TUCSON, Ariz. - Out in the desert, just outside the Tucson city limits, is a sort of oasis in the midst of expanding residential development.

It is not the kind of oasis that has a pool of water surrounded by lush vegetation, but instead, is an oasis of learning. Unfortunately, this oasis may be in danger.

The Cooper Environmental Science Campus, a part of Tucson Unified School District, came about because of a misplaced belief that Tucson’s west side would expand into the county, said Kathy Lloyd, resource teacher at “Camp Cooper,” as it is affectionately known by employees and students.

The 10-acre site was purchased in the 1950s with the thought of turning it into a school when the population expanded, she said. Instead, the growth happened on Tucson’s east side.

For a while, she said, it was an archaeology teaching site, pointing out various areas along trails between the six sleeping cabins where evidence of mock digs can still be seen.

Then, in the late '60s, the site was fitted out for teaching students about the desert environment, Lloyd said. Later, in the '80s, Doris Evan became the resource teacher and started a naturalist program she had implemented at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

With a small budget – two teachers’ salaries and $1,500 for supplies like ink cartridges and toilet paper – the site is equipped to handle 4,000 to 6,000 students per year, Lloyd said.

Camp Cooper brings middle school and high school students out to the site for half-day and full-day hikes, as well as overnight trips, and takes them out on one of three one-mile trails around the property.

Trips can be just for hiking or can be for scientific research related to their classwork, Lloyd said. All of the activity curricula conform to state standards.

On Feb. 7, a group of students from Utterback Magnet Middle School came out to the site for an overnight stay.

Bounding out of their hard-to-come-by school bus, which must be paid for by each group and not by the district, the kids unloaded their duffels and backpacks and stowed them in the different cabins.

After an orientation on the rules and a question-and-answer session, the kids, parents and teachers were split into two groups to tackle one of the trails from opposite ends.

At one point, Lloyd pointed out a pile of dark poo. She pointed it out to the kids and told them what could be learned from such “scat,” as it is known in the animal world.


The kids almost universally said, “Ew!” when Lloyd said she could see cactus needles in the scat, which was from a javelina, or desert peccary. They listened intently when she told them it had been there maybe a day or a day and a half. Some of the kids turned to look around them, as though they might spy one of the animals.

As the group moved along the trail, stopping to check out the properties of different plants and rocks and holes in the ground, one of the teachers told of how Camp Cooper was threatened recently by mounting budget problems at the district level.

When Russ Hendricks, an Utterback math teacher, heard that TUSD might cut funds for the site, he said, “We were like, ‘No, you can’t do that!’” Then he and others wrote letters and spoke to officials about keeping the site.

“Not only can you not cut it out at all,” Hendricks said, “but you can’t just decide one day that it would be something considered down the road.”

He said to pull the rug out of this established project that teaches kids “would be obscene.”

Hendricks said that the property that the camp is on is probably “pretty valuable,” so they could sell it, but added he was afraid the district board would immediately spend the money.

“Then we wouldn’t have a facility and the money would be gone,” he said.

The kids learn about more than just the Sonoran Desert at Camp Cooper.


Before that, however, Lloyd told the little group how a jojoba plant was saving whales.

She said that people used to kill sperm whales for their blubber, which could be converted into an oil that they had discovered did not break down when subjected to high heat. So, people began to lubricate machinery that operated at high temperatures.

Later, Lloyd said other people discovered that the jojoba nuts, a renewable resource that grew back every year, could be processed for their oil, which had the same properties as sperm whale blubber.

After the hike was over, the kids excitedly chatted with one another over chunky peanut butter and jelly sandwiches under the solar-powered ramada. Most of the camp is solar-powered and it has a large recycling container onsite.

Camp Cooper is booked solid for trips like these – up to two groups per day – until May, Lloyd said. They are looking into expanding to accommodate students from other districts, such as Sunnyside Unified School District and Flowing Wells School District.

She added that they are looking into obtaining grants or donations to help fund transportation and budgetary needs.

Despite this planning and apparent demand for its programming, the future of Camp Cooper is still uncertain.

Linda McNally, an Utterback science teacher, talked about the impact shutting down Camp Cooper could have.

The school seeks to involve all of its students in how they can help restore the desert, McNally said. Otherwise, they are “just living in this place and not caring for it.

“It would be devastating to the children of Tucson” if Camp Cooper’s funds were cut, she said. “It would take us back to the caveman era.”

While the camp is off the chopping block for now – letters sent by teachers and students managed to convince the school board how much the site is wanted and needed – Lloyd was cautious in her optimism.

She said the district looks at the camp as a program to cut every two to three years.

“It’s a continuous fight,” she said.