El Vado New Hope

This transformative project involves converting an old baseball park into stormwater harvesting basins that now sustain a thriving Food Forest for community use, featuring a diverse range of harvestable foods from the region. These include traditional items like prickly pear, cholla fruit, palo verde seeds, Ironwood flowers and seeds, mesquite pods, wolfberry, desert grapes, figs, membrillo (quince fruit), pomegranate, and desert herbs. The planted trees and vegetation provide essential shade, enhancing the overall environmental impact. Categorized into arid desert plants, mesquite bosque plants, and Mission Era-introduced desert-adapted plants, the Food Forest incorporates quad-lingual informational signs in O’odham, Yoeme, Spanish, and English for inclusivity and education. The project's success involved FEMA approval for hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, removing 8.5 acres from the floodplain. The second phase focused on Green Infrastructure Stormwater Harvesting basins, reducing localized flooding and heat stress. Project enhancements include a decomposed granite pathway, benches, a picnic table, and various construction and landscaping elements, contributing to the comprehensive project plan. .