Water resource education conducted through the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension is currently provided by six water resource education specialists as well as a whole host of other individuals who teach water resource education indirectly as a part of their programs. In July 2001, each of the six educators was asked to report on their water resource activities, as well as the water related activities of the counties closest to them.

This report is the resulting assessment of the water resource education programs being conducted by or in conjunction with Cooperative Extension in Arizona. Water quantity and/or quality issues affect every county and every person in Arizona. The education programs outlined in this report cover water resources in a broad sense, ranging from water quality to water supplies, from irrigation to conservation and beyond.

The Cooperative Extension County Offices provide education outreach in proximity to the people that they serve. This allows them to experience and understand the issues of importance first hand. The reader will find unique programs, which have been developed to address specific county needs, outlined in this report.

In Yavapai County, Cooperative Extension has developed a water testing and education program, which has identified six areas within the county experiencing increasing nitrate trends. In a County experiencing rapid growth and increasing water supply demands, this program has opened up conversations between private well owners and local governmental agencies.

Innovative teaching tools facilitate an understanding of new concepts for adults and youth. In primarily rural Mohave County, a septic tank model has been engineered to teach septic tank owners about proper design, operation, and maintenance. In addition, a Bureau of Reclamation grant allowed for the production of simplified groundwater flow models to be given to classroom teachers participating in water education workshops.

In Cochise County, a dual approach to water conservation has been taken with the Water Wise Program. For the community, the audit/outreach program has shown that direct one-on-one contact is what produces water conservation behavior. Within the schools, the Water Wise program, in its first year of operation, has students focusing on water conservation in twelve of the thirteen targeted district and county schools.

Cooperative Extension has created an Adopt-A-Watershed program, which uses a local watershed as the living laboratory for making science directly applicable and relevant to student's lives in twelve school districts in Navajo County. A Master Watershed Stewardship Program is being developed in Yavapai County to provide a local/regional, volunteer, citizen-component to assist Cooperative Extension in providing accurate insight, distributing information, and increasing local public involvement on watershed issues.

By working in conjunction with the Cooperative Extension, Water Education workshops for teachers and educators have been offered this year in more counties than ever before. The Cooperative Extension County Network is an invaluable resource for education outreach programs that seek to target the whole state.

In recent years a number of watershed groups have been formed in rural portions of Arizona as a result of the need to address specific water-related issues. These watershed groups, which are often facilitated by county extension people, are outlined at the end of the county by county assessments.

This report provides an overview of water resource education programs statewide as well as valuable contact and resource information. The University of Arizona’s Cooperative Extension is a unique network of education programs and trained educators.