Freshwater

When most people think of a desert they think of searing heat, thorny plants, and parched terrains. But here in the Sonoran Desert, rivers, and their green ribbons of riparian habitat, are integral to the landscape and critical to life-whether water flows year-round or only during downpours, or even if it courses unseen beneath the surface.

Today, southwestern riparian habitats comprise less than one percent of the region's total area, yet nearly 80 percent of our wildlife species depend upon them for food, water, shelter or migration at some point during their life.