This saguaro was removed from beside a dirt road near Apache Junction, Az.
Backing down from the bulldozer April 20, 2016
While walking her dog on her 50th birthday, Juliet Stromberg viewed a bulldozer removing vegetation from the Salt River bed where Maricopa County health inspectors believe mosquitoes are breeding.
“Emotion took over and I stepped in front of a bulldozer and became an activist,” she recounts. The driver said he was just doing his job and she backed away. The bulldozing also has been part of river channeling to avoid flooding.
The incident involving efforts to change vegetation is part of her belief that if normal stream flows were occurring as Phoenix saw in the 1970s and 1980s, native species would be able to compete with the tamarisk, a bushy plant brought to the United States in the 1800s to control erosion.
River channeling also has been used to control flooding and along with the higher Roosevelt Dam 90 miles east of the metropolitan area as well as drought it is harder for the native cottonwoods and willows to survive.
The trees are becoming less common due to their need for spring flooding. Tamarisk has evolved to provide streamside vegetation, with little “knowledge” that it is now seen more and more widely.
Tempe Town Lake in the Salt River channel was recently drained to allow for building a new dam and now is being refilled. This is another example of the artificial changes to what was once a normal boom and bust flowing of a Southwest river.
A recent visit to the flowing Gila River at Riverside in Pinal County showed a number of tamarisk with pink blossoms, showing that the plant has spread to many parts of the Southwest.
Ode to color March 25, 2016
My color brick is found in the red clay of Sedona, the walls of the Grand Canyon, the descending cliffs of Vermillion and Canyon de Chelly.
Brick hides underground in mines, inside the body.
The sound of brick is like a rough-edged saw working through crumbling clay.
The orangy crazy redness feels rough as it turns into different sunset shades on the Superstition mountain.
The job of the brick-colored Red Mountain is to color shift for drivers as they head east on the 202 just before dusk.
The brick-colored petrified wood sticks out in our yard, a remnant of nature stolen long ago from its home in the national park.
Brick wants to be restored to its natural place in the world of sediment laid down by the rivers and seas.
Sweet is the taste of brick as it melts in watery droplets after a rain.
Close up, brick smells as if it was freshly placed there over the centuries. The scent of smoky dust stays with me as I walk forward.
Speak up and sit beside me, bricks says.
Touch me and I will glow.
The secret of the color brick is that I am fragile and also appear strong.
State pays $500,000 for Gold Canyon and Apache Junction highway intersections February 11, 2016
Arizona paid Sunland Asphalt $502,723 Jan. 28 for paving US 60 intersections in the areas of Gold Canyon and Apache Junction.
AZDOT lane closures need scrutiny December 15, 2015
Made FOI request to AZDOT for RFP and contract for recent lane resurfacing on US60 Apache Junction & Gold Canyon areas.
Yellow season in the desert April 14, 2015
Everything yellow is blooming today, Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The Palo Verde, the beavertail cactus and the brittlebush all have brilliant yellow blossoms with a carpet of yellow on the ground underneath due to the wind. The mesquite tree also has yellow fuzzy seed blossoms and the tree seems alive with buzzing bees, but not a swarm or hive. It will be about 92° today in Apache Junction, Arizona near the Superstition Mountains at a low elevation. We saw a 2 foot long black snake at about 5:30 PM yesterday in our torch garden near our back porch. It seems to have scared away the round tailed ground squirrels. We have many cactus wrens, house finches, sparrows, woodpeckers, and cardinals. Mother Earth is celebrating Easter.
Tohono Chul park Tucson Arizona September 9, 2014
A goldfinch dips its beak in the water at the top of the fountain in the outdoor patio of the Tohono Chul Park.
A volunteer offers that the newly constructed base of the sundial is patterned after the stone buildings of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.
A guide proudly shows the handmade paper art in the Garden’s gallery. I am grateful that she takes my heavy camera I spend time reading about each work of art.
