Partners

National Forest Foundation

The National Forest Foundation (NFF) works on behalf of the American public to inspire personal and meaningful connections to our National Forests. By directly engaging Americans and leveraging private and public funding, the NFF leads forest conservation efforts and promotes responsible recreation. Each year the NFF restores fish and wildlife habitat, facilitates common ground, plants trees in areas affect by fires, insects and disease and improves recreational opportunities. The NFF believes our National Forests and all they offer are an American treasure and are vital to the health of our communities.

In Arizona, the NFF implements the Northern Arizona Forest Fund (NAFF), a watershed-based investment program designed to improve forest and watershed conditions across the Salt and Verde watersheds, protecting water supplies, minimizing fire and flood risk, and working to ensure the resiliency of the landscape for future generations. The Lower Salt River Restoration Project is an important project as part of the NAFF portfolio of projects, which will protect water supplies, reduce water quality impacts, and serve as a model of conservation action for the entire Phoenix metro area.

Tonto National Forest

At over 2.9 million acres, the Tonto National Forest is the largest national forest in Arizona, and the seventh largest national forest among 154 USDA National Forests. The Tonto features some of the most rugged and inherently beautiful land in the country. Sonoran Desert cacti and flat lands slowly give way to the highlands of the Mogollon Rim. This variety in vegetation and range in altitude, from 1,300 to 7,900 feet, offers outstanding recreational opportunities throughout the year, whether it is lake beaches or cool pine forest.

Northern Arizona University

The Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research (MPCER) promotes cross-disciplinary research and education to understand critical environmental processes and the implications of change resulting from human activities. The MPCER has been instrumental in developing and supporting infrastructure needed to advance both research and education. Through its efforts, the MPCER is helping to create the scientific knowledge and understanding needed to address significant environmental challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss.

Ecoculture

Ecoculture is an interdisciplinary and action based network that combines art, technology, and culture to promote strong nature – culture interactions. We are a community of reforestation practitioners whose objectives are to converse biodiversity and strengthen human connections to nature through community stewardship in large scale projects. In the last 10 years, our community has come together to plant over a million trees worldwide.

Audubon Southwest

The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation.

Audubon’s state programs, nature centers, chapters, and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire, and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon’s vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization.

Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management

Through a partnership with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management and the Arizona Department of Corrections, the state of Arizona has twelve 20-person inmate crews who serve as Type 2 Fire Hand Crews across the state. Each crew is made up of DOC inmates from state prisons and the crewmembers are supervised under the direction of State Forestry and DOC staff. These low-level offenders are trained to be professional wildland firefighters, with some reaching advanced qualifications such as Firefighter Type 1, Sawyer, and Crew Boss.

Crews are used during wildfire season to help with suppression efforts, but they are also used throughout the year on fuels mitigation projects around Arizona. Crews have also been used to help on special assignments, such as search and rescue, disaster clean up, sandbagging operations, and other similar projects.

Salt River Project

Arizona’s forests are unhealthy and overgrown, and without action, catastrophic fires are almost a certainty — putting the state’s physical beauty, economic vitality and water supplies at risk. Since 2002, more than 2.5 million acres of forests in or around the Salt, Verde and East Clear Creek watersheds has been burned by wildfires, including mega-fires such as the Rodeo-Chediski and Wallow fires. The problem is now so large that millions of acres of Arizona forest are at risk of high-severity fire. With this increased threat, we are increasing our focus on helping efforts to strategically thin our forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires. A cross-departmental team of SRP employees has been working on solutions that focus on prevention through strategic forest thinning. As part of this effort, SRP has worked tirelessly to forge partnerships with organizations across the state.

Intel

Water is essential to the semiconductor manufacturing process. We use ultrapure water to remove impurities from our silicon wafers, and we use industrial and reclaimed water to run our manufacturing facility systems. Over the last two decades, our sustainable water management efforts and partnerships have enabled us to conserve billions of gallons of water and return approximately 80% of our water back to our communities. Now, we are broadening our focus to restore 100% of our global water use.

By funding collaborative projects to support local watersheds, we will restore water in quantities equivalent to the water we consume, closing the gap in our water balance. These projects—whether agriculture-centered, conservation-focused, or in-stream flow protection—aim to address local water issues and support the well-being of our communities, economy, and the environment.

City of Phoenix

The City of Phoenix has been delivering clean, reliable water supplies to homes, businesses, industries, and other area customers for more than 100 years. Our successes have come from engaging our customers in planning for our water supply needs, and promoting the responsible use of water. The City of Phoenix provides information to help you and others in our community become more effective stewards of our vital water resources.

City of Scottsdale

Scottsdale Water has been providing quality drinking water and advanced reclamation services to Scottsdale businesses and residents for over 45 years. The division operates like a business and is a financially self-supporting municipal utility. City Council guides the division’s authority and responsibility through resolutions and ordinances.

Natural Restorations

Natural Restorations is an Arizona-based nonprofit organization founded in 2015 by husband and wife team, Justin and Nicole Corey. Their mission is to remove trash and graffiti from outdoor recreation and wilderness areas, revitalize natural areas through reforestation projects, and enrich the lives of Military Veterans and other community members through their projects across Arizona. They accomplish their mission by managing and supporting a Dedicated Restoration Team with contracted Military Veterans and by hosting volunteer cleanup events throughout the year for community members, including youth volunteers. Their vision is to keep natural areas clean and open to the public for everyone enjoy.

Since 2015, they have removed over 1 million pounds of trash and over 36,000 square feet of graffiti from natural areas across Arizona. They have provided over 7,000 hours of work to the veterans on their Dedicated Restoration Team.

In November 2020, they launched a reforestation program with their Dedicated Restoration Team and began working on the Lower Salt River Restoration Project with Program Managers from the Ecoculture team at NAU, planting 5,544 saplings. Their team continued the project in January 2021 and planted 4,560 trees and saplings and is looking forward to future projects.

Arbor Day Foundation

The Arbor Day Foundation Is A 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Conservation And Education Organization. A Million Members, Donors, And Partners Support Our Programs To Make Our World Greener And Healthier. In celebration of our 50th anniversary, we’re taking stock of where we’ve been, what we’ve done and where we’re headed. So far, we’ve planted and distributed nearly 500 million trees in more than 50 countries around the world.

We’re poised to plant more trees, educate more people, get more hands in the dirt and impact more lives all over the globe. Our movement is just getting started.

Wild West Water Delivery

Wild West Water Delivery is a Coovert family business with daily operations managed by Zach Coovert. While day to day operations focus primarily on residential and commercial potable water tank fills, we offer other great services including water feature fills (swimming pools and jacuzzies) and dust control. At the end of the day, there is no amount of water too large or small for us and we are happy to accommodate any customer need!

Isaac’s Ant Foundation

Isaac’s Ant Foundation was created in honor of Isaac Calley who passed at sixteen because of a brain injury he sustained at birth. He enjoyed contemplating the fundamental questions in life and stated at the age of eight, “Time is the greatest force in nature, because without time, nothing happens.” Isaac felt strongly about the individual’s responsibility to make the world a better place. This compelled him to have a special interest in helping individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities. Isaac also loved ants. The more he learned about ants, the more he wanted to teach others about how truly amazing they are.  Isaac’s Ant Foundation continues to work in his name.