Menlo Borderlands - Sustainability - Southern Arizona

By Parker and Aaliyah, To start the day off, we met with Scott Warren, who was the subject of a documentary we studied before coming to Southern Arizona. We asked many questions about the current and past border situation, talking a lot about the humanitarian aid provided to immigrants and how the environment had been negatively affected by the construction of the wall. To start, we learned about the great amount of water pumped from the nearby environment and how it negatively affected its surroundings. Additionally, we talked about how the wall prevented the migration of not only animals, but also humans, who have migrated for thousands of years to meet their needs.  Next, we were lucky enough to enjoy a delicious brunch at the inn, having the luxury of trying Mimi's famous potatoes. Continuing to enjoy the company of Scott Warren, we devoured our flamboyant brunches, finishing every crumb on our plates. After brunch, many filming groups were grateful to be able to conduct an int

  Hello My Friends, Today we embarked on a journey from Patagonia to Ajo. It was an eventful trip with a lot of fun adventures and lots of singing featuring the new hit band out of Patagonia, The 5 Cubs. Additionally, we completed the song ( all the verses) of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." We took a stop in Tucson at a local market, The Mercado, where we enjoyed the local treats. The rest of the trip to Ajo through the immense Sonoran Desert was also filled with singing, fun conversations, and bonding between the group. When we arrived in Ajo, we stationed ourselves in the Sonoran Desert Inn, run by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA). The inn is stationed in an old abandoned school that was renovated into the only non-profit hotel in the country. The high school was made into apartments for artists to live and work in. We met Crystal, who is of both Mexican and Tohono o' Odham heritage, and Jay, who is Caucasian and from the midwest. They explained that

 By Willis and Max: Today we walked down to Patagonia's youth enrichment center which helps support the local community of 800 people. We witnessed their conservations efforts to capture rainwater during their monsoon season. The way that they captured is by collecting water in the gutters placed onto the roof, then letting them flow through a pipe that was approximately 4 inches higher than the cistern. This allows enough water pressure to push the rainwater into the tanks. The tanks had a T-pipe for over flow, the water can flows to another pipe leading to a rock basin, that waters a tree which will grow to shade the cistern in turn keeping it cool and able to last longer.  We helped build a rock lined basin to improve irrigation into their fruit garden and prevent erosion. In addition the rock basin allows water to go into the ground instead of being evaporated. The group laid down a liner and stacked rocks  to complete the rock basin. In addition, we added an extra cistern whic