Last week my fellow interns, Sky Island Alliance staff, and I ventured out on a week-long field trip to different ranches, an experience that I will certainly remember with great fondness and excitement.
We started the week getting to know Agua de Enmedio, a ranch with beautiful nature and incredible landscapes. The owner told us about his experience practicing sustainable ranching. We worked on water-retention techniques, and we observed how the “cat’s claw” plant had become a problem in the area.
On that same ranch, staff from Mexico’s national parks agency (CONANP) came and talked to us about the Bavispe reserve.
After a couple of days at the Agua de Enmedio ranch, we left for the Agua Verde ranch, located in the Cuauhtémoc ejido, where we met the owner family and worked on building contour lines, a technique to prevent soil degradation caused by rains. We also applied a reforestation technique that consisted of creating small balls of clay, fertilizer, and seeds and then throwing them in a certain area so that the seed germinates with the help of rain. The most exciting moment of the week happened here, when we entered a large cave that I would love to visit again.
The last two days of the week were spent at the Los Fresnos ranch, an area dedicated to conservation. There we found a prairie biome where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. I was surprised to learn that this place is inhabited by beavers and prairie dogs. I would have liked to see one. Here, we worked on installing remote wildlife cameras, and we visited a spring.
In general, it was a week in which I had incredible experiences and felt connected to nature. Thanks to Sky Island Alliance, I met and learned from people who share my love for biology. It was so interesting to talk with others in the group, and I hope that in the not too distant future we’ll meet on some other adventure.