As part of our Earth Day celebration this past Saturday, we adopted a technique from Brad Lancaster’s book, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Vol. 2. The focus of the project is to redirect rainwater into an area where it is challenging for vegetation to become established – the hillslope below Willow Bend and Sawmill Park. The slope faces south, is fairly steep, and has many areas of disturbed and bare soil, and some invasive weed problems. With a grant from the Arizona Forestry Division’s 
Community Challenge Grant Program with funds from the USDA Forest Service, we started this work and expect to continue in small, manageable sections.
We chose an area near the southwest corner of our building where we already have some small rainwater collection barrels. These barrels frequently overflow in heavy precipitation events and it is 
the overflow that we aim to capture and redirect. We are fortunate for the hard work of the volunteer crew from the American Conservation Experience that completed the digging and leveling, while friend and volunteer Norm Lowe has been working on the piping, and others helped move woodchip mulch into the terrace.
Towar
d the end of our rainy season we will select trees and shrubs to plant in the new terrace. We will create some shade, healthy soil and improve the habitat before moving on to another section.
Please drop by to take a look and gather ideas for how something similar could be used to capture rainwater at your home or neighborhood to rejuvenate areas with a drink of free water.