguaro Lake we discovered cars parked along the highway and off to our left we saw a small band of horses! We quickly found a place to pull off and wandered back to observe with our binoculars and cameras with telephoto lens. This was a small band of approximately 30 horses – mostly grazing on grasses with a few laying down and resting in the wildflowers. It felt like we hit the lottery.

These horses are a symbol of the wild west and the pride of Arizona. Keeping our distance of at least 50 feet (although some individuals seemed to think it was OK to wander out into the fields trying to get as close as they could to these horses and disturb them) we enjoyed watching them in their natural habitat. Leaving this area it wasn’t much further along the road that we found another band of wild horses – at least another 30+ and again enjoyed just watching them from a distance.

Most people kept their distance and just enjoyed the privilege of being in the presence of these wild animals. Prying ourselves away from this sight we continued on down the highway and pulled off in a small dirt parking lot that was full of cars. Watching people walk through the gate and down into the valley we followed along to see if there were any more horses behind the hills. We were greeted by at least 40+ horses in this band with staff from the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group providing information to the visitors and making sure that they kept their distance from the horses so they would not be disturbed.

We observed several horses sparring with each other, some horses just grazing and others resting – but keeping a watchful eye on the humans that took in their beauty. The combination of these wild horses and the wildflowers was almost overwhelming. In our wildest dreams we never thought we would be so lucky to see over 100+ wild horses in one day – much less within a 2 hour drive from Tucson.

To think that these horses were once considered a nuisance and that people wanted to round them up and get rid of them is incomprehensible. Back in 2015 the Forest Service put out an impound notice to remove the horses from the Tonto National Forest. Fortunately with public input and the help of politicians they are now protected pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute 3-1491 (aka The Salt River Horse Act). The horses are now overseen and protected by the federal government, state government and a non governmental organization (NGO) to humanely monitor as part of our national heritage.

Should you decide to check them out – be prepared to walk over uneven ground, get wet and if you are lucky to find them take time to enjoy them from a safe distance.

Submitted by Aster Schaefer, Cohort 7
Photos: Melissa Mundt, Chapter Advisor

My name is Aster, and I’m a part of PCMN’s Cohort 7. Our class recently went to Watershed Management’s Living Lab on Dodge/Speedway one evening for a field lab, and having never known such a place existed, I was already floored by the time I walked through the gate. Our class was visiting to learn about urban habitat restoration, rainwater harvesting, and generally why the Living Lab is a place that exists and deserves to be excited about. For me, I had a lot of trouble understanding watersheds from the class presentation on hydrology, and this field lab really made it all click for me in several ways. Knowledge is inherently place-based, and my god, what a place we were in that evening!

First, seeing it in person was very different from a PowerPoint slideshow, which was already a huge plus; but what I really saw the Living Lab demonstrate was how reconciling one aspect of city planning with our local landscape (green stormwater infrastructure, basin-building, etc) necessarily means impacting all aspects of our urban ecology. To affect a part of the whole is to affect the whole itself. Building basins means more trees and plants, which means more food sources for birds, insects, and animals (humans included); more exposed and unpaved earth means more room for shade trees, more water retention and filtration through root networks, and increased groundwater recharge among other things… The downsides of embracing and integrating the land in urban planning are laughably small indeed.

It’s almost like reconciling city habitation with the land and the more-than human world actually doesn’t require more and more high-tech solutions, and that the best methods are actually quite simple and frustratingly obvious. Shocking, I know. In any case, the demonstrations, the lab’s simple and well-thought-out design, and the uncompromising diversity of life that the space hosts show that not only are much better alternatives out there in theory, but that our city (as well as others across southern AZ) can get to those healthier alternatives from where we are now and that there is already a team of people who are on the right track. Thanks again to Watershed Management and our facilitator Catlow!

Submitted by Summer Marshall, Cohort 7

Did you know that bobcats have binocular vision? Or that some animals can mimic certain colors in nature to hide from predators? Students from the Sunrise Drive School spent a Monday and Tuesday morning at the Cooper Center for Environmental Education to get their hands dirty and learn about desert animals and their adaptations at the annual Critter Camp. Teachers, parents, and volunteers enjoyed helping them learn how to use binoculars, get up-close-and-personal with some reptiles, and identify tracks and skulls.

Each student came equipped with a neat green notebook filled with pages of activities to complete at each station they stopped at. After a land acknowledgement and brief introduction, the kids eagerly broke into groups with their teachers and parent chaperones and got to work.

Master Naturalists Kathe Sudano (C3), Peggy Ollerhead (C3), Richard Linsenberg (C6), Summer Marshall (C6), and Dana Hook (C6) assisted at different stations and lended their knowledge to help the students complete their workbooks and have memories and knowledge to last.

