Year-round, Sedona allures newcomers to its core, and like a box of chocolates it offers assorted treats of picturesque views. Recognizing the value of Sedona to its residents and visitors, the Red Rock Ranger District is looking to preserve the natural treasures of the Coconino National Forest for future generations.

The district intends to do just that through the Oak Creek Watershed Project.

The project is multifaceted and intended to improve aspects of the Oak Creek Watershed, such as water quality, wildlife and native plant species habitat, riparian function, soil condition, roadways and more throughout the upper, middle and lower Oak Creek Watershed.

“A lot of us who live here and recreate here value Oak Creek for the recreation opportunity, but also for its role here in our natural environment,” Red Rock District Ranger Nicole Branton said. “I think we all want clean water, so there’s the resource benefit of [the project] and the recreation benefit to it. Whether that is for tourists or for locals, it’s those opportunities where we see people recreate already to make that a better recreation experience, a cleaner recreation experience.”

The project is also not a one-man show, and is made conceivable through collaborations with the Oak Creek Watershed Council, the Northern Arizona Forest Fund — National Forest Foundation, the Arizona Department of Transportation, Red Rock Ranger District personnel and several other helping hands.

Environmental Review

Additionally, as part of the project, the Red Rock Ranger District is conducting a review under the National Environmental Policy Act for the project’s proposed activities. The NEPA analysis can be one of the determining factors in the implementation of the project’s proposed activities.

Environmental review under NEPA can entail three levels: Categorical exclusion determination, environmental assessment/finding of no significant impact and environmental impact statement. These steps include, among other requirements, a summary of the project, its purpose, environmental consequences — if any — and more. 

There are nine proposed activities to the project. Some activities include toilet installations in several areas and pet waste stations near perennial water and trailheads, mitigating unauthorized trails to improve habitat for wildlife and more. 

Amenia Sena, a board member on the Oak Creek Watershed Council and hyrdologist for the Red Rock Ranger District, noted that activities such as pet waste stations and toilet installations can improve water quality in terms of E. coli.

“What ended up in this document is all important work,” Sena said. “They focus on different things, some are maybe an additional toilet. Now that’s going to directly improve water quality in terms of E. coli and E. coli is a coliform [bacteria] that our Oak Creek is listed as not attaining water quality standards because we have too much of this coliform. So, those projects specifically that are tied to reducing E. coli will hopefully improve water quality, but all of the projects generally improve water quality, watershed conditions as well as wildlife habitat.” 

Perennial Parking Problems

Addressing informal parking along State Route 89A in Oak Creek Canyon has also made its way onto the project’s proposed activities list. The Red Rock Ranger District has been working hand in hand with ADOT on activities regarding parking and transportation.

“People will cram their cars into places where they can fit on the side of the road, and I guess feel like they’re safe, but those really are not safe places to have people walking up the highway or trying to drop down into the creek from right off the side of the road so they don’t have to walk on the highway,” Branton said. “We are looking at those locations that we can physically block off so that they don’t invite people pulling over to park on the side of the road while still leaving adequate space for if someone has vehicle problems they can pull over safely without blocking traffic, or so that ADOT has adequate space to clear snow.”

The Oak Creek Watershed project targets numerous aspects of community life, and the Red Rock Ranger District encourages the community to voice their opinions on the project. Comments can be sent by email, mail or in person at the Red Rock Ranger District Office. The deadline for community comments is Jan. 22.

A public meeting on the watershed was held Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Yavapai College Sedona Center.

Once the project completes the stages of analysis and community input, it will be ready to implement. However, Branton noted that these activities will not
occur overnight and will need local support to lift off the ground and take flight.

“There is a mix of different implementation pieces within this analysis. When we’ve completed this analysis, whatever the decision is, we would have the ability to implement that,” Branton said. “We will certainly be looking for partners to help us implement those. Decommissioning the social trails and things like, that’s some amount of just physical labor that we could always use volunteers for and look for partners to help us with. The projects that are larger infrastructure type projects, like installing toilets, take more funding and a lot more coordination to do. It will certainly take time to implement them.”

Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126 or mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com