Company Profile
Friends of Verde River Greenway
Company Overview
Friends of Verde River Greenway (Friends) restores, preserves, and promotes the natural, cultural, scenic and recreational resources of the Verde River and its tributaries.
Friends accomplishes its mission primarily through collaborative, partner-driven programs that focus on a “boots-on-the-ground” approach to habitat restoration, flow restoration and water management, and community outreach.
We envision a healthy, flowing river and tributaries that support the environment, a thriving economy, and quality of life for current and future generations.
Company History
During the spring of 2007, a group of long-time river activists wanted to take a more “hands-on” approach to protect the longest perennially flowing river in Arizona, the Verde River. At the same time, Arizona State Parks was seeking a non-governmental partner to assist with conservation and public outreach efforts to support the Verde River Greenway State Natural Area. Friends of Verde River Greenway emerged as an affliate of Arizona State Parks Foundation, committing to river restoration and enhancement projects as well as introductory canoe trips on the river.
In the late summer of 2009, with the assistance of Arizona State Parks Foundation and the Verde Watershed Association, Friends embarked on a course to build capacity within the organization and expand community participation in support of its mission.
In 2010, the Walton Family Foundation provided funding for the development of the Verde River Cooperative Invasive Plant Management Program (CIPMP), a five-year plan that outlined goals to manage invasive species while supporting local communities both socially and economically. Friends was a significant contributor to this plan’s development.
In December 2011, Friends was established as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and became independent of Arizona State Parks Foundation. Friends continues its close partnership with Arizona State Parks.
In early 2012, Friends hired its first employees and took on a leadership role in the Verde Watershed Restoration Coalition (VWRC), a public-private collaborative charged with implementing CIPMP. In 2015, Friends took the lead in the One for the Verde program, a business-based partnership. In 2016, Friends launched the Verde River Exchange program, a first-of-its-kind community-based effort to address the impacts of groundwater pumping in the watershed.
2017 continued to bring additional transitions to Friends, ushering in opportunities associated with the merger of two other river conservation oriented organizations – the Verde River Basin Partnership and the Verde River Valley Nature Organization – into Friends. Currently, Friends has four full-time staff members, and one full-time VISTA volunteer, working on an expanded range of programs, which include habitat restoration, ow restoration, and sustainable river recreation, as well as efforts to engage the community through outreach and volunteer efforts.