SASI and Sweetwater

SASI, with the help of Ari Teo and the Central Arizona Project, set up a 35 gallon aquarium in the classroom. Since late July, 1999, this aquarium has been used to maintain a variety of aquatic insects collected or found to occur at Sweetwater Wetlands. 23 species have been identified at Sweetwater, specimens were collected and maintained, and interpretive materials have been developed.

Visitors to SASI can see the aquarium and the aquatic insects from Sweetwater each fourth Saturday and during other events held at SASI.

Because of the encephalitis scare here (see attached reproductions of newspaper accounts), we discontinued all activities at Sweetwater Wetlands in September and focused our efforts on captive husbandry and on starting to develop interpretive materials. We found that the giant water bug, Belastoma, is not as easy to rear as Abedus, the species more commonly found in streams.

The results of this project have been discussed with City of Tucson Water Department and University of Arizona personnel. A brief description of the project was included in a Water Department publication. Discussions concerning the mosquito populations, the ecology of the Sweetwater Wetlands and the educational potential are ongoing.

The project is far from finished. Volunteers are needed to continue working on the project.