The Sky Islands of the Madrean Archipelago are a globally recognized center of biocultural diversity Our vision: that sprawls north to south across the U.S. –Mexico Restore hydrologic and biologic processes borderlands. There are 55 Sky Island mountain throughout whole watersheds, from the top ranges and desert grassland seas that are thought of the mountains to the basins below; to contain more than 3,000 plants, over half of all Maintain the unique biocultural diversity species of birds found in North America, thousands found in the Madrean Archipelago by of species of invertebrates, 104 mammals, working across borders, jurisdictions, and including the only known wild jaguar in the U.S. public and private boundaries; and the only ocelot in Arizona, nearly 100 reptiles, and 25 native amphibians. Tucked within this Build resilient natural and human magnificent and valuable landscape, the majority communities based on restoration of U.S. citizens exist with household and per capita economies; and incomes much lower than both state and national Address social inequities and improve levels. As with the majority of the world’s poor, quality of life in the borderlands. people living in similar rural areas depend on ecosystems and related biodiversity for subsistence, security, and income. The Sky Island Restoration Cooperative (SIRC) is a bi-national community-based collaboration of government and non-governmental organizations, private landowners, ranchers, students, volunteers, scientists, and restoration practitioners. Our hope is that by combining our energy and knowledge, we can improve restoration activities, outcomes, and awareness across the Madrean Archipelago and nurture an understanding of the importance of biodiversity for human well-being. Identifying restoration research and resource needs, the SIRC is a vehicle for information-sharing, training, and project implementation. Our cooperative builds bridges across institutional, administrative, and See us in action! cultural boundaries to create effective regional www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYatTc69zlM restoration strategies. In FY16, the Sky Island Restoration Cooperative (SIRC) included involvement and/or direct work from these organizations: Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) Arizona State University (ASU) Borderlands Habitat Network (BHN) Borderlands Restoration L3C (BR) Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) Cuenca Los Ojos (CLO) Deep Dirt Farm Institute, LLC (DDFI) Gila Watershed Partnership (GWP) Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Cananea (ITSC) Sky Island Alliance (SIA) Southwest Monarch Study (SMS) Springs Stewardship Institute (SSI) Tucson Audubon Society (TAS) U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Coronado National Forest U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) U.S. National Park Service (NPS) Wildlands Network (WN) New SIRC partners in FY 2016: American Conservation Experience (ACE) Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) Cienega Watershed Partnership Friends of Saguaro National Park Pima County The Nature Conservancy (TNC) University of Arizona Wildlife Corridors, LLC Other organizations involved with SIRC: Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC) GeoSystems Analysis, Inc. Patagonia Regional Community Arizona Department of Hummingbird Monitoring Network Foundation Environmental Quality (ADEQ) (HMN) Patagonia Union High School Bat Conservation International (BCI) Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE) Rancho San José del Carrizo Biophilia Foundation Make Way for Monarchs Seibert Ecological Restoration, LLC Brophy Family Foundation Monarch Watch Society for Ecological Restoration, Comisión Nacional Forestal MX Secretariat for Communications Southwest Chapter (CONAFOR) and Transportation (SCT) Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) Coordination Center (SABCC) Desert Landscape Conservation Natural Channel Design Southwest Monarch Study Cooperative (DLCC) Natural Resources Conservation Stream Dynamics, LLC Douglas High School Service (NRCS) Tohono O’Odham Nation Eastern Arizona College Naturalia, A.C. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Eco Ideas, LLC Nature and Culture International U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Freeport McMoran, Inc. Northern Arizona University Vail Unified School District (VUSD) Friends of Brown Canyon Ranch Patagonia Area Resource Alliance Windsong Peace and Leadership Friends of Madera Canyon (PARA) Center 2 Executive Summary treasured natural and cultural resources. We continued our partnership with local high schools — Patagonia, e Sky Island Restoration Cooperative (SIRC) is a Douglas, and Empire — and expanded our reach to communication network designed to facilitate story- include more Tucson schools in the Schoolyard BioBlitz telling for and between restoration practitioners, programs. Mentoring youth is critical to the success of scientists, land managers, citizen scientists, and SIRC, and more importantly, the key to future resource volunteers. Our goal is to facilitate effective landscape conservation. e success of SIRC is due to dedicated restoration at increasingly larger scales by cooperating agency and NGO staff, and the overwhelming and reporting on community-based projects. More generosity of our volunteer workforce. simply stated, we see ourselves as weaving together the disparate threads of ecosystem restoration into an Education & Outreach integrated effort that restores the mutualisms which are Education and outreach are important aspects of all of inherent between people and place. our SIRC partnership projects. We believe that investing e SIRC report is organized around six themes: in youth and engaging local volunteers is critical to help Education & Outreach, Planning & Partnerships, conserve and restoration our local natural resources, as Habitat Restoration, Inventory & Monitoring, Plant well as innovating new ideas, new techniques, and new Materials, and Research. is Executive Summary information to help guide our restoration activities. provides an overview and basic road map of our efforts. e Borderlands Restoration Leadership Institute is a new e second part of the report includes Resource Briefs endeavor designed as a project-based learning from around the Madrean Archipelago with more in- laboratory that explores and activates collective, creative depth descriptions of each of the individual projects. solutions to natural resource challenges and SIRC has more than 65 partner organizations, with new opportunities by working at the intersection of border partners joining every year. SIRC is an international region economies and ecologies. Our partners look cooperative with a number of partner groups in the forward to implementing new innovative ideas and United States and Mexico as well as the Tohono technologies developed by the Institute. O’odham Nation. SIRC considers it part of our mission SIRC partners cooperated on three summer youth to involve local residents, landowners, and student programs to engage students in summer employment groups in all stages of resource protection and and environmental education: Borderlands Earth Care restoration. We are proud of the fact that our 2016 Youth Institute , Youth Engaged Stewardship at Las membership included a number of local ‘Friends’ Ciénegas National Conservation Area , and the Gila groups: Brown Canyon Ranch, Madera Canyon, and Watershed Youth Conservation Corps . Alianza Mariposa Saguaro National Park. ese are groups of volunteers Monarca is a coordinated effort for young biologists dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of throughout Sonora to learn about monarch butterflies 3 and to collect data on their populations at various away from sensitive riparian habitat, provide locations. Saguaro National Park worked with the information and education on how to mitigate impacts Tucson Unified School District through Schoolyard to resources, as well as providing input that reduced the BioBlitzes to engage students to learn more about the impacts to wildlife species habitats. environment outside their Habitat Restoration classroom. e Insect and Pollinator BioBlitz was a two-day volunteer SIRC partners have been very event to document these important effective at implementing a number populations at Tumacácori National of restoration projects in areas Historical Park. identified as important habitat for a number of plant and animal species. Planning & Partnerships SIRC has focused on the restoration SIRC partners continued their of a network of ‘pollinator islands’ efforts to nurture partnerships across the Sky Island Region, as across agency, organizational, described in our 2014 and 2015 international, tribal, and Annual Reports, and continued this community boundaries. work in 2016. Many of these Highlighted in this 2016 report are projects were developed with the efforts of the Southern Arizona integrated resource objectives which Resilient Landscape Cooperative to include restoration of native plant secure Department of Interior species, providing habitat for funding to share with various pollinator species, and providing partners to treat high priority riparian habitat for the endangered buffelgrass populations across Chiricahua leopard frog and a southeastern Arizona. A dedicated number of bat species. 2016 projects group of professionals continued enhanced wildlife habitat by their efforts to protect lowland planting native plant species with an leopard frog populations