Wickenburg Arizona is a community tucked in the heart of the fragile Sonoran Desert. It is a family friendly environment where equestrian, mountain biking, hiking and off-roading are fun and exciting. Wickenburg Conservation Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to keep Wickenburg's recreational areas clean and safe for visitors through its educational and clean and beautiful programs. For more information visit wickenburgtrails.org
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The following portion of the Arizona Daily Mix is sponsored by Wickenburg Conservation
00:06 Foundation.
00:07 Keeping our state beautiful is everyone's responsibility and we are so honored to have
00:13 Jeanette Lair here to talk about Wickenburg and their clean and beautiful committee.
00:20 Thank you so much for being here Jeanette.
00:22 Oh, thanks for having us.
00:23 We're really excited.
00:24 Absolutely.
00:25 So I was saying before that I actually have not been to Wickenburg.
00:29 So can you tell me a little bit about you guys and what makes you so special?
00:32 Yeah, you should come and visit.
00:33 So Wickenburg is a rural town, very western, and it's set in the heart of the Sonoran Desert.
00:40 So it's a really special place.
00:42 We're lucky that we have water in the desert, which is always fun, but we have the Hacienda
00:47 River, so we have an area called the Box Canyon, and it's the Box Canyon-Hacienda River Corridor
00:54 where we have water running through, lots of public lands for equestrian, off-roading,
00:59 biking, mountain biking, hikers.
01:03 So our goal as a committee is to try to keep those areas clean so they're safe for people
01:08 to come and visit and provide a really great atmosphere for them.
01:12 It sounds like an incredible area to go to visit and an incredible area to live.
01:18 And you live in Wickenburg, is that correct?
01:19 We do, yeah, I do.
01:21 It is a beautiful city.
01:22 We absolutely love this city.
01:25 So tell me a little bit about the actionable steps that you're doing in the committee to
01:29 make this a reality.
01:31 I know you have your pack in, pack out.
01:33 Tell me about some of the things that you're doing.
01:35 Well Wickenburg Conservation Foundation, we're celebrating our 25th anniversary this year.
01:40 Congratulations.
01:41 And under that brand, we also have the Wickenburg Clean and Beautiful, and we have a desert awareness
01:46 program.
01:47 So Wickenburg Clean and Beautiful works with the community through volunteers, 100% volunteers.
01:53 We have monthly cleanups of areas that tend to get trash in them, but we've come a long
01:58 way education-wise by the desert awareness program in educating youth and adults on keeping
02:05 the area clean and taking responsibility for our public lands.
02:09 So we have ambassadors that work at that trailhead on Saturdays and Sundays, and they hand out
02:15 bags for trash and encourage people to pack it in, pack it out.
02:20 They just do a phenomenal job doing that.
02:22 Absolutely.
02:23 And then our child programs, we go into the schools, and we go into the community center
02:28 and teach adults, and we teach them all different areas of the Sonoran Desert.
02:32 So we do water, groundwater, animals, plants, cacti.
02:38 You really cover the gamut of all the things.
02:43 Leave no trace in the trash.
02:46 And then another thing we've been able to do is the Box Canyon during COVID got pretty
02:49 bad.
02:50 Oh no.
02:51 So that's really when we kind of kicked up that, and we got a big dumpster outside of
02:55 that trailhead.
02:56 There's over 60,000 people a year that use that corridor, so with off-road vehicles,
03:02 hikers, and equestrian.
03:04 So it's really popular.
03:05 So we put a big dumpster out there, and now we have much more trash going into the dumpster
03:11 than on the trails.
03:12 In fact, last year we had 60,000 pounds go into the dumpster.
03:16 Oh my goodness.
03:17 No, I'm sorry, 20,000 pounds go into the dumpster.
03:20 That is incredible.
03:21 Yeah, and then volunteers did another 3,000 pounds of trash.
03:24 So it's really cleaned it all up.
03:26 It's gorgeous.
03:27 And if you think about that amount of trash that went into the dumpster that was cleaned
03:31 up by your volunteers, can you imagine that being out on those public lands if that dumpster
03:36 wasn't there?
03:37 Right, exactly.
03:38 That's incredible.
03:39 And now that's done so well, and people are doing so great that we've moved into other
03:44 recreational areas within Wickenburg, too.
03:47 So we're able to spend our efforts there, too.
03:50 And it's really made a huge difference.
03:52 Well, I have to just point out that I absolutely love what you're wearing today.
03:56 You look great.
03:57 I love the jewelry.
03:58 Oh, thanks.
03:59 Is that something that is the kind of style that people will see when they come out to
04:03 Wickenburg, that very Western, very old Arizona feel?
04:06 It very much is.
04:07 I have a lot of turquoise from my family that's always lived in Arizona, and I didn't wear
04:12 it a lot, but there I do.
04:14 So it is very much a Western town.
04:17 It's got a great Western feel.
04:18 We have a beautiful museum.
04:19 We have lots of restaurants and gorgeous hiking trails.
04:24 So there's several different hiking areas and off-road vehicle areas.
04:27 That's great.
04:28 It's beautiful.
04:29 And what about the Mesquite Festival that's coming up?
04:31 Oh, yeah.
04:32 April 20th.
04:33 That's part of our Desert Awareness Program.
04:36 And that will be held at the Ahasienpa Preserve, and it's free to people.
04:40 And it teaches you all about the mesquite tree, the beans that are on it, how you can
04:44 make flour out of them.
04:46 They have samplings and tastings, and it's really a fun class to go to.
04:51 And we do other ones, too.
04:52 Oh, absolutely.
04:53 How great.
04:54 So you are out making the community look beautiful, cleaner, and you're educating everybody about
05:00 how gorgeous our desert is and all of the amazing things that we have here.
05:04 We are.
05:05 It takes a community effort.
05:07 It's great.
05:08 It's a whole bunch of people working behind the scenes.
05:10 Absolutely.
05:11 Jeanette, thank you so much for telling us all about that today.
05:13 And the information was there on your screen if you want to get involved, if you want to
05:15 learn more, you can go check that out.
05:18 Thank you again.
05:19 Yes.
05:20 Thank you.
05:21 Thank you for having me.
05:22 All right, guys.
05:23 After the break, Teresa is giving us a look at what's happening out at the Phoenix Raceway,
05:24 so make sure you come on back.
05:35 The preceding portion of the Arizona Daily Mix was sponsored by Wickenburg Conservation
05:39 Foundation.
05:39 Thank you.
05:40 Thank you.
05:40 Thank you.
05:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]