Tucson Audubon Society

Tucson Audubon Habitat Restoration Via Nestboxes program. Pruned and young trees in residential areas often don't provide good nesting locations for cavity-nesting birds but they do provide enough foraging opportunities to support the birds in the area. This creates high demand for cavities in saguaros and other trees. By installing a nestbox in your yard, you can improve nesting habitat for our local cavity-nesting birds. Learn more at tucsonaudubon.org/nestbox. Contact Olya Phillips ophillips@tucsonaudubon.org. Photo Olya Phillips.

Tucson Audubon, in cooperation with the City of Tucson, is enhancing wildlife habitat along the lower Santa Cruz River in northern Pima County. The 300-acre project site includes the effluent-maintained riparian zone and floodplain agricultural fields that have been fallow for 35 years. Restoration efforts began in the fall of 2018 planting 500 mesquite trees along a newly designed floodplain overflow channel and installation of temporary irrigation to facilitate establishment. Next steps include the finalization of the overflow channel and feeder washes, planting the preferred floodplain species for the area, and creation of large stormwater detention basins, as well as ongoing invasive plant removal and monitoring.

Habitat creation is not limited to large scale projects, it can begin with homeowners looking to do their own part for the environment - for instance by replacing water-intensive lawns with native plants. This home habitat project began with the removal of a large lawn of bermuda grass using solarization, eliminating the need for herbicides. First the grass was cut down to soil level with a weedwhacker and then the whole lawn was deep watered for a week. Once the moisture had reached a sufficient depth, a shallow trench was dug around the perimeter of the treatment area and two layers of clear plastic sheeting were laid down on top of the grass and into the trench. The trench was backfilled to seal in the moisture, to carry the heat, and trap air that got superheated in the May and June sun. After several weeks the ground was sterilized killing seeds and living material of all plant species including the bermuda grass. Once the grass had been treated, the plastic sheeting was removed and habitat creation work could proceed without the threat of the grass’s return.