Friends of the Verde River is a Cottonwood-based nonprofit that strives to protect one of the area’s most precious natural resources: the Verde River. The organization has many different programs, but one of the newer offerings is its River Friendly Living Program. Developed in 2020 and launched on Oct. 13, 2021, the program is intended to help local residents, businesses and governments conserve water. River Friendly Living has four principles: sustainable water supply, clean water, healthy uplands and riparian forests and connected and supportive communities. The program has nearly 150 different partners. The organization intends to award 33 project grants and will be distributing about $96,000 to support those projects in 2025.
“The River Friendly Living Program at its core is a certification program. It’s designed to inspire a culture of voluntary river conservation at our homes and businesses,” says Isaac Dudley, the flows program manager of Friends of the Verde River. He manages the River Friendly Living Program.
Here are some examples of how the program works: For individual homeowners, the program has projects that help with water efficiency. Friends of the Verde River has helped fund projects that reduce the amount of groundwater people are using for landscaping and instead allows them to use rain as a resource. The nonprofit also aids in greywater – gently used water from sinks, showers, tubs and washing machines – reuse projects. Greywater can be used to water gardens. On the business level, the organization focuses on commercial retrofit projects. This includes working with Local First Arizona and Ecoblue to do water audits for businesses. Those projects help identify how businesses can save water by implementing changes like low water use toilets, shower heads and sink sprayers. Friends of the Verde River also helps support those eco-friendly changes via its grant program. Participating in the program can help homeowners save money and the environment too. “This is just a great way to support the overall health of the Verde River and Oak Creek and all of our tributaries,” says Isaac. − Teresa K. Traverse
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