Friends of the Agua Fria NM

 ANNUAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 13

 The Friends Annual Meeting will be held Saturday, September 13 at 9 AM on the Patio at Rock Springs Café.  Coffee, juice and pastries will be served between 8 and 9 AM. Lunch will also be provided.

Several interesting speakers are scheduled so don’t miss this important meeting.  The keynote speaker will be Hoski Schaafsma, IGERT scholar from ASU.  Hoski will be share information about his survey of the monument and should offer something interesting for all members.  Seth Levy of the American Hiking Society will speak about the conservation alliance and their work in Washington.  Additionally, monument staff members Rem Hawes, Nancy Stallard and Brian Culpepper will address issues of interest on the Monument.  New board members will also be selected.  Are you interested in serving your organization?  Do you know someone who would be a good addition to our Board?  

Reservations are necessary so that we can provide accurate food counts to the restaurant.  Please RSVP to peggy@aguafriafriends.org with your choice of BBQ Pork sandwich, coleslaw, beans or the salad bar. The meal is free for members and $20 for non-members.

FROM THE PRESIDENT 

Summer for most Arizona residents means the time to take a break, go on a vacation, or to head for the cool country. But, that has not been the case for the Board of the Friends.  The Board has met monthly throughout the summer, and have participated in several interesting events that affect the Monument.

The cultural resources team, led by Shelley and Trudy, holds regular monthly meetings and has conducted interviews with some of the neighboring, pioneer rancher families.  Their stories are providing historical first-hand accounts of the setting and settlement of the landscape in the pre-monument-designation period.

A representative from the Friend’s water team participated in a project on the Agua Fria River called Wet-Dry mapping on June 21.  Yes, that was a hot day.  The project is led by the University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center under their program called Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials, or NEMO.  Most of the mapping teams – on foot, horseback, or ATV– finished by noon and enjoyed a needed rest in the cool shade at the always accommodating Horseshoe Ranch (a special “thank you” goes out to our host, Jimmy Peterson).  And because only about half the river within the monument was mapped, on the following weekend, I was able to map an additional 2.5 miles in the gorge below the Richinbar mine.  This project basically documents the base flow conditions of the river prior to the seasonal summer rains.  Of note during the mapping, three yellow-billed cuckoos were observed in the river corridor, a species dependent upon fairly dense, healthy stands of riparian vegetation. 

The Board continues to meet to discuss issues of potential impact to the Monument including the proposed major expansion of Interstate Highway I-17, damaging OHV use in the river corridor, quantification of the Monument’s water rights, and illegal dumping of trash.  We welcome the arrival of archeologist Brian Culpepper, who is the newest member of the BLM staff for the Monument.  One of Brian’s earliest activities on the Monument was a 5-mile trek in the river bottom in support of the Wet-Dry mapping.  We couldn’t pass up an opportunity to show off some petroglyphs we saw along the way.

The Friend’s Board will soon be meeting to develop a strategic plan.  This needed activity will be supported by resources from the National Conservation System Foundation.  The members of Friends can help the planning process by attending our upcoming annual meeting and by giving us your ideas to improve the organization.  And most importantly, members can join and participate in one of the Friend’s resource teams.

–Tim Flood, President, Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument 

CULTURAL RESOURCES PROJECT TEAM

The Cultural Resources Project Team is conducting research and interviews with the Teskey family to begin collecting information for the interpretive project at the Teskey Home Site located in the Northwest part of the Monument close to the town of Cordes. Interestingly, the first interviews revealed a lot more information than expected and we discovered that the site was much more extensive than the cabin remains, well and fields that had been in use in the 1940s by the Teskey family. Members Larry and Sandy Gauthier and Sandy Haddock have worked with the Teskey descendants to record their childhood memories of living on the monument without today’s basic necessities like electricity.  The Cultural Resources project team is looking forward to the final interpretative project and sharing it with the public. 

Before site work could begin, the Team held a major clean up of the Teskey site since it had been used as a dumping area for many years. There is still much more trash left by shooters that needs to be removed. The Team also erected signs at the site to discourage not only dumping but also off road vehicle use of the site.  

