As a student participating in the Plymouth State University Bio-Geo-Cultural Education Travel Study Course to the Four Corners region of the U.S., my time visiting schools involved in the Bioregional Outdoor Education Program of the Four Corners Outdoor School was spent in Arizona. Arizona is one of many states out West which has a water shortage problem. This is a dry state to begin with, but the problem is exacerbated by the recent population surge. Arizona is one of the fastest growing states in the country right now. I found out that much of this is due to retirees moving into the area to take advantage of the dry climate and are building new homes everywhere as well. It takes much water to both build and maintain homes. As many of the people moving into this area tend to be wealthier, they can afford to ignore the water conservation issues and pay to have more water shipped in, if need be. However, the long time residents of this area cannot always afford this same luxury and water becomes a big problem. I saw this very plainly on the Navajo reservation on which I spent my time while in Arizona.
I made an interesting observation on the part of the Navajo reservation I visited that you can always tell where the schools are, and therefore the middle of a town, by looking for the water towers. Water in this area has to be trucked in and stored in water towers. This water is strictly protected and rightly so. There are signs all over the school and surrounding area, warning against taking water off the school grounds, and the punishments for doing so. One of the areas I was in, Chinlee, Az, was fortunate enough to have a reservoir as well. However, this reservoir was tiny and the sediment was so thick that you could not see through it. It is common practice to have to filter the water that comes out of a tap and then boil that water to make it safe to use for people. Most people tend to buy bottled water and use that instead of the tap water for cooking and drinking water.
Another striking aspect on the reservation is the lack of plants. Because of the lack of water, no one has lawns or gardens. The only trees and bushes in the area are ones very well adapted to arid conditions and even these are located close to the only sources of water. Here in New England, we take for granted the fact that we are surrounded by greenery. Even if people don’t have lawns, there is lots of other vegetation on their property. This is not the case with Navajo land. Their “lawns” consist of dirt. There are sometimes a few plants that we would consider weeds, here and there, but mainly just dirt. They cannot afford the luxury of wasting water to keep up gardens or even just grass. This was depressing to myself and the other student I was with, but it is not to the Navajo people. Just as we are used to our green surroundings, they are used to the land on which they live. There is some good news though. Arizona is trying to figure out water conservation issues. The Arizona Department of Water Resources plays a big role by enforcing water codes and laws and putting together education and outreach programs. More can be learned about this by visiting their website at http://www.azwater.gov/dwr/default.htm. In addition to this department there are many other organizations such as the AMWUA at http://www.amwua.org/, the Water CASA at http://www.watercasa.org/, SAHRA http://www.sahra.arizona.edu/programs/water_cons//water_cons/, and many more. As long as there are people that care, there will always be hope to overcome the issue of water shortage.
– Alyssa Langley
I’m originally a westerner having grown up in Colorado and then I lived in Arizona- near Flagstaff, in Beaver Creek Canyon south of Flagstaff, in Oracle, Tucson, and Winkleman- all arid places, compared to New England. So, I forgot about the transition for Plymouth State University students coming to a high desert for the first time. Alyssa’s reflections on the sparseness of vegetation, especially while visiting schools on the Navajo Reservation, reminded me of one of my favorite authors- Byrd Baylor and his book, ‘The Desert Is Theirs,’ in which he writes about the Papago Indians near Phoenix, Arizona, but he could be writing about the Native Americans and animals who live in the high, arid country of the Colorado Plateau (1975, Aladdin Paperbacks, New York, N.Y.). Baylor’s poetic message is, “This is no place for anyone who wants soft hills and meadows and everything green, green, green… it’s for strong brown Desert People… So from one short trip to the Four Corners, the PSU students might not fully appreciate that the ‘Desert People’ “like the land they live on” and they and the animals “share the feeling of being brothers in the desert, of being desert creatures together.”
I remember the first time I drove to the Colorado Plateau from Grand Junction in May ‘04 after a long absence, the globe mallow was in bloom everywhere and matched the surrounding sandstone spires, buttes, mesas, and canyons. All this color was so striking compared to the mud season in Maine I was leaving behind, that, like one of the lines in Baylor’s poems, I could fully appreciate, “Where else would Desert People want to be.â€?