Using a Dry Irrigation Ditch to Restore a Historic Tucson Mesquite Grove
For well over a century, the Corbett Irrigation Ditch carried water from Tanque Verde Creek to the old Fort Lowell neighborhood, where it nourished farmland and helped to sustain a thick forest of native velvet mesquite trees. Now a group of residents, historians and conservationists have launched a campaign to restore the trees and fill the ditch with water again for the first time since it mysteriously ran dry roughly a decade ago.
The Cienega Creek Natural Preserve was established in 1986 under a resolution passed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors that authorized the Director of the Regional Flood Control District to acquire designated lands along the Cienega Creek corridor to preserve riparian habitat, reduce peak stormwater flows, and facilitate groundwater recharge. 
