By Denise Meeks Rather than using Arizona’s valuable groundwater for irrigation, the Desert Museum keeps its flora thriving by recycling its wastewater, about 3,000,000 gallons annually. The water, used by our visitors and in our deer and bighorn sheep enclosures, begins its recycling adventure by flowing through sewer pipes into clarification tanks, and ends its…
Tag: nature
Mapping Tumamoc Hill
By Aaryn Olsson Sometimes you’ve got to do it the hard way in order to do it the easy way later. This winter we’re mapping buffelgrass on Tumamoc Hill the hard way by walking 50 miles back and forth across its volcanic slopes in a tight grid pattern. While many Tucsonans hike the zigzagging road…
2022 In Review
As we kick off 2023, we’d like to take some time to reflect on key highlights from the past year. The Desert Museum is working to sustain the incredible biodiversity of The Sonoran Desert by slowing the spread of invasive buffelgrass, discovering the hidden worlds of our native bee pollinators, exploring arid-adapted foods, saving rare…
Transplanting 101: How To Install Potted Plants In Your Southern Arizona Garden
So you’ve purchased a plant from our Fall Plant Sale. What happens next?
Pop the champagne, it’s time for RAIN!
Herpetofauna awaken with the rainy season An Arizona summer is dry. It’s hot. There’s not a drop of moisture in the air. Life is seemingly absent at first glance as humans are indoors while the wildlife is underground or minimally active in cool shady hideouts. The desert is one of the harshest climates to live in,…
The Pollinator Party
National Pollinator Week, June 20-26, is a time to celebrate and BEE excited about the amazing work of pollinators! Join the festivities at our annual Party with Pollinators (Cool Summer Nights) evening this Saturday, June 25. We will have special pollinator themed activities and learning opportunities. Pollinator Week was developed to support pollinator health and…
Desert Museum Herbarium Digitized and Registered
by John F. Wiens, Massimo Boscolo Did you know that the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has a herbarium? A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens that are organized, databased, and safely stored for the purpose of scientific research and education. Botanists, ecologists, ethnobotanists, and plant enthusiasts in the general public may consult herbariums to…
Charismatic Cacti Giants
We like big cacti and we cannot lie! The saguaro cactus occupies an undeniable place of prestige among the people in this region, no doubt due to its impressive size, charming shapes, and abundant distribution within its range (not to mention its extensive reproduction in art, film, and pop culture). We totally get it. We…
Desert Biota in a Changing Climate
Katie Predick, Conservation Research and Education Department Earth Day is a time to celebrate the fascinating, biodiverse, resilient nature all around us. And while it’s essential to appreciate and celebrate the unique nature of the Sonoran Desert and beyond, every Earth Day that passes without significant climate or environmental action brings us closer to the…
Save a Saguaro! Tucson Community Fights Buffelgrass
After University of Arizona Journalism student Hannah Cree attended the Save Our Saguaros Month Kickoff event to investigate the Tucson community’s efforts against the invasive species buffelgrass, we invited her to share the resulting story here on the Desert Diaries blog. Thank you to Hannah! By Hannah Cree with photos by Desert Museum staff It’s…
Desert Diaries 