In partnership with the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe, this project will relocate an irrigation pumping station and enrolling tribal land into a rotational fallowing program. A rotational fallowing program involves alternating periods of crop cultivation and fallowing/unplanted land to enhance soil health, manage pests, and improve water retention, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
The existing water pump is currently inefficient and prevents the Tribe from utilizing its full water rights. Relocating the Tribe’s water pump will enable more efficient water delivery and provide access to their full water rights, and it will also be powered by solar energy instead of diesel fuel. Updating the pump will allow the Tribe to implement a seasonal fallowing program that will reduce agricultural water demand and reallocate the saved water maintaining riparian habitat restoration, wetland water supply projects, and/or participate in water/system conservation programs that bolster levels at Lake Mead.
State / Province: Arizona
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Quechan Tribe Water Delivery and Plant Nursery
The Quechan Tribe will use BEF funding to design, engineer, and construct a water delivery pipeline within the Bard Water District, near the California/Arizona border in Yuma, to address a bottleneck in the canal system. This improvement will enhance water access for Tribal farmers, supporting agricultural productivity and water management within the district.
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Guayule Drip Irrigation Efficiency Project
Tempe Farming Co. is converting 52 acres of farmland in Pinal County from furrow irrigation to a water-saving drip system, with 30 acres dedicated to growing guayule for Bridgestone Americas in 2024. This conversion supports Bridgestone’s efforts to expand guayule production, a water-efficient crop. The project will provide long-term water savings and help scale commercial production of guayule.
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Haigler Forest Health Phase 1
In partnership with the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, this project seeks to improve Haigler Creek watershed, which ultimately flows into Roosevelt Lake in the Salt River watershed. Forest health is crucial to reducing fire risk by thinning vegetation and removing excess fuels. These efforts will help boost habitat quality, water yield, and protect water sources from the impacts of large wildfires.
The project area drains into the Salt River, which is the main water source for the Phoenix metro area, making these improvements critical for protecting local water supply.
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Hoxworth & Buck Springs Restoration Northern Rim Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon Trust is leading a restoration effort in two priority areas: the Lake Mary Watershed which supports key water resources, including supplies for Flagstaff communities, and the East Clear Creek Watershed on Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. These riparian areas are vulnerable to overuse, trampling from introduced animals, post-wildfire erosion, and other degradation.
In partnership with volunteers and Trust staff, construction of 19 Zuni bowls will address soil erosion and prevent further erosion upstream at 14 sites across three important wetlands. Zuni bowls are a riparian restoration tool that uses rock structures to fortify a waterway against harmful erosion that can damage streams and nearby ecosystem health. Habitat restoration in these areas will lay the groundwork for sustained, long-term restoration strategies. -
Leak Detection in Senior Housing Development Phoenix
In partnership with Pacific Institute, and the City of Phoenix, we are helping to install leak detection devices from Sensor Industries on toilets in low-income senior housing, enabling building management to quickly detect and repair toilet leaks in Phoenix, Arizona. The project is expected to save an estimated 2.3 million liters of water annually through leak detection and repair and it builds on successful leak detection pilots conducted in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities.
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Lower Colorado Resilience Project
This project, led by Restauremos El Colorado, Centro Luken, BlueCommons, and BEF, aims to reduce water use from the Colorado River in Mexico and help preserve storage levels in Lake Mead through farmer agreements on water leases in the Mexicali region of Mexico. Restauremos El Colorado has developed relationships with farmers in the Mexicali watershed, these farms will temporarily pause activities to decrease reliance on river water. The saved water will be used to lower Mexico’s withdrawals from Lake Mead, supporting conservation efforts and creating new storage reserves.
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Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) Canal Lining
On their Tribal lands, the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) used geomembrane and concrete to line a segment of a canal measured to have the highest seepage rate on the CRIT Irrigation Project to reduce conveyance loss, more efficiently and reliably deliver water for irrigation, and reduce demand at the CRIT Point of Diversion on the Colorado River. Over time, the project, in combination with a larger suite of irrigation modernization and fallowing actions, will generate “conserved water” that could be used for a variety of purposes that will benefit the CRIT community.
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Colorado River Indian Tribes Irrigation Modernization
Established in 1865, the Colorado River Indian Reservation was set aside for indigenous residents of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Today, the Reservation includes approximately 300,000 acres of lands and is primarily home to four distinct tribes – the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo. The Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) have territory that stretches along 56 miles of lower Colorado River lands with the majority of their reservation located in Arizona.
