Once dry and desolate, this riverbed in southern Arizona has been given new life.

“The idea of bringing water back to the Santa Cruz River for Tucsonans has been around for about 100 years. That's when the Santa Cruz River stopped flowing because of overpumping of the aquifer here in Tucson for the agriculture that was going on here in the early 1900s,” John Kmiec, the interim director of Tucson Water, said.

Here in the desert, every drop of water counts.

“South of where we’re standing, this is what the Santa Cruz looked like…it’s dry. It's been like that since the 1920s almost continuously. It only responds for rain,” he explained. “If you want to see abundant life in the desert, just add water, and it's amazing what happens after that.”

So that’s what Tucson water did back in the summer of 2019 – by putting water back where it used to be as part of the Santa Cruz River Heritage Project.

“This is highly treated effluent from our regional wastewater treatment plant,” Kmiec explained. “Our daily flow right now is about 1,500 gallons per minute.”

“We had more than 400 people at about 110 degrees down in this riverbed when we turned this outfall on,” he explained.

The recycled water runs 24/7 into where the Santa Cruz River used to run, attracting people above and wildlife below.

“Just about every desert creature you can think of, you see down here,” Kmiec said.

It’s the sounds of this ecosystem that show the success of the project. Keeping track of the biodiversity here is part of researcher Michael Bogan’s job.

“This is basically how we collect it from the river,” Michael Bogan, assistant professor of aquatic ecology at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, said.

“So we need to preserve them in ethanol and bring them back to the lab.”

Bogan said he noticed wildlife return right after the water was turned on.

“I immediately noticed dragonflies who had obviously flown in from some other water body somewhere in Tucson, golf course, pond, something like that. Flown in and not only had they found this brand new water that was only a few hours old, but they were already mating and laying eggs in the water. To me that was like seeing the birth of an ecosystem,” he said.

So his team, along with other groups, are keeping track of the species coming in.

“In most places because of either drought, climate change and drought that we’re in or because of human water withdrawals from dams or diversions, most places are drying up. So most of what we study is what happens when the water goes away. This is totally the opposite,” Bogan said.

“It’s a relatively small amount of water, yet it has a huge positive impact.”

Kmiec said the Santa Cruz River Heritage Project shows how to use water in a sustainable way to bring life back to the area for wildlife and for people.

“We see it as one of many. So we’re looking at other opportunities,” he said.

“We’ve done a lot of damage to the ecosystems so this is an example of trying to undo some of that damage,” Bogan said.

GLENCOE, IL — To protect native plant and animal life sometimes requires sustained human intervention. Once brought into the U.S. for its hardiness, the introduction of European buckthorn is out-competing native life across the country.

At the edge of a lagoon in the dead of winter, a group of about two dozen volunteers is braving the icy conditions to save the local ecosystem.

“We're clearing out invasive species with the goal of making room for native species, which are better for the environment overall, but particularly for the amphibians,” said Maggie Cooper, the coordinator of conservation action at Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium.

Cooper is leading the expedition of volunteers focused in part on the resilient and difficult to destroy invasive European buckthorn.

It was introduced into the U.S. as a means for fence farming and for medicinal purposes more than 200 hundred years ago. It’s an aggressive plant that can soak up precious resources and outcompete native plants.

“If you see a stand of buckthorn and you look at the forest floor, you're not going to see anything else growing up. You're only going to see buckthorn growing in that area,” said Cooper.

The plant also emits a toxin called ‘Emodin’ that can kill or suppress the growth of native vegetation.

“Emodin seeps into the soil and we know how amphibians breathe, sometimes they draw in nutrients and their skin,” said Cooper. “And it's known that amphibians will bring that toxin into their body as well. And that can affect their life cycle, especially in the early stages.”

Conservationists have been battling the invader for decades.

It’s now spread across much of the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western U.S. with some of the most affected states including Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York.

Equipped with loppers and hand saws, the team will clear out as much of the intrusive shrubs and trees as possible.

Stubs are treated with an insecticide to prevent regrowth. Everything is immediately burned.

“If we couldn't have fires, this wouldn't be half as much fun. Not that I'm a pyromaniac or anything, but you know it warms you up,” said Dan Goodwin.

Goodwin has been volunteering with the conservation action group for more than five years.

“From here to the clearing over there [that] edge is two years’ worth of Saturdays and Wednesdays, so you can have an impact,” he said.

Cooper says despite the gains, the work must be constantly ongoing.

“If we just stopped what we were doing, buckthorn is going to come back in,” she said. “So, we need to continue this fight. We need to be out here year after year, month after month.”

It’s an investment of time and labor to protect native wildlife for years to come.