The River Came Back. Sixty-Five Dragonfly Species Noticed First.
Free guided dragonfly tours on the Santa Cruz River run Sept. 20 and 26, 2026, closing a month-long festival for a Tucson river that flows again.
Tucson Water started putting treated water into a dry channel in 2019. A University of Arizona ecologist counted seven dragonfly species on day one. The Sonoran Institute now runs a month of free events around what followed.
On the first day Tucson Water put water back into the Santa Cruz River, a University of Arizona aquatic ecologist named Michael Bogan walked down to the channel and counted seven species of dragonflies and damselflies already working it. That was 2019. Groundwater pumping had dried this reach in the 1940s, and for most of seventy years it was sand with a bike path on the bank. An outfall a quarter mile south of West Starr Pass Boulevard returns up to 2.8 million gallons of treated recycled water a day. The festival running through September 30 is about what happened next.
- Sept. 30
- Last day of the 2026 Dragonfly Festival
- 65
- Dragonfly and damselfly species known on the Santa Cruz — about half of Arizona's
- 2.8 million
- Gallons of treated recycled water returned to the channel daily
- Sept. 20 & 26
- The two guided-tour mornings left on the calendar
Forty Species in Ten Months, Sixty-Five Today
Ten months in, Bogan's team had found more than 40 species on a reach that had held none — the count you would expect from a river wet for decades. Their 2020 paper also tallied more than 150 kinds of aquatic insects in the river's northern reaches below the wastewater plants north of town. By 2024 Bogan put the Santa Cruz total at 65 known species of dragonflies and damselflies, roughly half of everything recorded in Arizona, eight or nine of them migrants that pass through without breeding. Nothing was seeded or stocked. They flew in once there was water to fly to.
What Is Left on the Calendar
The Sonoran Institute runs it with Pima County's flood control, wastewater, conservation and library departments, Tucson Water, Marana Parks and Recreation, Mission Garden and the university's School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Almost all of it is free, and the two guided-tour mornings left are September 20 and 26. The exception is Sonoran Sashay, a ticketed 21-and-over cabaret at Hotel Congress Plaza on September 19, whose published start times disagree — check first. Two things need no registration at all: library branches are handing out make-your-own-dragonfly kits while supplies last, and the BioBlitz will take an iNaturalist photo from anyone who walks the bank.
The Tours Are the Part Worth Planning Around
Registration is required, bilingual tours are offered, and the Pima County morning splits across several meeting points. What they share is the Chuck Huckelberry Loop — roughly 140 miles of paved shared-use path — which means you can reach them without a car if you already live near the bank.
- Downtown Tucson (Heritage reach, Streetcar, On The Loop): The wet stretch below the Starr Pass outfall is what most people mean when they say the river came back. It runs beside the west-side path and under the Congress and Cushing Street bridges, minutes from the streetcar's western end.
- Mission Garden (946 W. Mission Lane, Free, Wed-Sun): At the foot of Sentinel Peak, open Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon through September and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. from October, free with donations suggested. The September 26 session walks its irrigation acequias and ends with dragonfly art, materials provided.
- El Rio Preserve, Marana (104 acres, 260+ bird species, 1.2-mile loop): At 10190 N. Coachline Blvd., a riparian basin beside the river with a 1.2-mile gravel loop, shaded ramadas and an accessible observation platform. It sits on The Loop, which is why it works as a neighborhood park for Continental Ranch as much as a birding site.
- Santa Cruz County (Sept. 20, Separate date, 9:30 a.m. to noon): The upstream tour is its own morning near Tumacacori and Nogales, an hour south on I-19 — different date, different registration, and a reminder that Tucson's reach is the tail end of a system starting below Green Valley.
Quick reference (September 12, 2026): the Santa Cruz River Dragonfly Festival runs September 1-30, 2026. Remaining events: "Order Up! Skimmers" webinar Sept. 16, 7-8 p.m.; family nature exploration Sept. 19, 9-10:30 a.m.; Sonoran Sashay (21+, ticketed) Sept. 19 at Hotel Congress Plaza; Santa Cruz County guided tour Sept. 20, 9:30 a.m.-noon; Pima County guided tours Sept. 26, 9 a.m.-noon; Mission Garden family dragonfly art Sept. 26, 8:30-10:30 a.m. All free except Sonoran Sashay. Tours require registration at sonoraninstitute.org. Schedules, times and meeting points change — confirm before you go.
