Friends of the San Pedro River

Help me. I've fallen and I can't get up!

That's how I've felt since meeting some of these people last Saturday, and sharing their passion for the outdoors, conservation, wildlife, etc. Bill has been a passionate photographer and has posted his photographs on the Tucson Hiking Group forum. His photographs have an artistic flair to them whereas I have more of a photojournalistic slant to mine. Mitch is a Sierra Club hike leader and a country rock musician whose band plays all over the Tucson and Green Valley area...the passions are endless. I have no doubt that we all will meet again soon.

But the one person whose passion has stricken my own is Mike. We have been communicating via email about more trips into Mexico since we met a few days ago. As an active member of the Friends of the San Pedro River, a non-prof, all-volunteer organization headquartered just up the road from us, he travels into Mexico on a regular basis for research and data collection. His next jaunt is in early December, to the headwaters of the San Pedro River and the Big Lakes west of Naco.

Funny, how, now that I recall, I have written quite a bit about the San Pedro River. I enjoy walking along its banks to listen to the birds, looking at the plants, collecting immigrant trash (@#%&$!!!!) and just enjoying the serenity of the place. The dogs, of course, enjoy the cool water and sniffing the smells along the trampled-down grasses.

Many of my Master Gardener (MG) friends are also members of this organization. The MGs also work a lot with the Friends (and the Bureau of Land Management, BLM). Our interest is of course the protection and promotion of native plant species.

I will join Mike and a few others in a few weeks for another trip into Mexico, toward Cananea and the San Pedro headwaters. It will only be a daytrip but we will be back at dusk. I can help with any of the research he needs help with and I know I will be helping out with great gusto. In the end the results will be the same: the protection and conservation of a fragile ecosystem known locally as the San Pedro River.

I told Kevin this morning that I will join the Friends. He didn't roll his eyes or sigh in disgust. Surprisingly he supported me. "That's the kind of stuff you enjoy" and if there's one thing that is Kevin's strong point--and one of three major reasons I fell in love with him--is his respect for my hobbies and interests. He may not share all my passions but at least he doesn't go around berating me or making fun of me. He is adamantly opposed to any trips for any reason into Mexico but he's not stopping me from going. ("I can tell you not to go and you're going to go anyway..." he's said a few times. He's absolutely correct!)

I got on the website and right away was drawn to a 34-minute video of the native plants of the San Pedro River.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4136545609981352801&q=san+pedro+plants&ei=aFkfSOjsOI3sqgPUr_nCAQ&hl=en
http://www.sanpedroriver.org/

Joining an organization is a bit intimidating because there's always time involved. I haven't done much with the Garden Club only because they are active on weekends when I want to go outside and play. But their interests parallel my own and those of several other local organizations.

I have a feeling I will be traveling into Mexico more often now. Next year is going to open up a whole new arena for me for which I have been passively working toward all this year (and I didn't even know it!)