Ashley Hullinger

Ashley Hullinger
-
350 North Campbell Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
Ashley Hullinger is a 2020 Flinn-Brown Fellow and Program Director for the Water RAPIDS Program (Water Research and Planning Innovations for Dryland Systems), which extends through several counties in Arizona. Much of Ashley’s work revolves around developing accessible tools and approaches to understand complex water resources situations and promote sustainable water management throughout Arizona, especially in rural watersheds. As part of the Cooperative Extension, she works directly with communities looking at issues that span beyond physical water resources to consider the people and history that have contributed to current conditions. Her work with the program has been based primarily in Graham, Greenlee, and Gila Counties, leading watershed planning efforts that include scenario planning, geospatial analysis, water supply and demand studies, process design for effective stakeholder engagement, and other related research. Ashley holds a M.S. in Urban Planning, with a concentration in Water Resources, from the University of Arizona and B.A. degrees in History and Geography from the University of Kansas.
Publications

What activities or modifications are legally allowable on land adjacent to the Gila River? In too many cases, that question is met with conflicting responses and, sometimes, general puzzlement in communities that harbor stretches of the Upper Gila River in Graham and Greenlee Counties of Arizona. With simple answers to realistic questions, A Guide for Landowners on the Upper Gila River addresses common misunderstandings about what private landowners can and cannot do with their land adjacent to the river.

Issues around water as a resource consistently top the list of environmental concerns in the United States, especially when they relate to water supply and quality. However, the large-scale nature of water issues means it is often challenging for individuals to discover, learn, and act to positively impact local water resources as well as the greater environment.

As one of Arizona’s principal surface water systems, the Gila River has and will continue to be a valuable and highly sought after water source.

Planning for an uncertain future presents many challenges. Thinking systematically and creatively about what is in store through a process called scenario planning can help illuminate options for action and improve decision-making. This guide focuses on a process for developing scenarios to help communities and watershed groups explore what might happen in the years to come, make more informed decisions today, and build a watershed management process.

This scenario planning document explores possible futures of the watershed as informed by ongoing interviews, meetings, and feedback given from the Gila Watershed Partnership and others, along with research of academic and goverment sources. These scenarios will be used in water resources planning and management for the watershed.