John Leos

Jan 13, 2025 | ourcommunitynow.com | John Leos

In the early December light, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission meeting room filled with people wearing camouflage clothing and cowboy hats. Hunters from all over the region had traveled to north Phoenix to express their opinions about an issue raised a week earlier. The Center for Biological Diversity had submitted a petition that questioned the ethics of sport hunting with hounds using GPS collars and its impact on endangered jaguars, ocelots and Mexican gray wolves.

Jan 13, 2025 | azcentral.com | John Leos

In the early December light, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission meeting room filled with people wearing camouflage clothing and cowboy hats. Hunters from all over the region had traveled to north Phoenix to express their opinions about an issue raised a week earlier. The Center for Biological Diversity had submitted a petition that questioned the ethics of sport hunting with hounds using GPS collars and its impact on endangered jaguars, ocelots and Mexican gray wolves.

Dec 2, 2024 | azcentral.com | John Leos

PAULDEN — Standing on the edge of the Big Chino Valley, it’s impossible to see the end of the grasslands that stretch for miles into the horizon. Herds of cattle and wild pronghorn antelope graze together in this remote expanse, unbroken except for the stray dirt roads crisscrossing between ranches. Below the surface, a huge groundwater resource flows into the nearby springs that feed the headwaters of the Verde River.

Nov 30, 2024 | azcentral.com | John Leos

Golfers at the Mesa Country Club caught a surprising view as they teed off near the Tempe canal last week: a huge net filled with dozens of fish hoisted by an excavator into a large white Salt River Project truck with “LIVE FISH” written on the side. Salt River Project’s fish herding team waded into the canal Sunday morning, armed with a wire fence and fishing nets to systematically scoop the large fish from the drained waterway. It's part of SRP’s annual canal maintenance.

Nov 18, 2024 | azcentral.com | John Leos

FLAGSTAFF — Beneath the scenic yellow and red leaves of soaring aspen trees in the Kachina Wilderness, forest ecologist Mike Stoddard is looking down. His concern isn’t the brilliant fall foliage but what’s growing beneath the forest floor. Seeking the markers for trees plotted two decades earlier, Stoddard is hoping data from the past will inform the future of these beloved groves.