USDA Opens New Southwest Watershed Research Center Facility in Tucson: 15,650 Square Feet in Partnership with the University of Arizona
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on October 27 that a new research facility for the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, has officially opened. The 15,650-square-foot building, developed in partnership with the University of Arizona, provides laboratory and collaboration space for the center's research on soil and water resources in arid and semiarid regions.
Established in 1961 and headquartered in Tucson, the Southwest Watershed Research Center runs its outdoor laboratory at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed near Tombstone, where measurements began in 1953. It is the most densely instrumented long-term semiarid experimental watershed in the world: 97 rain gauges record precipitation at one-minute intervals, and nine small flumes and ten large flumes measure runoff, producing decades of long-term data that support hydrologic research across tens of thousands of ungauged watersheds in the western United States.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and ARS Administrator Joon Park attended the opening. The department said the new building will support the center's collaborative research with partners including the University of Arizona, covering the water cycle, soil erosion and watershed management in semiarid lands, with results serving farmers, ranchers and land-management agencies.
The center's research also extends to the San Pedro River Basin in southeastern Arizona and the University of Arizona's Santa Rita Experimental Range, and it is part of USDA's Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network. Its mission is to develop knowledge and technology for sound management of water, plants and soil in semiarid regions.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：亚利桑那州索诺拉沙漠牧场（Ironwood Forest 国家纪念地，Tucson 西北）。美国土地管理局亚利桑那州办公室（BLMArizona）发布，公共领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Sonoran Desert rangeland at Ironwood Forest National Monument, northwest of Tucson, Arizona. By BLMArizona, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