I am drawn – once again – to Tohono Chul park on the northeastern side of Tucson. Its rippling water smothers the sound of traffic from Ina and Oracle roads. “We wanted to keep something natural in the middle of all the surrounding development so people could come easily for a few hours and get out of the traffic and learn something at the same time,” says Jean Wilson, who with her husband Richard started in 1968 to piece together patches of for people to have something like this, she says. The couple, who opened the park to the public in 1985, deeded the property to a nonprofit foundation in 1988, and now live in Flagstaff. They have seen what was a 37 acre desert preserve grow 249 acres. Some of the activities which the Wilson’s thought would be oppositional to daily urban life the desert that would become the park’s core. It’s probably contrary to what most people would do but we feel it’s really important
Ode to the color brick March 3, 2014
The color brick is found in the superstition Mountains as a sunset most from north to south most evenings is also found in the walls of the Grand Canyon the descending Christsopher million and Canyon de Chelly Brichite underground in minds and inside the body the sound of brick is like a rough edge saw working through crumbling clay the orangey redness feels rough as it turns into different sunset shades on the mountain the job of the brick colored red Mountain is to color shift for drivers as they head east on the 202 just before dusk the brick color petrified wood sticks out in our yard a remnant of nature stolen from his home in the national Park .brick wants to be restored to its natural place in the world of sediment lay down by the rivers and seas sweet is the taste of brick as it melts in watery droplets after a rain close-up bricks smells as if it was freshly placed there over the centuries . N came together in the January 1903 McClure’s, a truly extraordinary issue containing three powerful exposes: Lincoln Steffens on the corrupt mayor of Minneapolis, Ray Stannard Baker on misbehavior in the nascent labor movement, and the first installment of what is justly revered as one of the greatest feats of investigative reporting ever, Ida Tarbell’s mammoth inquisition into rapacious business practices by John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust.
It took eight long years, but Tarbell’s chapter-and-verse reporting served as a guide for a federal government lawsuit to break up the trust. The suit finally broke through Rockefeller’s legions of lawyers and political supporters to win at the Supreme Court.
By that time, however, the magazine had collapsed, in part because of McClure’s moods and unpredictable rages at the staff, and his insistence that the poetry editor publish submissions by a young woman with whom he had had an affair.the scent of smoky dust stays with me as I walk forward speak up and sit beside me bricks as touch me and I will glow the secret of the color brick is that I am fragile well I also appear strong.
Gila River reflections December 20, 2011
Gila reflections
By Candace S. Hughes
“Water and birds have played a significant role in the daily life of the people of the Gila River Indian Community. While the Gila River flowed free, these lands were rich and fertile. Channels were hand dug throughout the entire community. Today, electric pumps bring up ground water for the farms. There are several ‘swimming holes’ throughout the community that serve as recreation centers. The irrigation ditches are now concrete.”
Anne Powers-Pedro (wife of artist Amil Pedro) Statement at entrance to
Memories from the Gila River exhibit
“Chain of Spires Along the Gila River” and “Basin of the Rio Gila,” both painted in 1855
and now hanging in the Phoenix Art Museum, show different perspectives of the
waterway which once flowed continuously from New Mexico through Arizona to the
Colorado River.
With the building of Coolidge Dam on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, water was
diverted to central Arizona farmland. The lush areas with wildlife, Native Americans and
settlers have changed to dry banks devoid of vegetation and birds.
Only occasionally does the river flow and only after heavy rains. Sometimes the water
remains in puddles for awhile, but most of the year the riverbed is dry.
Few are now living who remember the flowing river, however stories remain.
Following a tradition of passing along cultural values, Sacaton Middle School students
and their teacher, Amil Pedro, are displaying art and tools at the Scottsdale Center for the
Arts.
A group of eighth graders carried on the practice of creating headdresses, guided by
Pedro, but they weren’t the large Plains Indians war bonnets seen in movies. These are
smaller creations of turkey feathers in the custom used by Native peoples from the Gila
River area.
The work was done at Sacaton Middle School under a grant from the Center for the Arts
paying Pedro, and is part of a decade-long focus of community outreach activities by the
center.
The introduction to the exhibit hall displaying the art and tools provides the explanation
that the Gila River no longer flows freely and many of the indigenous birds which would
have provided feathers have left the area.
“This river served as a lifeline that linked the Gila River Indian Community, which is
composed of two tribes: the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee-Posh (Maricopa). Today
these tribes live together as one community, each maintaining their own distinct
traditions,” the exhibit materials explain to visitors from outside the area.
Pedro was raised in District 7 on the west side of the Gila River Reservation near 83rd
Avenue and West Baseline Road and has never seen a continuously free-flowing Gila,
but has witnessed the Salt River running after rainfall.
“Our cultural tradition is that the Gila was a free flowing river and I’ve heard they had a
lot of wild birds and even geese, golden and bald eagles and blue herons as well as
beaver, turtles and fish,” Pedro said.
The headdresses in the exhibit are the type that would have been made from the feathers
of these wild birds who had nests along the river, he explained.
The seven students whose work is at the center are: Melissa Blackwater, Heidi Howard,
Lorena Clashin, Joshua Mejia, Rainee Juan, Daylene Whittaker and Kelly Morris. All
attended the opening except for one who was performing in a dance group that evening.