Station one taught students all about bobcats and binocular vision, courtesy of the wonderful group Bobcats in Tucson, where volunteer Gale Sherman explained the adaptations bobcats have evolved as predators, as well as the important information they have gained by radio collaring bobcats. Students then used binoculars to focus on the den site of Dos Picos in the distance. Afterwards, they created layered art of Dos Picos, the land, and the sky behind them. The kids just loved the tearing of paper!

Station two was the messy one! Art skills were put to the test as students blended primary colors to create different shades of greens, browns, and purples. Then they had to create shades that best matched the desert plants around them – jojoba, saguaro, and bursage – not an easy task! Multicolored fingers wiggled in delight as the students tried their artistic best to camouflage their workbooks into the desert landscape.

Station three was a favorite – snakes and lizards only inches away in glass containers, courtesy of the Tucson Herpetologcial Society, and a real live rattlesnake showing off its namesake rattle. Tails were the attraction here and how they helped each creature adapt and survive. And then, from Mr. Packrat, an ode (actually, a rap!) to packrats – not just a nuisance, but an essential part of Sonoran Desert ecology!

Stations four and five found students identifying animal tracks in kinetic sand and learning critter physiology by studying skulls. Whoa, javelina have huge teeth! Yes, those huge holes really are their eye sockets! Finally, the last station ended with a short hike in the desert, hikers on the lookout for anything that could be an animal den – holes, nests, cavities – you name it.

At the end of the day, both students and volunteers enjoyed an enriching experience on the beautiful sunny, warm morning that the weather provided – perfect for the outdoor activities and much more preferred to last year’s rain and thunderstorms. It was a wonderful day for education and everyone looks forward to the next year!

With the Wild Sonoran Women – Cohort 6 & Dave De Groot, March 7, 2023

Dave is a knowledgeable, humble guide.
long way in, short way out
easy 5.25 mile hike
filled with treasures.
Night blooming Arizona Queen of the Night.
We eye-hunt for this special Snake Lily “stick” among 
hundreds of scattered dead sticks.
Dana’s 35mm catches 
gilded flicker and a Battarreoides diguetii.
Francesca and Merlin App identify rufous winged sparrow song.
Fresh rabbit kill
crimson splattered on rocks
like a desert painting.
Jan’s Picture This App captures Blue Dicks near cholla
Cholla captures Jan
Francesca combs out cholla. 
Chris retrieves a golf ball
probably from the golf course that 
cut down saguaros that morning.
Francesca carries out a bullet-riddled muffler.
The Queen of the Night eludes us.
Years old mountain lion latrine;
Wait – Chris R finds fresher puma scat!
iNaturalist it with a ruler.
Dave tries to contain his excitement
but it is okay;
We are Pima County Master Naturalists 
we get excited and celebrate documenting 
tiny blooms
scat and tracks
and the beauty of friendship
in the Sonoran Desert.

Written By Chris Robie and Inspired by Dave DeGroot, Jan Schwartz, Dana Hook, Chris Murphy, Francesca Ziemba. Photos by Chris Robie and Dana Hook.

Please join Dave at the Tortolita Preserve BioBlitz on April 15th and be prepared to fall in love with this treasure!

Post by Peggy Ollerhead C3

As an all-volunteer organization focused on the ecology and natural history of the Sonoran Desert, we have sponsored awards at the Regional SARSEF Science Fair for the past 3 years.  SARSEF strives to create AZ’s future critical thinkers and problem solvers through science and engineering and focuses on engaging student populations underrepresented in the field of STEM. This year’s Science Fair was a hybrid with projects available for on-line or in-person judging, as SARSEF (like so many organizations) attempts to adapt to a new post-Covid normal. 

This year, PCMN was asked to review and judge middle school (grades 6-8) projects. The team of volunteer judges selected approximately 45 projects to judge that pertained to Sonoran Desert topics. The first prize winner was a unanimous choice. Wade Olsson representing grade 8 of the Olsson Homeschool, demonstrated remarkable persistence and a passion for field work clocking more than 900 field hours over 4 years gathering data and generating hypotheses for his project, “The Invasion of Non-Native Green Sunfish in La Milagrosa Canyon in Pima County.” For his efforts, PCMN awarded a saguaro trophy and a $100 cash prize.

With such a large field, PCMN decided to also award two Honorable Mention Awards of smaller saguaro trophies. Angela Madrid, a sixth grader at Imago Dei Middle School, was recognized for her project “Man-Made Border Wall vs The Natural World.”  She gathered information from studies of how animal habits and migration have been impacted by the Border Wall. Greyson Weber, A seventh grader at Dodge Traditional Magnet school was recognized for His project “The AZ Water Crisis” and the website he developed to share sources of information and suggestions for actions that can be taken by the public. Links to winning projects are available on the SARSEF website, listed alphabetically by school. 

A special thank you to Franklin Lane, former president of PCMN, who initiated this relationship with SARSEF; to the judges, Marlene Shamis, Richard Linsenberg, Francesca Ziemba, and Peggy Ollerhead; and to Marlene Shamis for donating the cash award.