A planting project to cultivate bare, unsightly patches of ground in Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Ariz., is integrated learning at its best.

The learners are myriad: University of Arizona students and faculty; Nogales residents, teachers and schoolchildren; participating businesspeople, professionals and organizations; and those who will pursue such endeavors in the future and benefit from this project's discoveries.

"It will take a lot to restore the past 30 years of environmental degradation in Ambos Nogales. This community has experienced exponential population growth and the associated effects of this have depleted the ecological resources of Nogales," says UA student Alba Jaramillo in her paper, "Maquiladoras Revegetating Ambos Nogales."

Establishing trees, grasses, and other plants is just the beginning, though the environmental benefits alone -- including beautification, air- and water-quality improvement, and erosion prevention -- might well justify the effort.

But plants aren't the only things growing in this truly integrated project. Relationships are also being nurtured between U.S. and Mexican organizations and among students, teachers, community members, businesses, and others. Together, these collaborators are learning not just about ecology, water conservation, and gardening, but also about geography and culture, community organization, project design, personal motivation, business principles and much more.

"The maquiladora (factory) program along Mexico's northern border has attracted hundreds of thousands of migrant workers," says Jaramillo. Ambos Nogales is home to over 90 maquiladoras. The ... urban sprawl ... has resulted in a massive deforestation of the area ....

"The maquiladoras' revegetation programs are a step forward in alleviating the deforestation problem. ... Maquiladoras are participating in revegetation projects through community outreach, environmental education, and political action," continues Jaramillo. "Maquiladoras are the economic lifeblood of the city, they have political power, and their efforts can lead to a healthier environment."

Sticking together
Coordinating the Ambos Nogales Revegetation Project is Diane Austin of the UA Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. Austin specializes in participatory research. The Ambos Nogales project is based on a methodology she devised incorporating professionals, community leaders and residents, and university, high school, and elementary faculty and students.

The project grew from a spring 2001 assessment of the potential for revegetation as a solution to air-quality problems in and around Nogales, Austin explains. "The idea for the assessment came from Michele Kimpel-Guzman at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality," she says. "Community partners helped locate three pilot demonstration sites in Nogales, Sonora": Escuela Covarrubias, an elementary school; CETis 128, a high school; and Jardines del Bosque, a neighborhood park.

From the UA, nine undergraduates and four graduate students began this experiment in "international collaborative research" during the fall 2001 semester. The students worked in one of four groups, three groups representing the sites and a fourth group responsible for community education and outreach. The UA students were the glue that held the project together, Austin says, citing the urgent need to coordinate the complex interests and diverse individuals involved. Austin assigned research and documentation responsibilities to the students, who also "cultivated relationships among the project participants, arranged transportation and logistics, developed project plans, and did soil and vegetation experiments."

UA student Clint Carroll documented the role UA students played in the project in his research paper, "An Evaluation of Community Response in the Ambos Nogales Revegetation Project." Students observed participants, designed questionnaires and conducted long interviews to garner information. "Long interviews served as the best way to get valuable information." noted Carroll. "The UA students ... became known as the guides, motivators, and organizers of the project. ... When asked about how useful the UA students were in the process, one respondent stated that their mere presence was enough to motivate the group,"

Covarrubias: A work in progress
Last fall, Escuela Covarrubias parents, teachers and students began working with UA students and Water Resources Research Center staff to develop a schoolyard garden. Before a single plant could be placed in the ground, there was much to learn, starting with assessment of the existing site and continuing with workshops on native ecology and water harvesting. In October, project participants visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum west of Tucson, where they learned about basic revegetation principles and the relationships of native plants and animals. Later the same day, the group visited Terra-Cycle Tech (a soil-recycling farm north of Nogales).

In mid-November, recalls Carroll, a group of parents, teachers and UA students had purchased some 70 plants at local nurseries, though few were native to the area. The next day, "consisted of tilling, planting, picking up trash, and the installation of the pilot water-harvesting system," said Carroll.

Later that week, project representatives toured three Tucson elementary schools where schoolyard habitats -- maintained by pupils -- are flourishing.

"The tour provided examples of possible designs, and the aesthetic qualities increased the motivation of the Covarrubias group. ... The result of every activity was increased participation from children, teachers, and parents alike," Carroll says.

CETis 128: Seeds of progress
The CETis 128 Ecology Club spearheaded establishment of a nursery at the high school (whose full name is Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos industrial y de servicios No. 128). Club members met weekly with UA students, organizing ecology and composting workshops, installing and evaluating three types of compost bins, visiting Mexican nurseries, gathering seeds, obtaining and germinating tree seedlings, making seed balls, and investigating native and nonnative grasses.

In her paper "The Availability of Trees, Grasses, and Seeds in Nogales and Surrounding Areas," UA student Kaylene Day noted the scarcity of native plants and seeds in the Nogales region. "The Mexican federal government has taken an active role in attempting to remedy this. …" she noted in her research paper. "… [Government] nurseries … grow plants to be ... distributed to the general public free of charge. ... There are a number of nurseries on the U.S. side of the border that carry native trees. ... so that in the future obtaining native plants will be easier and less expensive for residents of Nogales."

Jardines del Bosque: Emerging leaders
Residents of the Colonia Jardines del Bosque area worked with students from the UA and the Instituto Tecnológico de Nogales to revegetate their neighborhood park, building a fence, installing compost bins and drip irrigation, selecting plants, and developing a children's native grass and wildflower plot.

"There ... (were) difficulties when defining the community; determining and evaluating the motivations of the individual actors involved; and understanding relationships of power.... Organization was informal and involvement was based solely on personal interest ... ." observed UA student Nick Kawa in his paper "Urban Community-Based Conservation."

"Although we did not want to force responsibility upon residents, we hoped that leaders would emerge. ... Fortunately, a small group of active participants finally formed and their efforts enabled the project to make forward progress. ... It is important to remember ... that personal motives are a part of any project. As researchers and students we have our own personal motivations for working. In Jardines del Bosque I hoped to acquire experience in the field as well as practice with the Spanish language. My partners in the project had other motivations for doing the work.. ... We hope to use Jardines del Bosque as a model for future revegetation projects. This project has taught us that there are many elements necessary to a successful project; above all else, community interest and dedication," says Kawa.

Education and Outreach
"The project continues to grow and expand," says Austin, the project coordinator. "We have incorporated new schools and have much more active participation from a group of ITN students," who, she says, helped develop an environmental-awareness program for children, created three gardens and a nursery at ITN and assisted with planting in the San Jorge neighborhood. In addition: UA students, after interviewing numerous maquila managers and employees, selected Weiser Lock as a pilot site for a maquila revegetation project. Project participants will investigate sources of native seeds, determine which species of grass is most effective against soil erosion, and conduct additional research at existing sites as well as several new ones. "We will continue to have at least two UA students attached to each project during its first year," says Austin.

To meet the increased demand for education and outreach, project partners will organize workshops on topics such as water harvesting, drip irrigation, composting, ecology, environmental history, and others. UA students and faculty will be recruited from various disciplines. Student participation will be through "individual internships tailored to their expertise" and through "specialized courses and seminars," Austin says. Anthropology and media-arts students will work on a video documentary of the project, and engineering students may help design an irrigation system and particulate monitor.

"There is no single project but rather there are myriad activities for which the partnership provides a forum for planning and getting access to expertise and resources," says Austin, "Collaboration has been the central feature of this effort from the start."