PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #42: Restoration of Public Lands.
Wednesday, August 7. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Restoration of a suburban park for endangered and sensitive speices while maintaining public access.

MacAller, Robert^*,1, ¹ RECON Environmental, Inc., San Diego, CA

ABSTRACT- The Roy P. Drachman/Agua Caliente Regional Park, at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains in northeastern Tucson, encompasses a spring that reportedly has the highest flow in Pima County. Three ponds supported by the spring are popular with the general public. The Park is surrounded by low-density housing and includes a network of trails with interpretative kiosks, picnic areas with barbecues, benches, a public restroom, historic buildings, and accessory park maintenance structures. Year round public recreational activities at the Park include hiking, bird watching, educational fieldtrips, picnicking, sports, exercising, and dog walking. A proposed restoration project (currently in the feasibility stage) would restore a cienega-like ecosystem over a portion of the Park that will eliminate some or all of the ponds, create a spring fed stream system, and provide habitat for species such as the lowland leopard frog, desert pupfish, Sonoran mud turtle, Mexican garter snake, Gila topminnow, and other species. Since the proposed restoration is in a public park, limiting public access is politically and practically impossible. This poster will present the results of efforts to include park user as well as scientific input into the design and provide public walking areas and educational opportunities in the sensitive ecosystem designed for wildlife.

KEY WORDS: habitat restoration, urban interface, cienega, streams