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Will the Picture Canyon waterfall live past 2030?  

August 19, meet at entrance to Picture Canyon at 5:30PM (finishing before sunset at 7:10)

Enjoy beautiful Picture Canyon, its positive political history, and its positive future. Robert Wallace & Ashlee Fliney of Flagstaff PROSE (Parks, Recreation, Open Space) will lead the walk. Learn how PROSE manages the waterfall, has restored natural stream meanders with native streamside plants, controls the weeds, and protects the Native American petroglyphs that give Picture Canyon its name.

In 1971, the City replaced the natural meanders above the falls with an artificial ditch to carry poorly treated sewage from the water treatment plant. The main waterfall was an informal trash dump where a few abandoned cars had been rolled down the cliff. In 2010, Arizona Game & Fish (AGFD) gave Flagstaff land for a city park in exchange for the City’s promise to release well-treated water in Picture Canyon (and Frances Short Pond, and the I-40 wetlands) every day until 2030. Within a year, City Council will vote whether to maintain these flows (forever?) without demanding additional payments from AGFD or others. Let’s enjoy this positive political story (rare in 2025). Let’s applaud Rick Miller (AGFD, retired) who led the 2010 land-water swap, the current PROSE leaders who are leading us forward, the ancient artists who etched the pictographs, and the many people who have contributed in many ways.