Presentation by Tom Mackin, Friends of Northern Arizona Forests

Thursday, February 7th, 6:00PM – 7:30PM

Montoya Community Center, 245 N Thorpe Rd.

With high elevation comes snowy winters in the Flagstaff area. Locals enjoy cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and quite walks among ponderosa pine and the occasional gambel oak. 

With snowy winters comes plastic sleds. Unfortunately, these disposable, flimsy sheets of plastic which bring so much joy to their users for one day often end up as broken bits of litter in our forests.

Flagstaff residents have taken action to address the mess.

The Friends of Northern Arizona Forests (FoNAF) is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to assisting the resource management agencies in maintaining, protecting, and restoring the natural and cultural resources and the scenic beauty of our forest lands for the enjoyment and use of present and future generations. FoNAF assists the Forest Service and other agencies on tasks that these agencies do not have the staff or funds to accomplish.

On Thursday, February 7th we will hear from Tom Mackin, FoNAF Board President. Tom is a retired Technical Specialist with the Coconino County Sheriff’s/Flagstaff Police Department who has spent over 35 years volunteering with various agencies.

Tom will share FoNAF’s successes over the years and help members learn how to get more involved with their projects, from sled cleanups to fencing projects and more. 

Please join us on Thursday, January 3rd for our annual potluck! Meet members of the Board (if you haven’t already) and learn about our 2018 achievements. In addition, the City of Flagstaff Water Conservation Program will provide an introduction to their current strategic planning process.

We will also host elections for Board of Directors. Vote online now  or in person at the potluck. 

Bring a friend and your favorite dish to share in this year’s feast!

We’re Hiring a Watershed Group Coordinator!

The Friends of the Rio de Flag is hiring a Watershed Group Coordinator who will: 1) lead in the development of a Watershed Group composed of a diversity of community stakeholders, and; 2) write a watershed restoration plan for the Rio de Flag river. In addition, the Coordinator will conduct public outreach and education throughout the watershed planning process to ensure that the watershed restoration plan (“the Plan”) captures the local community’s vision for watershed restoration. The Coordinator will work closely with a facilitation team and other partners to organize and carry out stakeholder interviews, watershed group development, and public meetings. Insights from these interviews and meetings will be used by the Coordinator to write a watershed restoration plan for the Rio de Flag. The Coordinator will augment the plan with reference to relevant reports and planning documents.

This is a part-time position. A full position description is available here.

Those interested in applying should send a resume, cover letter, writing sample, and two references to Chelsea Silva at deflagrio@gmail.com. Please state: Watershed Group Coordinator in the subject line. Application deadline January 31st, 2019. Interviews will take place during February 2019. Position start date: ~ March 1st, 2019.

Qualified individuals with disabilities and those from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals upon request.

The Friends of the Rio is a small, nonprofit organization that works to protect, restore, clean up, and improve theRio de Flag stream and its tributaries in order to maximize their beauty, educational, recreational, and natural resource values, including the riparian habitats they provide.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors last year, Friends of the Rio de Flag -FoRio- raised matching funds that allowed Chelsea Silva to serve for a second year as a VISTA member engaged in wide range of Rio de Flag issues, including educating elementary school students using the Rio de Flag as an outdoor classroom. Remarkably, she also made time to serve as our unpaid Executive Director, which has benefited us immensely.

One of her great accomplishments has been a successful application for a WaterSMART Grant from the Bureau of Reclamation. This summer, we learned that FoRio’s application received a very high score and has been selected for a $100K grant to work with the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County, and other stakeholders to develop a Rio de Flag Watershed Plan. 

This is fabulous news, but…there is lots of work to do and a short deadline to complete the requirements to actually receive this grant. We are to develop a detailed system for complying with all federal grant administration requirements including how we will ensure that our subcontractors’ financial management systems adhere to Bureau of Reclamation terms and conditions. We’ll also need to conduct the search for an employee to manage the grant for the next two years.

This is a huge task and we’ll need Chelsea’s continued dedication to be sure we receive the final go-ahead with this funding. We can’t ask Chelsea to take on all this additional work without compensation. 

FoRio Board members have already donated $2,500. Please help us to match this with another $2,500 to pay Chelsea for the many hours of work necessary to ensure we get the final approval for funding. 

Tax-deductible donations can be made through PayPal by clicking the DONATE button at the top right corner of our website. Every dollar helps!

Or put a check in the mail to:

Friends of the Rio de Flag

PO Box 151

Flagstaff, AZ 86002

Friends of the Rio de Flag is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to protect, restore, clean up and improve the Rio de Flag and its tributaries to maximize their beauty, educational, recreational and natural resource values, including the riparian habitats they provide. 

