LOCAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING ABOUNDS; WHY GO STATEWIDE?

posted by Michael Chihak

Jack Jewett is a former Arizona legislator, businessman, health-care industry executive and higher education executive. In it all, he has seen great leaders, good leaders and the need for strong leadership.

Now as CEO of the Flinn Foundation in Phoenix, Jewett is helping focus on development of strong leadership for Arizona. He has helped create the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership and in partnership with Tucson's Brown Foundations created the Flinn-Brown Leadership Academy.

The academy will graduate its first class of new and ongoing civic leaders for Arizona in ceremonies on Friday, with each of the two dozen class members pledged to take on a bigger role in civic life, through an organization or even running for public office.

On Friday's Arizona Week, we will speak with Jewett for the story behind the founding of the academy, his leadership philosophy and what needs he sees it fulfilling in the state.

IMPROVED CIVIC LEADERSHIP IN AZ IS GOAL

posted by Michael Chihak

Friday's Arizona Week will explore the new Arizona Center for Civic Leadership and its affiliated Flinn-Brown Leadership Academy.

The academy, based in Phoenix, will graduate its first group of civic leadership trainees on Friday. They will have completed a dozen seminars on a wide array of public issues and topics,

The goal of the program, according to the civic leadership Website: "As Arizona looks toward its second 100 years of statehood, its challenges are increasingly complex. Arizona must ensure its future leaders have the commitment, knowledge, and skills to work together to carry out creative, long-term solutions to pressing problems."

We will interview the founders and leaders of the center and the academy and speak with two of the graduating academy fellows for Friday's program.

NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS IN TV LAND

posted by Michael Chihak

The typical three-segment Arizona Week is never shot in one sitting, yet tonight's program is a marvel of technical planning and execution and the art of TV direction.

Typical is that the lead interview is shot on location and edited for the program. We did that for this week's program on Arizona water and the drought.

Then, a second segment is shot, either on location or in what is called "live-to-tape" in our studio.

Live-to-tape means that while it is taped, the shoot is captured as is from beginning to end, as if it were live. In other words, no "Take 2" or beyond.

Finally, the journalists' panel segment is shot in the studio, again "live-to-tape."

For this week's program, the second segment was shot after the third, because the interviewee couldn't make it at the usual time. So the journalists went before the interview, and then in post-production editing, the order of presentation was reversed.

It all worked seamlessly, and viewers will see the seamlessness when it airs at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD 6.

Only you blog readers will know how the stitches were sewn to create the seamless appearance.

WATER SUPPLY: TOUGHER TIMES AHEAD

posted by Michael Chihak

Water harvesting, water rationing, a cultural shift in urban water use and even more dire steps should be expected in Arizona as water managers and politicians seek to stretch the limited water supply.

That's the picture painted by University of Arizona climatologist Gregg Garfin, who has studied drought and water flows and who consults with water officials in the state.

"We've reached actually a crossing point between supply and demand in the Colorado River, so that we're actually drawing more water off the Colorado on a year-to-year basis, Garfin said in an interview for Friday's Arizona Week broadcast.

He said that for city dwellers in Phoenix and Tucson, that will mean water rationing at times, imposition of more conservation measures, including greater limits on outdoor water use, and water harvesting, or capture of rain runoff and reuse of water.

Garfin said his research and that of others shows that Arizona is prone to droughts of 10 to 30 years over the centuries. The current dry spell started in 2000, reached its wordst in 2002 and has had only three above-average water years, Garfin said.

One of those years was this past winter, when Upper Colorado River Basin snow pack and subsequent melt off has been big enough to allow a five-year pushback of any drastic rationing measures in the state.

Most water in Arizona is still taken by agriculture, Garfin said. But he said the priority for water use when the Colorado runs low are Native American tribes first, then urban users and finally agriculture. That means agriculture would be the first to lose supply when flow is low.

Garfin's full interview and an interview with David Modeer, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, will be featured on Friday's Arizona Week, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD Channel 6.

RISING TEMPS AND DESERT WATER MANAGEMENT

posted by Michael Chihak

Drought and the desert go hand in hand, yet the most recent drought in Arizona had a characteristic unlike any other in the last 100 years: higher temperatures through the duration of the dry period, starting around 2000, a University of Arizona scientist says.

"I've researched all droughts (in Arizona) of the 20th century, and I found that in the most recent drought, the temperatures were warmer than average," geoscientist Connie Woodhouse said in an interview with Arizona Week. "That's a characteristic not existent in earlier droughts."

The consequences are important to consider, Woodhouse said. Warmer temperatures mean increased water demand and increased evaporation, she said.

That means water managers ought to pay closer attention, and they should know that because of ongoing climate change, temperatures likely will be warmer during future droughts, Woodhouse said. She added that she knows water managers are doing a good job including climate change information in their discussions and decisions.

Woodhouse has done extensive research on Southwestern climatology and is working on a tree-ring study that should bring greater understanding to the Sonoran Desert's monsoon seasons. Data from the study, to be available within the next month, could show a correlation between summer monsoons and winter rains in the Southwest.

"We can't predict the future, but if we use the past, we can see that we've had low flows (on the Colorado River) since 2000, the first year of the latest drought," Woodhouse said.

Is that drought over now that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says Upper Colorado Basin snow pack was way above normal this past winter? "It depends on who you talk to," Woodhouse said.

Arizona water managers have said the big snow pack and resultant federal decision to increase the amount of water moving down the Colorado River and into Lakes Powell and Mead means there won't be a shortage at current usage levels until at least 2016.

Whether the drought has ended or not, Woodhouse had this advice for water managers in the state: "I would suggest they consider permanent ways to conserve water."

TIME'S UP ON 100-YEAR WATER SUPPLY

posted by Michael Chihak

Seeking background on Arizona's water issues is akin to seeking background on state political history. There's a lot of it, and in fact, the water issues history parallels the political history.

One year before Arizona became a state, central Arizona farmers coalesced to ensure a 100-year water supply, as documented by the Arizona Republic's Shaun McKinnon in a March 9, 2011 story. They did so by securing the construction of the Roosevelt Dam, which created the first in a series of reservoirs for their farms in what is now the sprawling Phoenix metropolitan area.

Note it was 100 years ago that they made the move to secure a 100-year water supply.

Thus, time is up.

So now what? More conservation, new water supplies, restrictions on growth? All of the above will be needed to get through the next 100 years.

In the March story, McKinnon quoted a researcher at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Grady Gammage Jr., as saying: "We'be probably got another 30 years to run without doing anything too dramatic," regarding water supply. "Beyond the 30-year point, if you assume we will continue to grow even close to the pace we have ... beyond 30 years, something dramatic has to happen."

Friday's Arizona Week will look at the water picture for Arizona, short-term and long-term, by speaking with the key overseer of water supply for the state, Central Arizona Project General Manager David Modeer.

We also will interview Gregg Garfin, a University of Arizona geoscientist and climate expert on long-term implications and the effects of climate change.

Republic reporter McKinnon, who covers water and environment, will appear on the journalists' panel, along with Gisela Telis, Arizona Public Media's online producer who has a science background, and Sarah Walters, meteorologist for KPNX-TV, Channel 12 in Phoenix.