PARENT SESSION
Symposium #23: Relationship, Community, and Intergenerational Innovation: Traditional Ecological Knowledge for Ecosystem Restoration .
Sponsored by ESA Sustainable Biosphere Initiative
Organized by: K Klubnikin, K Rodriguez, J Parrotta, and W Covington
Wednesday, August 7. 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Leo Rich Theatre.
Creating new cultures with old traditions in the Santa Cruz River, Sonora, Mexico.
MURRIETA-SALDIVAR, JOAQUIN*,1, CRUZ, DON BETO2, 1 Sonoran Desert Ecoregional Program, Tucson, Arizona2 Santa Cruz River Valley, Cucurpe, Sonora, Mexico
ABSTRACT- Low-tech and effective trans-generational collaboration on restoration of two watersheds in northern Sonora, Mexico is demonstrating results. Restoration of the Rio Santa Cruz that involves a traditional knowledge base, the learning of children, and community participation. Don Beto is training middle school students from the community of San Lazaro in the Ejido Miguel Hidalgo along the Rio Santa Cruz in traditional living fences. Don Beto is an expert on the the traditional technology of propagated fencerows of willow and cottonwood to maintain, enhance and extend flookplain fields of the upper Rio San Miguel. the experience of Don Beto in the San Miguel watershed and the energy of the students in the Santa Cruz watershed are combined to initiate a riparioan restoration process using living fences in portions of the Rio Santa Cruz. Moreover, students are inviting their parents to partcipate in this community river restoration effort. A new riparian restoration culture is developingbased on knowledge and trans-generational learning and participation. The Rio Santa Cruz is in northern Sonora at Lochiel, and creates a loop of appriximately 60 km before returning to the US east of Nogales. The Rio San Miguel is the eastern boundary to the Snoran Desert as dfined by Shreve (1951), and it connects several communities with early Spanish mission heritage.
KEY WORDS: Riparian restoration, Environmental education, Sonoran Desert, Traditional resource management