3 ms·
Swales, basins, and bearms help with water management. I see a lot of that in the greenways in and around Phoenix. Just not at my neighborhood park. There's a
by hosh 3y ago
Swales, basins, and bearms help with water management. I see a lot of that in the greenways in and around Phoenix. Just not at my neighborhood park.
There's a botanical garden an hour out of Phoenix metro that showcases edible Sonoran plants, as well as arid-adapted plants from around the world.
The native species do fine on raw, undeveloped lands.
I think it's because people confuse "desert" (or arid) with "wasteland".
And there are methods to remediate wastelands -- it just takes effort and time.
- AlotOfReading 3y agoIt certainly doesn't help that specific directions from Phoenix traveled by major highways are fairly desolate. The Gila river valley as you drive south to Tucson is mostly salt flats for the first half hour, while heading north on the 17 goes through old lava fields and the waterless Agua Fria plateau.
- hosh 3y agoI haven't travelled to Tuscon yet so I don't know, though I know there are some large preserves outside of Tuscon. I'm not sure what you mean by the waterless Agua Fria plateau. I make a lot trips between Phoenix and northern cities like Prescott, Sedona, and Flagstaff. At no point among them do I see areas that are truly waterless. A lava field would be a sight to behold, but I don't recall any such thing along I-17 north. During the years with there are more winter rains, the plateau one reaches right around Sunset Point makes for an amazing grassland. That's even knowing that, with as green and lush as it is that season, it will mean fire and devastation later in the drier parts of the year. During the monsoon rains, those high grassland turn into magnificent landscape with ponding, reflecting the stormy clouds in the sky, across a wide horizon.
- AlotOfReading 3y agoSunset point is on the plateau I'm talking about. It's actually an old volcanic basalt flow from the Miocene. There's no permanent water sources up there, only down in the surrounding canyons (e.g. the aptly named rock springs). It's part of a big band of old vulcanism that extends all the way from Anthem (e.g. kuttu "peak") up to just south of the Grand Canyon, though you would have to hike in to see most of it.
- hosh 3y agoNeat! I'll have to revisit it again with an eye towards what you just told me.