Friday, December 7th: Mountain Sports Gives 10% to Friends of the Rio de Flag

Need to pick up some outdoorsy holiday gifts? Make sure your gift counts! Save your purchases for December 7th (First Friday) at Mountain Sports when the shop gives 10% of sales to Friends of the Rio.

We will have Arizona-themed Christmas ornament making, mulled wine and hot cocoa, and a “Tour de Rio” through photography from 6-8pm.

The Friends of the Rio de Flag is a nonprofit that works to protect and restore the Rio de Flag for the benefit of Flagstaff.

Support your river and shop with us on December 7th!

Mountain Sports is located at 24 N San Francisco Street in downtown Flagstaff.

Do you use the FUTS along the Rio de Flag? Please take this 2-minute survey to help a group of NAU students collect data about your thoughts and experiences for a class project!

Visitors enjoy a relaxing day at Frances Short Pond. Photo courteous of Tom Bean Photography. Click on the photo to be redirected to the survey.

Wet/Dry Mapping and Recreation along the Rio

Flow Monitoring Crew poses at Frances Short Pond before heading out to collect data along the Rio de Flag on May 19th, 2018.

When: Thursday, November 1st, 6:00p-7:30pm

Where: Joe Montoya Communter Center, 245 N Thorpe Road

Friends of the Rio has been lucky to mentor several interns and NAU student-led projects in 2018.

Join us on Thursday to hear from these individuals. John Leary, NAU Masters in Environmental Sciences & Policy student, will share his work on wet/dry mapping of the Rio de Flag. John helped developed protocol for wet/dry mapping in Flagstaff and worked closely with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to organize a citizen science event that engaged volunteers in collecting data along the Rio. John will share maps and camera footage that help us better understand flow regimes of the Rio de Flag.

We will also hear from Casey Langstroth, Victoria Hess, and Ryan Turley, three NAU undergraduate students who worked as a team to collect observational user data on two segments of the Rio de Flag. The intent of their project was to document how many users use the FUTS trails during sample periods.

Please join us this week to hear about the great work being done by these NAU students.

Public Meeting: What’s Up with the Friends of the Rio?

Attendees at a workshop focused on stormwater in the Southside Neighborhood discuss the future of the Rio de Flag in their neighborhood with City staff. The meeting was co-hosted by the City of Flagstaff and Friends of the Rio de Flag.

What: Public Meeting

Where: Montoya Community Center, 245 N. Thorpe Road

When: Thursday, October 4th, 6:00-7:30pm

Friends of the Rio de Flag has been busy over the last year. Join us October 4th to learn more about where we are at and where we are headed.

Last fall, the Friends received and EPA Environmental Justice Small grant aimed at building partnerships and gathering information in the Southside Neighborhood where the Rio de Flag and localized flooding have caused issues for generations.

As our EPA grant wraps up, we are preparing to receive a WaterSMART Cooperative Watershed Management grant from the Bureau of Reclamation. The WaterSMART grant will help us gather input from key stakeholders and the public for a watershed restoration plan.

Join us to learn about these projects and how you can be involved moving forward! Presenters include Chelsea Silva and Matt Muchna.

Rio de Flag Cleanup and Mini-Citizen Science Workshop

The Rio de Flag is Flagstaff’s river. Like many rivers and streams in the Southwest, “the Rio” appears as a dry wash for most of the year. But when winter storms roll through Flag, and monsoon seasons pick up, the Rio flows through town and makes its way to San Francisco Wash, a tributary to the Little Colorado River.

We will host a Rio de Flag cleanup event and mini-citizen science workshop as part of Colorado River Days (bring your smart phone!).

Time and Date: The citizen science workshop will be held on Tuesday, September 25th from 4:00PM – 6:00PM. The cleanup will follow and we will wrap up by 6PM.

Location: Meet at Willow Bend Environmental Education Center at 703 E. Sawmill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (additional parking available at police station east of the center).

Note: Please dress for weather. Long pants and close-toed shoes recommended. Bring a smart phone and a water bottle. Gloves, trash bags, and trash grabbers will be available for use. Please follow instructions to download and install the Arizona Water Watch phone app prior to the event: http://azdeq.gov/arizona-water-watch-mobile-app.

Contact Chelsea Silva at deflagrio@gmail.com to RSVP.

Hike through the Southside with Mayor Coral Evans

Thursday, September 20th, 5:30pm-7:30pm

Mayor Coral Evans will walk us through the Southside Neighborhood to discuss the history of flooding in the neighborhood and potential solutions to address the issue. Mayor Evans is a third generation Southside resident who has lived and experienced the challenges of flooding in her community. We hope you can make it to this informative hike!

Meet at the northwest corner of Phoenix Avenue and Beaver Street.