1. What is a ‘watershed’?
An area of land where all of the water in it drains to the same place.
Think of a watershed like a big sink. The water from the higher areas drains to the lowest point which is usually a creek or river.
Do you live in a watershed? Yes! Everyone lives in a watershed.
We are a part of several watersheds.

2. The Cienega Watershed
The black line is the boundary of the Cienega Watershed. The rain that falls within the boundary drains into Cienega Creek.

3. The Cienega Watershed
Here is another map of the Cienega Watershed, this time the boundary is outlined in yellow.
Source: PAG

4. The Cienega watershed
Contains five of the rarest habitat types in the American Southwest
Cienegas (marshlands)
Cottonwood-willow riparian forests
Sacaton grasslands
Mesquite bosques, and
Semi-desert grasslands
Cienega Creek is one of the few remaining perennial streams in Arizona, providing critical habitat for wildlife, especially Threatened and Endangered species
Historically important ranching operations
Important sites for cultural/archaeological resources
LCNCA managed by the Bureau of Land Management
What is the significance of the Cienega Watershed?

5. Wildlife habitat cottonwood-willow riparian semi-desert grasslands
sacaton grasslands
cienega wetlands
Much of the land in the Cienega watershed has been officially protected. The protected area is called the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area and it is a special place.
Las Cienegas features 5 of the Southwest’s rarest vegetation communities; these support over 230 species of birds, 60 mammals, 43 herps, 3 native fish.
Especially key in our arid southwest are LC’s ~20 miles of riparian habitat, ~8 of which support perennial surface water.
The high quality grassland watershed is rare and valuable in ts own right, but also is key to sustaining flows in the creek. This includes both the upland grass communities and this special “sacaton flat” floodplain grass community.
© Harold E Malde
mesquite bosque

6. Natural Resource Values
Lesser long-
nosed bat
Southwestern
willow flycatcher
Natural Resource Values
Western yellow-
billed cuckoo 1
Chiricahua
leopard frog 2 3
Gila topminnow 4
Note to teachers: The text below gives more background about the threatened and endangered species.
You can use this slide to test the students’ familiarity with these species that are found in the watershed. Click on the blue boxes to move them and reveal the critter’s label.
LCNCA Site hosts six federally listed species (pictured), plus 26 other special status plant and animal species (includes 2 T&E candidate spp, 26 BLM sensitive spp list.
topminnow, garter snake and cuckoo in particular have experienced dramatic declines in range and number in recent decades; for each of these, LC supports one of the best remaining populations in the US.
These drawings are from Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, These species, are a symbol of how we’re really all in this together, all jurisdictions have to work together to protect and manage intact, functional landscapes. You’ll see this tomorrow at the landscape overview site, efforts to preserve connectivity.
Pima County’s efforts have made the work at Las Cienegas more valuable, made it a centerpiece of a whole society’s attempts to retain the natural character of their homeland as our towns and cities grow. 6
Huachuca water umbel 5
Mexican garter snake 7
Gila chub 8
images courtesy of Pima County, SDCP