“Helping the youth of Sacaton Middle School to hold onto their traditions by learning to
make their own headdresses” is one of the highlights of his career, Pedro said.
Arts are encouraged for all youth to promote self-esteem and to encourage young people
to stay in school and with the artist residency program the additional goal is to help
preserve Native American cultural heritage.
Pedro, who lives in the foothills of Casa Grande Mountain, is of Quechan and
Maricopa/Cahuilla ancestry.
“When they saw the students’ completed project this year the center thought it would be a
good idea to spotlight him and the different things he has taught at the school,” said Anne
Powers-Pedro, Amil Pedro’s wife. The exhibit is dedicated to her for support of his
artwork.
“Honor the Past – Develop the Future” is the theme of his art, which includes decorated
gourds and walking sticks, arrows, a knife and ancient tools including an atlatl.
“They were kind of afraid to put the headdresses together at first, but after they got
started, and saw each was a little different, they were happy about their results. They used
their own technique and it was their own creation,” Pedro explained.
The students met three times weekly for a month, he added. Their work may be shown on
the reservation and at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort when the Center for the Arts
exhibit is taken down.
Three Sacaton Middle School teachers attended the April opening and supported the
project. They are Toni Allen, social studies; Barbara Snyder, reading; and Joe Ellen
Kinnamon, physical education.
“For about 10 years Barbara and I have been the “teacher coordinators on our staff who
have been involved in scheduling Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts events for
our school,” said Allen, of Casa Grande.
The project is starting its 29th year and helped students learn to set a goal, work steadily
towards it and not give up when it got difficult, she added.
“They learned about some of the ways their ancestors appreciated art and brought it into
everyday lives.
“Then, public events such as the opening challenged them to stand up in front of
strangers and speak – totally impromptu and they did rise to the occasion!” she added.
“They got to socialize in a kind of upscale setting,” Allen continued.
The teachers know art education is valuable, she explained.
Pedro’s calling as an artist came early. His first memory of art was drawing on his
bedroom wall, followed by scolding and a reminder not to do this in the future. He then
took his art to the rafters where no one could view the results.
More successful attempts brought rewards of arts supplies and boxes of food when he
entered reservation art shows.
Although while he was at Sherman Institute in California he was told he didn’t have the
talent to attend art school in Santa Fe, he feels this was an event which gave him the
motivation to develop his own style and practice his skills.
He entered South Mountain art shows starting at age 14 and moved to art events in
Scottsdale at the Safari hotel and other locations as well as Cahokia art show in East St.
Louis where he won first prize in 1999 for an atlatl (a spear throwing device).
Pedro worked restoring Arizona state buildings for 20 years before retiring 10 years ago.
He was in the Arizona State Employees Art League and displayed at the state Capitol
during that time. This work has resulted in receiving the State of Arizona’s Governor’s
Award of Excellence on two occasions.
His art now may be seen in Arizona state offices as well as tribal buildings, banks and
credit unions in the United States and Canada. Through a cultural exchange, Pedro’s
work is on permanent display in Russia.
In addition, he has demonstrated flint knapping at the Museum of Man in San Diego, and
has received the Arizona Indian Living treasure Award at the Museum of Northern
Some of his work includes illustrations for a series of Maricopa County Parks and
Recreation Department pamphlets as well as work in a children’s storybook for the
Phoenix Indian Center.
Amil works out of his home studio now and has collectors regularly requesting walking
sticks, which start at about $45 and go up depending on the size. “People bring him
saguaro ribs they’ve collected on the reservation,” Anne Pedro-Powers said.
“People buy one thing and come back and buy another thing from him. He gets to know a
lot of people and does a lot of custom work,” she added. He regularly shows work at the
Huhugam Heritage Center adjacent to Sheraton Wild Horse
Pass Resort, the Gila River Indian Arts and Crafts Center, the Chandler Indian Market,
the Heard Museum Indian Market, and the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological
Park in Phoenix where he teaches a gourd workshop.
And as for the Gila River, it occasionally comes back to life, but has the additional
dangers of groundwater pumping and gravel pits close to its banks. The paintings in the
Western wing of the Phoenix Art Museum remind all of what once was, what we have to
value, what has been lost and how memories can be restored through the work of artists.
30
Cultural Connections at the Middle School level addresses the Cultural Connections program goals of racial, socio-economic, gender and multi-cultural tolerance and understanding through exposing a target group of 7th and 8th graders to arts education they would not otherwise receive, as well as measuring the impact this exposure has on these students academically, emotionally and socially. Theater, world music, movement and visual arts are presented in 5- 7 week residencies during the course of the school year, accompanied by field trips to the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts to attend school performances.
