May 3, 2024 - The Arizona Water Protection Fund Commission, which annually provides funding for projects to restore, maintain, and enhance river and riparian resources throughout Arizona, selected a project sponsored in part by our sister agency, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in 2022.

February 1st, 2022 | This year the Forest Service started a major reconstruction project on the popular Cathedral Rock Trail. This project is tackling deferred maintenance on a trail unlike any other on the Coconino National Forest. As the Forest’s second busiest trail, and located in a sensitive place by Oak Creek, the project is needed to protect watershed health and to provide an enduring high-quality experience for trail users.

January 20th, 2022 | The 18 people spending their day (or days, in some cases) with the trees included civilians from all walks of life, members of the Arizona and Nevada Conservation Corps, and a group of women who brought along two pack camels to help carry baby Joshua trees through some of the more treacherous terrain. Joshua trees typically have a lifespan of 150 years; if all goes according to plan, these saplings will become a fixture of the preserve for a long, long time.

Dec 22, 2021 | After Bighorn burned almost 120,000 acres between June 5 and July 23, 2020, the Forest Service closed the burn scar area to the public including almost 207 miles of trails. A combination of nonprofit group work, grant-funded conservation corps, and Forest Service staff work has steadily opened more trail sections over the past year.

November 10th, 2021 | When a group of Arizona Conservation Corps workers were performing trail maintenance in upper Oak Creek Canyon last month, they came upon a rare sight next to an unofficial trail: Five olive gray snakes with faint reddish spots intertwined in courtship.

November 10th, 2021 | Arizona Conservation Corps crew members are working with Cocopah to reduce the risk of wildfires and restore the habitat on the west reservation.

October 22, 2021 | "This week, a group of Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC) members completed the second phase of a project that officials hope will rehabilitate many areas along the corridor that have been hit hard by visitors, improve water quality in the creek and protect habitat for the threatened narrow-headed garter snake.

The project, a collaboration between countless groups including the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, National Forest Foundation, Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock District and the AZCC, seeks to close hundreds of unofficial social trails that crisscross the area between the highway and the creek."

August 3rd, 2021 | Participants ranged from environmentalists to electric utility employees, high school students to hiking groups for retirees and snowbirds. Luckily, Swann said, most of the counting was finished by last March, when the pandemic shut down such group activities.

The few remaining plots were surveyed later in the spring by park interns and crews from groups like the Arizona Conservation Corps.

April 22nd, 2021 | Hikers flock to the rugged Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson, but many trails are still off limits in the wake of last year’s Bighorn Fire. Most trails remain closed within the burn scar of the 119,987-acre Bighorn Fire, which raged from June 5 through July 23. Some trails are within Pusch Ridge Wilderness on the southwest flank of the mountains, and others are north or east of the wilderness.

March 18, 2021 | Iconic Oak Creek Canyon on the Coconino National Forest is seeing increasing visitation, leading to unsafe parking and unauthorized trails, which increase erosion and pose water quality concerns. To meet these challenges, NFF is working with partners including REI Co-op and REI Foundation, Coconino National Forest, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Conservation Legacy, and the Oak Creek Watershed Council to improve trails and clean up trash, all with an eye towards reducing impacts to the waterway and improving visitor experience.