Additional oral history research and interviews involving the Cordes/Champie  and Dugas families are being conducted.  Gerry Haase & Barbara Gronemann have been working with the Perry family to learn more of the history of Perry Mesa. The early historic sheep drive ways are also being researched as they pertain to the Monument. Gathering this information is important to the history of the Agua Fria National Monument.

Recently hired, Monument Archaeologist Brian Culpepper offers experience and expertise to the Cultural Resources Project Team in developing plans for projects. With his guidance, the team will create project plans the effectively preserve important sites on the monument. 

The Cultural Resources Project Team meets at the Deer Valley Rock Art Center on the first Tuesday of each month at 9:00 AM.  If you would like to be involved, please come to a meeting or call Shelley at 928-684-1670. We would love to have you join us.

 VEHICULAR IMPACT TEAM

The use of off-road vehicles on public lands is a growing sport, and the Agua Fria Monument is in close proximity to major population areas. The growing population coupled with the growing popularity of off road vehicles has pushed issues related to this activity to the top of the priority list for the Friends of the Agua Fria Monument. Additionally, increased population in the metropolitan areas brings increased traffic on Interstate 17 which has impacts on the monument. 

Jim Vaaler, a board member of the FAFNM, will head up this team whose priorities are:

• Monitor and advocate on the route designation process with the Bureau of Land Management. This would also include appropriate signage. 
• Education of OHV users.
• Advocate for the monument with Arizona Department of Transportation in matters relating to Interstate 17: proposed widening of the freeway and the impact of Sunset Point. 
• We have established a focus area for our volunteer activities.  Our primary  goal will be to keep ORV activity out of the Agua Fria and Big Bug riparian corridors south of the E-Z Ranch.  There are any number of user created tracks that need to be physically blocked and signed.  There is also a need for volunteer clean up activities in these areas.   We may also need to file a friendly protest to close a route that will be designated as open in the FEIS in order to protect the Big Bug riparian corridor and to protect the historical Teskey Homestead site. 

Some accomplishments that have already been realized by FAFNM are: 

• Action alerts sent to members regarding public meetings Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) was holding for input on Interstate 17 widening. Some of our members attended the public meetings and many more sent letters to ADOT expressing concern for the monument’s resources.
• Advocated for a gate to deter entrance to the monument east of Sunset Point, which ADOT recently installed. We hope that this will be a “mental barrier” for the traffic which once stopped at Sunset Point  rather than using the actual rest area. 
• Erected signing posts covering all backcountry areas on Perry Mesa. We were able to accomplish this in one trip using two vehicles.  Some of the roads we posted were very faint and nearly required 4WD to complete the job.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

September 20, FAFNM Road Cleanup, 8 AM, Bloody Basin Exit

October 23 and November 15, Teskey site cleanup and Teskey & EZ Ranch Lead clenup

OUR MISSION

The Friends of the Agua Fria National Monument (FAFNM) works to protect, preserve, and promote appreciation and enjoyment of the ecological, archaeological, scenic, and scientific resources and values of the Agua Fria National Monument.

We accomplish our mission through volunteer and professional projects and activities such as interpretation, education, fundraising, and advocacy in consultation and coordination with the BLM Phoenix Field Office.

CONTACT US

Email: info@aguafriafriends.org

Phone:   (623) 249-4460

Website:  www.aguafriafriends.org

Postal Mail:  PO Box 43860, Phoenix, AZ 85080

Please join us Saturday, September 20 at 8:00 a.m. for another clean up on the monument. We will meet at the BLM kiosk at the entrance to Bloody Basin Rd. at exit 259.

You will see by the photos posted from our last clean up that there is still work to be done. We are very excited about some new developments that may help stem the trash flow: the gate at the eastern access point to the monument at Sunset Point and some signs we had made to discourage littering.

Please RSVP to peggy@aguafriafriends.org. Please wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt (those bushes can be nasty) as well as bringing extra water, pickup sticks a hat, and gloves if you have them.