Restoring Connections Vol. 16 Issue 1 Spring 2013 Newsletter of Sky Island Alliance Mapping Priorities for the Sky Islands Our most ambitious landscape restoration project to date (see article page 17), Cloverdale Ciénega and Creek are returning to their natural state and can once again provide key habitat and linkages for species from Chiricahua leopard frogs to jaguars. Photo courtesy Melanie Emerson Through the Director’s Lens by Melanie Emerson, Executive Director Based on Sky Island Alliance’s core conservation to get protective designations or other special goals, Louise asked regional experts (with management in place before these areas become collectively hundreds of years of experience in threatened. U.S. and Mexican Sky Islands) to identify Additional products of this prioritization effort priority areas for both the protection and include mapped areas — of medium, high, and restoration of native species and their habitats, as very high priority for cores, linkages, restoration, well as for increasing our scientific knowledge of This year, Sky Island Alliance staff and Board of and science — based on conservation values and the region. Participants used interactive mapping Directors will craft our new multi-year Strategic threats, as well as an interactive map tool. These techniques to draw areas of high priority and to Plan. Realizing the goals outlined in this Plan is products and additional analyses that Louise provide information on the values and threats the end game; but it’s the process that will conducted (as part of her thesis for her Masters associated with each of those areas. This spatial provide a critical forum for envisioning and in GIS Technology at The University of prioritization approach drew on the knowledge naming the ambitious conservation gains we are Arizona… go Louise!) will be a key foundation of individuals familiar with the biological and seeking, and how we will get there. We go for Sky Island Alliance’s strategic planning ecological patterns and processes in the region, through this process every 4 to 5 years in order process this summer. These tools provide Sky and was especially key in to intensively think together Island Alliance with an opportunity for a more Sky Island Alliance believes collecting specific information about the most compelling proactive and systematic approach to in the need for large core from experts who had visited conservation needs in our conservation work; we also will make them protected natural areas that very remote locations for region and how to affect the publicly available so that anyone interested can which no information existed greatest change with our are connected by linkages to view and utilize the outcomes. in available datasets. The end modest resources. ensure long-term viability of result? A versatile final While the strategic planning retreat will be a wide-ranging species and We invest the time and product that can be used to time for staff and Board to think together, our expertise of all staff and our ecosystem processes. We inform decisions about where planning will benefit from and be undergirded entire Board to ensure that want to ensure we are taking and how to do conservation by the expert opinions of a diversity of scientists the product of this effort is a conservation action in areas work, and to some extent, from across the region. I look forward to the living plan — one that will of highest priority in order when. strategic planning process and the opportunity truly guide us as we integrate to incorporate the knowledge and wisdom of so to be as effective as possible Thus, we are able to focus our efforts in protecting core many partners into our vision for the future. Stay conservation efforts on areas habitat and wildlife linkages, with our limited resources. on the lookout for news on our new Strategic where there are overlapping cross-border and northern Mexico conservation, Plan in early 2014! priority areas for cores and linkages because they landscape and riparian restoration, climate demonstrate biological importance in diverse change adaptation, policy, advocacy and science ways. Other good places to focus attention and generation. resources include areas where high value and * I want to thank all the Sky Island Alliance staff We will apply new tools for decision-making and high threat overlap: these areas are good who were personally invested in ensuring this visioning in this year’s strategic planning process. candidates for strong conservation action to try project’s success, particularly Louise Misztal and One such tool is the analysis and maps derived and mitigate threats and keep the areas’ Nick Deyo. I also would like to thank all of our from the Conservation Priorities project (see biological characteristics intact. Areas of high staff, Board members and partners who provided pages 10–11), conducted this past year by Sky priority that showed low threat level may be thoughtful and expert input. Island Alliance staff. This region’s unique