Irrigation infrastructure on the CRIT lands are in a significant state of disrepair. The CRIT are implementing a number of projects to improve irrigation efficiency. These projects will increase resilience for tribal farm operations by maintaining irrigation for economic development; open the door for tribal water management that can support system conservation agreements to leave water in Lake Mead; open pathways to lease water to support non-tribal water uses in central Arizona; and create the potential to advance/expand environmental benefits on the CRIT reservation.
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CRIT Irrigation System Modernization
Established in 1865, the Colorado River Indian Reservation was set aside for indigenous residents of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Today, the Reservation includes approximately 300,000 acres of lands and is primarily home to four distinct tribes – the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo. The Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) have territory that stretches along 56 miles of lower Colorado River lands with the majority of their reservation located in Arizona.
In an addition to our 2022 CRIT Irrigation Modernization project, CRIT will expand in installing precision drip irrigation on CRIT agricultural lands. The drip irrigation will replace the current flood irrigation system for alfalfa and cotton production. Drip irrigation is an efficient irrigation method compared to conventional flood irrigation and is expected to reduce water withdrawn from the Colorado River for farming on CRIT lands by 25-50%. Additionally, the improved irrigation is expected to produce a 10% increase in crop yield.
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Dude Forest Health Project Phase 3
Salt River Project (SRP), in partnership with state, federal, local, NGO, and private entities, is implementing a forest restoration project in the Verde and Salt River watersheds in Arizona to mitigate wildfire risks and protect water infrastructure. Focused on the 2,338-acre Dude Phase 3 area, the project aims to address high-severity wildfire threats caused by dense undergrowth following the 1990 Dude Fire. Mechanical treatments will reduce overabundant shrubs and small trees while preserving large and riparian trees, restoring the forest to a fire-resilient state. This work will enhance forest health, improve water quality and flow, and support SRP’s ability to provide reliable water supplies to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.
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Gila River Indian Community Casa Blanca and San Tan Canal Feasibility Study
The Gila River Indian Community (known as the “Community”) proposes to undertake a project in response to the Community’s vision to become the first Native American irrigation project in the Nation to be carbon neutral and lead by example in meeting the challenges of the water and energy nexus in the southwestern United States. This project will include feasibility studies for two Canal Energy Systems (CES). One feasibility study will focus on the expansion of the current Casa Blanca Canal CES Project and the second feasibility study will focus on the development of the San Tan Canal CES Project. When completed, the two feasibility studies will support future CES project development, which will in tern reduce evaporative losses from the canal and would generate clean, renewable energy to benefit the Gila River Indian Community.
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Gila River Indian Community Solar Over Canal
The Gila River Indian Community proposes to undertake a project in response to the Community’s vision to become the first Native American irrigation project in the Nation to be carbon neutral. This project will include the design, development and implementation of a Canal Energy System. A network of solar panels will span over the Casa Blanca Canal and will reduce evaporative losses from the canal while generating clean, renewable energy to benefit the Community.
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Black River Aquatic Restoration & Thompson Meadow Restoration
Located northeast of Phoenix and 25 miles west of Alpine, the West Fork Black River drains White Mountain, runs right through Thompson-Burro Meadow, and is a major tributary of the Black River. The Black River watershed is part of the largest, contiguous Ponderosa Pine Forest in the United States. It is a crucial headwater source of water supply to the Salt River, a significant water source for Phoenix Valley.
The Thompson-Burro Meadow Restoration is currently being planned and designed through a collaborative grant funded by Bureau of Reclamation. The project is part of a larger, multifaceted forest management plan for the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest that was addressed by a recent U.S. Forest Service NEPA process.
The Black River Aquatic Restoration Project presents a suite of integrated ecological restoration activities designed to reduce fire related risks and restore ecological resilience that will benefit fish and wildlife and improve water security. The project is innovative, comprehensive in scope, and collectively applies forest health and meadow restoration activities, such as thinning, riparian exclusion fencing, tree planting, barrier removal, and construction of process-based restoration structures to improve wetland and hydrologic function. The project’s climate resilience solutions are proactive and forward-looking: restoring natural systems and processes in this location will demonstrate ways to solve risk and water resilience issues in Arizona.