Some people think Tucson is for the birds, or should be.
The Audubon Society wants Tucson to be dotted with multistoried vegetation and striped with riparian ribbons of green so that its members can get their feather fix without venturing too far — and so that we all can experience a greater variety of early morning chirps.
This whole xeriscape thing has gone too far, say the bird lovers. Birds can’t nest or rest or hide from their predators in decomposed granite. The sameness of our vegetation is producing a boring bird mix.
Destruction of washes has also taken its toll, said Paul Green, Tucson Audubon executive director. He is working with the city to protect native vegetation in washes and gearing up for the big water fights of the future over guaranteeing wash flow in the few remaining riparian areas of Pima County.
The need is evidenced in the Audubon Society’s yearly bird counts. Coveys of quail ring the city in doughnut fashion but have disappeared from its center. The same is true for bright red cardinals and those darker cardinal-looking birds, the phainopepla. Their numbers have also decreased dramatically.
Meanwhile, the rock doves, house sparrows, starlings, grackles and pigeons — and the hawks that find them to be tasty treats — thrive in our artificial deserts.
It’s a matter of habitat.
“We think of it in terms of buildings and streets, landscape and houses, but the city is habitat, and it could be better,” said Kendall Kroesen, the Audubon Society’s restoration program manager.
Different species have specific needs, said Kroesen. Some birds need old trees with notches and nooks for nesting, some need ground cover, some nest high in trees and some lower down in shrubs.
“When the habitat gets simplified,” he said, “these birds get landscaped out.”
Eventually, said Green, the Audubon Society wants to sprinkle the city with demonstration gardens like the one it recently installed at its own headquarters.
There, staffers and volunteers raised walking paths and lowered plant beds to direct runoff from the roof to the trees and plants on the front and side of space it rents at the Historic YWCA.
Bird habitat needs water, but most of it can be provided naturally, said Kroesen. Studies done by rainwater harvesting guru Brad Lancaster show that 80 percent of Tucson’s outdoor water use could be supplied by our infrequent rains. It’s simply a question of directing rainwater where it’s needed, or catching it from rooftops in cisterns.
The Audubon Society’s garden isn’t capturing rainwater yet and uses drip irrigation, but it’s not on a timer. Kroesen said the simple act of turning irrigation on and off resupplies a connection between humans and habitat, and ensures that water isn’t wasted on rainy days.
The society’s other big push is to undertake more riparian restoration like the project it is heading in a local wash, in conjunction with the city and the Groves Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association.
The Atturbury Wash site is a great place for public outreach, Green said. It is close to the high school and to Pima Community College’s east campus.
The neighborhood association has been caring for the site and helping interpret it for years.
The Arizona Water Protection Fund recently awarded the Audubon Society a $390,000 grant to further public education there and to restore and protect vegetation along the wash in the 55-acre Atturbury Bird and Animal Sanctuary, part of the city’s Lincoln Regional Park.
Green said interpretation and education is the big goal of the society’s push for urban bird habitat. Eventually, he would like to see the yards of Tucson homes filled with Audubon Society certified habitat.
The society is working with landscapers to develop a set of guidelines and an educational program for habitat that brings back the birds.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.