Salt River Pima-Maricopa and Gila River Indian Communities have been a focus for the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts’ community outreach initiatives for more than a decade. Artists conduct long-term residency programs at Salt River Elementary School, Salt River High School and Sacaton Middle School, teaching photography, storytelling, songwriting, beadwork, pottery, music and dance. Artist-in-residency programs have been highly effective tools for encouraging youth to stay in school and for building self-esteem, while also preserving their cultural heritage. For many of these children, working with artists has offered an important outlet for expressing deep emotions, discovering positive energy within themselves, and developing hope for the future.
Sail on Dolly Steamboat for fun and sun December 17, 2011
Sail on Dolly Steamboat for fun and sun
Just about anyone can go on Dolly Steamboat. From wheelchair users to hikers – all can see the petrified wood and other wonders of Canyon Lake from the shaded boat.
And don’t let the captain’s most favorite tune – the theme from “Titanic” – bother you. The boat has a backup generator and plenty of life jackets.
There also is a double deck with some shaded tables and a snack bar. Bring binoculars since there are occasional sightings of bighorn sheep and bald eagles.
“The boat provides access to anyone from a baby to age 105,” says
Jeff Grimh of Apache Junction. He operates the business with his sister Cindi Busboom of Mesa.
They are celebrating 21 years of running the business they are continuing for their father, Roger Grimh.
“People who are handicapped can come on and we provide awesome views of the canyon and wildlife. Just the other day we saw bald eagles and on occasion we see them scooping fish. We see bighorn sheep on a routine basis.
“That’s what we do. We take people and out there and our goal is to come and experience nature and by the time we’re finished they’re awestruck,” he adds.
The boat takes visitors close to petrified wood deposits on the secluded inner waterways where close-up photos of nature are encouraged. Part of the fun is looking for rock formations that may resemble ET or elephants.
Cruisers look for stars while dining
The dinner cruises extend the usual 90-minute time period to about two and one-half hours on a 14-mile roundtrip. Monthly star nights feature an astronomer to narrate the cruise.
“We have a slow ride and we see more going at that speed than anybody else on the lake. You can relax and take the hustle and bustle out of life.
Jeff, whose children are graduates of Desert Vista Elementary School’s Ridgewalkers hiking club, continues to help hot and tired walkers celebrate by giving them a boat ride as they arrive from a 10-mile hike starting at First Water trailhead near the Apache Trail.
The boat features double diesel John Deere engines and is a replica of a 103-foot sternwheeler from America’s riverboat days.
“Our business dropped a little in 2000, but since then it’s steady. I get to pilot a boat on the most beautiful lake in the state instead of driving to Mesa or Phoenix for work,” he quipped.
Canyon Lake activities
Fun fact:
Songs played during a typical Dolly Steamboat ride: “Theme from Titanic,” “Hello Dolly” and “Sail Away.” There is a 12.5 KW generator for auxiliary power.
Who: Owned by Capt. Jeff Grimh of Apache Junction and Cindi Busboom of Mesa
What: 40-ton 103-foot long Dolly Steamboat constructed at the lake in 1983 and is 18.5 feet wide and 31 feet high. She holds 155 passengers and is powered by twin 225HP John Deere diesel engines.
When: 90-minute nature cruises noon daily. Closed Mondays in the summer. Additional times in fall, winter and spring. Reservations at 480-827-9144.
Where: Canyon Lake. Take U.S. 60 to Apache Junction, turn north on Idaho Road and follow to Arizona 88 or Apache Trail, travel 16 miles northeast on the paved roadway. Just past the second one-lane bridge, turn left.
Why: Nature, astronomy and dinner cruises. Charters available for weddings and other events.
Tickets: Adults $18, Children 5-12 $10.50, 4 and under free. Dinner cruises are two and one-half hours. Adults $51.95 and children 5-12 $33.95. Cash and checks only. Call for times.
Web site: http://www.dollysteamboat.com
More Canyon Lake activities:
Kayaking 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at Canyon Lake Marina, $10 per hour for single kayak, $15 per hour for double, must be 21 to rent a kayak. Other boats also are available for rent. For more information, call 480-288-9233 or e-mail: info@canyonlakemarina.com. There also is a campground near the marina and reservations may be made by calling the marina. In addition, Lakeside Restaurant and Cantina is near the dock.
Oujournalist's Blog 