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NEWS
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | OCTOBER 9, 2019
Riparian’s godfather reflects on its 20th anniversary BY CECILIA CHAN AFN Staff Writer
C
arol Lang was looking for a place to take her grandson during last week’s school break when a friend told her about the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert. “It’s just wonderful, peaceful,” the Chandler resident said. “And getting kids away from technology and into nature is wonderful.” Her 8-year-old grandson Henry Lang agreed as he fed bird food to ducks from his hand at one of the preserve’s seven recharge ponds. The preserve, which attracts over 200 bird species and thousands of visitors each year, celebrates its 20th birthday next weekend. The 110-acre urban wetland habitat and water recharge site is the brainchild of Gilbert Councilman Scott Anderson. “Way it came about was it all started back when the state passed the Groundwater Management Act,” recalled Anderson, who was the town’s planning director at the time. “Gilbert put together a policy and the one way we implemented that act
Kids can feed the birds at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, one of the East Valley’s signature attractions for bird lovers and people looking for a quiet respite in nature. (Special to AFN)
was to recycle all of our water, reclaim all of our water, even wastewater.” In 1980, then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt signed the forward-thinking law mandating central and southern Arizona communities pump no more water from aquifers than they put back in. The town in 1986 began storing treated wastewater in six recharge basins at the 72-acre Neely Ranch near Cooper and El-
liot roads. “When we were ready to build the additional five (basins) I received some input from people that it was a favorite spot for bird watching many species of birds,” Anderson said, noting: “That is when I thought, ‘why not try developing something with a dual purpose, recycling water and preserving some habitat that is fairly rare in Arizona?’”
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According to the Arizona Riparian Council, 60-75 percent of the state’s resident wildlife species depend on riparian areas to sustain their populations, yet these areas occupy less than 0.5 percent of the state’s land area. And, in the western United States, riparian areas comprise less than 1 percent of the land area, but they are among the most productive and valuable natural resources, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So, Anderson applied for and received a $100,000 grant from the Arizona Heritage Fund. Sweat labor created a wildlife preserve at Neely as volunteers began planting vegetation around the recharge basins and building facilities for birders to enjoy their pastime. Finally, the Neely Ranch Riparian Preserve opened in 1990. The idea for a second preserve didn’t come until after the town purchased the 110 acres of farmland at Guadalupe and Greenfield roads for about $10 million, according to Anderson.
see RIPARIAN page 17
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