A Wet Channel Redraws Which Side of Town Has a Waterfront
What a buyer can take from a bug festival is a map correction. For decades the Santa Cruz was the edge of the west side rather than a feature of it, a dry gap you crossed on a bridge. Seven years of flow has turned the channel between Starr Pass and downtown into a green corridor with a paved path on it, and Menlo Park and the Mercado District, which face it, had their front-door geography change without a lot moving.
The same holds up the valley in Marana at El Rio Preserve, 104 riparian acres on The Loop off Coachline Boulevard. These are the amenities a listing photograph cannot show and a Saturday of open houses will not surface, because they sit three hundred yards off the property rather than on it. A free guided walk is a cheap way to learn whether that distance reads as close to you, and whether a river on a pump schedule still feels like one.
Sources
Sonoran Institute — "Santa Cruz River Dragonfly Festival" (2026 schedule) — sonoraninstitute.org/events/scrdf26 — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the September 1-30, 2026 run; the "Order Up! Skimmers" webinar with Jeff Babson on September 16 from 7 to 8 p.m.; the September 19 family nature exploration from 9 to 10:30 a.m. with Pima County Conservation Lands and Resources; Sonoran Sashay on September 19 at Hotel Congress Plaza as a ticketed 21-and-over event; the Santa Cruz County guided tour on September 20 from 9:30 a.m. to noon; the Pima County guided tours on September 26 from 9 a.m. to noon with registration required and bilingual tours available; the Mission Garden family dragonfly activities and art on September 26 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.; the make-your-own-dragonfly kits at Pima County Libraries while supplies last; the month-long BioBlitz; the events being free; and the sponsor list including the Pima County Regional Flood Control District, Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department, Pima County Conservation Lands and Resources, Pima County Libraries, Sonoran Institute, Town of Marana Parks and Recreation, Tucson Water, Mission Garden and the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resources and the Environment). City of Tucson (Tucson Water) — "The Santa Cruz River Heritage Project" — tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Water/Community-Relations/The-Santa-Cruz-River-Heritage-Project — accessed September 12, 2026 (for up to 2.8 million gallons of treated recycled water released daily, the 3,150 acre-feet per year figure, the outfall approximately one-quarter mile south of West Starr Pass Boulevard, and the perennial flow the project is intended to create). University of Arizona News — "Just Add Water: Biodiversity Resurgence in Effluent-Fed Desert Riverbeds" published September 16, 2020 — news.arizona.edu/news/just-add-water-biodiversity-resurgence-effluent-fed-desert-riverbeds — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the seven dragonfly and damselfly species observed on the first day of releases; the more than 40 species found after ten months, comparable to a long-flowing site; the more than 150 kinds of aquatic insects in the northern reaches below the two wastewater treatment plants north of Tucson; Michael Bogan's title as assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment; and the river having run dry roughly seventy years earlier). Arizona Public Media — "Dragonfly Festival honors Tucson's Santa Cruz River restoration" published September 27, 2024 — news.azpm.org/p/newsc/2024/9/27/222000-dragonfly-festival-honors-tucsons-santa-cruz-river-restoration — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the 65 known species of dragonflies and damselflies on the Santa Cruz River, roughly half of all species recorded in Arizona; the eight to nine migratory species that do not breed here; Michael Bogan as a University of Arizona aquatic ecologist; and the ecological recovery dating to the 2019 start of Tucson Water's releases). Mission Garden — "Visit" — missiongarden.org/visit — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the address at 946 W. Mission Lane, the Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule of 8 a.m. to noon April through September and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. October through March, and free entry with donations appreciated). Discover Marana (Town of Marana) — "El Rio Preserve" — discovermarana.org/directory/el-rio-preserve — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the 104-acre riparian habitat at 10190 N. Coachline Blvd., the more than 260 bird species recorded there, the 1.2-mile gravel loop trail, the shaded ramadas, interpretive signage and accessible observation platform, and the preserve's location on The Loop). Pima County — "The Chuck Huckelberry Loop" — pima.gov/162/The-Chuck-Huckelberry-Loop — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the approximately 140 miles of paved shared-use path connecting river parks, washes and greenways across Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, Tucson and South Tucson). This Is Tucson / Arizona Daily Star — "Events happening in Tucson during September 2026" — tucson.com/thisistucson/todo/article_2401b07e-dd6f-4ac9-9347-91274ceeadb0.html — accessed September 12, 2026 (for the Sonoran Sashay listing at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., with published times differing from the organizer's). All details are current as of September 12, 2026; festival schedules, meeting points, registration requirements, hours and river flow conditions change without notice, so confirm before relying on any single figure. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.
Topics
- Events
- Dragonfly Festival
- Santa Cruz River
- Marana
- Downtown Tucson
- Menlo Park
- Tucson