Can Arizona citizens use the tools of Democracy to preserve the state’s dwindling water?
High Country News, July 6 2022
“in areas not regulated by an AMA — including the Douglas and Willcox basins — there is no oversight of groundwater use. That’s what the Water Defenders hope to change this November. (The Douglas Basin is designated as an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, but it doesn't regulate the amount water that can be used; it only prohibits new land from being irrigated.)
In the summer of 2021, the Water Defenders — which Ash Dahlke, the group's chair, described as a ‘pretty scrappy group’ that includes ‘a lot of teachers and librarians’ — began the process of collecting signatures. The support of 10% of the basin’s registered voters is needed to put the creation of an AMA on the ballot.
‘People agree we need something,’ said Bekah Wilce, the Water Defenders’ treasurer. Wilce is optimistic that the group’s ‘hard work on the ground of talking to people’ will pay off. ‘People didn’t know this was possible,’ she said, but ‘they understand its importance.’”
High Country News, July 6 2022
“in areas not regulated by an AMA — including the Douglas and Willcox basins — there is no oversight of groundwater use. That’s what the Water Defenders hope to change this November. (The Douglas Basin is designated as an Irrigation Non-Expansion Area, but it doesn't regulate the amount water that can be used; it only prohibits new land from being irrigated.)
In the summer of 2021, the Water Defenders — which Ash Dahlke, the group's chair, described as a ‘pretty scrappy group’ that includes ‘a lot of teachers and librarians’ — began the process of collecting signatures. The support of 10% of the basin’s registered voters is needed to put the creation of an AMA on the ballot.
‘People agree we need something,’ said Bekah Wilce, the Water Defenders’ treasurer. Wilce is optimistic that the group’s ‘hard work on the ground of talking to people’ will pay off. ‘People didn’t know this was possible,’ she said, but ‘they understand its importance.’”
Caroline Eaton Tracey writes about the environment, migration, and the arts in the US Southwest, Mexico, and their borderlands. She speaks and works in English, Spanish, and Russian. Her first book, SALT LAKES, will be published by W.W. Norton.
Caroline’s reporting appears in the New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books, High Country News, and elsewhere, as well as in Spanish in Mexico’s Nexos.
In 2022 she was awarded the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing and in 2023 she received Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Fellowship in Journalism and Human and Civil Rights and a Silvers Foundation Work-in-Progress grant. In 2024, she received an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.
Caroline holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives with her wife, Mexican architect and sculptor Mariana GJP, between Tucson, Arizona and Mexico City.
She is represented by Bridget Matzie of Aevitas Creative Management.
Caroline’s reporting appears in the New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books, High Country News, and elsewhere, as well as in Spanish in Mexico’s Nexos.
In 2022 she was awarded the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing and in 2023 she received Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Fellowship in Journalism and Human and Civil Rights and a Silvers Foundation Work-in-Progress grant. In 2024, she received an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.
Caroline holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives with her wife, Mexican architect and sculptor Mariana GJP, between Tucson, Arizona and Mexico City.
She is represented by Bridget Matzie of Aevitas Creative Management.
Caroline Eaton Tracey escribe sobre el medioambiente, la migración, el arte y la literatura en México, el Suroeste de Estados Unidos y su frontera. Habla ingles, español y ruso. Su primer libro, SALT LAKES, será publicado bajo el sello de la editorial W.W. Norton.
Sus artículos aparecen en The New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books y High Country News entre otros lugares. En español escribe frecuentemente para la revista Nexos.
En 2022 ganó el Premio Waterston por Escritura del Desierto y en 2023 recibió la beca Ira A. Lipman de periodismo de derechos humanos y civiles de Columbia University y una beca de la Fundación Silvers. En 2024, recibió una beca para escritura sobre el arte de la fundación Andy Warhol.
Caroline es Doctora en Geografía de la Universidad de California–Berkeley. Vive con su esposa, la arquitecta y escultora mexicana Mariana GJP, entre Tucson, Arizona y la Ciudad de México.
La representa Bridget Matzie de la agencia literaria Aevitas Creative Management.
Sus artículos aparecen en The New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books y High Country News entre otros lugares. En español escribe frecuentemente para la revista Nexos.
En 2022 ganó el Premio Waterston por Escritura del Desierto y en 2023 recibió la beca Ira A. Lipman de periodismo de derechos humanos y civiles de Columbia University y una beca de la Fundación Silvers. En 2024, recibió una beca para escritura sobre el arte de la fundación Andy Warhol.
Caroline es Doctora en Geografía de la Universidad de California–Berkeley. Vive con su esposa, la arquitecta y escultora mexicana Mariana GJP, entre Tucson, Arizona y la Ciudad de México.
La representa Bridget Matzie de la agencia literaria Aevitas Creative Management.