matrix good areas to focus longer-term, proactive work of conservation challenges — high biological diversity, ever-increasing conservation threats, and limited resources — requires spatial consideration as to where the organization Be a GEM: Give Every Month should focus its efforts in order to be most effective. To better understand this, Sky Island Alliance* undertook a spatial prioritization Every dollar adds up… more than you know! process, inviting regional experts to help us map priority areas throughout the region. Louise Donate just $10, $15, or $20 a month: Misztal, Sky Island Alliance’s GIS Specialist and Conservation Policy Program Coordinator, took Monthly gifts translate into the lead in answering four critical questions: What are the highest priority (biological value) real conservation gains core habitat areas in our region? What are the for the Sky Islands. highest priority (biological value) wildlife linkages in our region? What areas are in need of and have potential for restoration? In what places do we need to gather new science to better © Melanie Emerson understand species, habitats and systems? To start giving monthly, please call Keri at 520.624.7080 x15 or click on the DONATE NOW button at www.skyislandalliance.org 2 Spring 2013 Restoring Connections A Fresh Perspective by Julie St. John, Editor When I got up just before dawn this morning, I could not believe my eyes: snow had congregated in my yard overnight like dustbunnies under my sofa, my four-wing saltbush was keeled over in thespian agony with the unexpected weight, and a beautiful rosy sunrise cast a cotton-candy pink glow on the Catalinas. What a gift! It really is all about perspective, isn’t it? My college friends in Illinois send smirk-filled replies when I send them photos of snow or even of rain. But they don’t live here, do they? I was just talking with a dear friend here in Tucson who knows how important these moments are… especially to those of us who spend too much time sitting indoors staring at (or worse, arguing with) a computer screen when we’d rather be outside. She looks outside and says “Mountains… Mountains… Mountains…” It’s her mantra… her way of It takes two to set a wildlife camera: Linkages volunteer Leslie Sellgren (left) and maintaining perspective. Wildlife Linkages Program Coordinator Jessica Moreno (right) work on finding the perfect angle for this motion-activated camera. Courtesy Jim Chumbley When Sky Island Alliance invited regional experts to help us literally map the areas most essential for our future work (see Mapping Conservation page 17), GEM donor/volunteer/former staff Caroline Patrick see( page 6), Priorities, pages 10–11), it was because we wanted to be incorporate two inspiring volunteers (see Meagan Bethel, page 18, and Jim Chumbley, perspectives outside of the organization. With Louise Misztal’s subsequent page 19), and Board Treasurer Howard Frederick (see Ruby, page 5). analysis (as part of her Master’s Degree in GIS), we now have an amazing tool for Sky Island Alliance’s next Strategic Plan. We’ve also pulled together a variety of perspectives on some of Sky Island landscapes that are rising to the top in terms of priority. In the This issue ofRestoring Connections also features the perspectives of former Tumacacori–Esmeralda–Santa Rita complex (see map page 7) we have Executive Directors David Hodges (see Sierra San Luis, page 15) and Matt impressive bullfrog eradication successes (see page 4), the call to get the Skroch (see Tumacacori Highlands, page 5), as well as former Landscape Tumacacori Highlands designated as Wilderness (see page 5), and Restoration Program Manager Trevor Hare (see Restoration of Cloverdale, restoration of neotropical bird habitat in northern Mexico (see page 7), as well as Jenny Neeley’s report of a new border road west of Nogales (see page 7). In the greater Ciénega Creek Watershed (see map page 12), we have two stories (see page 9) on local fights to prevent the copper mine at Rosemont and a number of hard rock mines www.skyislandalliance.org in the Patagonia Mountains, our spring 520.624.7080 a fax 520.791.7709 assessment project (see page 12), and the rapid spread of Lehmann lovegrass (see page [email protected] 13). In the Sierra San Luis complex (see map PO Box 41165, Tucson, AZ 85717 and article, page 15), there are wildlands Tax ID Number: 86-0796748 advocate John Davis’ TrekWest (see page 14) and Trevor Hare’s report on the restoration Staff of Cloverdale Ciénega and Creek (see page Melanie Emerson Executive Director [email protected] 17). Last but not least, we have two articles Acasia Berry Associate Director [email protected] that span the entire Sky Island region — the Jenny Neeley Conservation Policy Director & Legal Counsel [email protected] future of jaguars in the United States (see Keri Dixon Development Director [email protected] page 8) and the folly of the border wall (see Christopher Morris Landscape Restoration Program Conservation Assistant [email protected] page 16).