This year, as we celebrate our 35th anniversary and share visions and plans for the future, there’s a lot of fun reminiscing going on. For me personally, I’ve been looking back on 20+ years of being engaged with Sky Island Alliance and thinking about all the volunteers, partners, and supporters who have walked with us along the way.
Years ago, when I was a University of Arizona student, I had just given up my plans to prepare for medical school. The growing reality of spending eight years of my life in a hospital seemed like the wrong path to nurture my sunshine and nature-loving spirit. I had broken the news to my disappointed parents that I was going to study biology and ecology, and I came across an advert on a student job board that said, “Get paid to make a difference.”
My life shifted gears, and I started to feel like I had made the right decision. For my first job, I joined the Arizona League of Conservation Voters, advocating for water, open space, and nature. Then, in 2004, I found Sky Island Alliance by, of all things, volunteering with them.
A friend suggested I join him on a volunteer weekend with Sky Island Alliance at Las Cienegas National Conservation Area southeast of Tucson. This picturesque, rolling grassland habitat harbored some beautiful and rare flowing water. We were there to close a road that had been illegally created by people driving through the creek and riparian area to shortcut from one road to the next.
It was glorious, sweaty, muddy work. I was thrilled to be among others who so loved and appreciated this beautiful place. And each cottonwood and willow planting we placed along the eroded bank felt like a tiny, purposeful contribution to sustain life.
I was hooked. I loved science, and I loved the sense of purpose in using it to heal the land and keep wildlife thriving. It was also fun doing it with such engaged and enthusiastic volunteers! I spent a good part of the rest of my degree program volunteering, then working with Sky Island Alliance and experiencing the joy of using science for advocacy. In 2014, I became SIA’s conservation director, and in 2016 I transitioned into my present role as executive director. Through it all, it’s been a joy each time I’ve been able to get out and do the on-the-ground work.
Volunteers are so near and dear to my heart. They make Sky Island Alliance a vibrant, thriving community that reaches well beyond our small staff. Over the years they’ve been a steady force for amazing feats of conservation, for example, most recently having cleared Rock Ledge Spring of invasive arundo and restoring this unique desert wildlife oasis. Our volunteers collect data from wildlife cameras and at springs, and in years past they’ve walked transects and recorded wildlife tracks. They are often our eyes and ears on the ground, visiting locations in the Sky Islands regularly and letting us know what they are seeing, from new blooming plants to new impacts from humans and drought.
We love our volunteers, and that’s why on March 26 we’re celebrating you, our wonderful volunteers, with an open-house party at Sky Island Alliance’s Tucson office. Come join our staff and board for a fun evening of food and drinks, mixing and mingling, and sharing stories. Whether you’ve been volunteering for many years, are returning after a hiatus, or are thinking about volunteering and want to meet folks first, we’d love to visit with you and celebrate the wonders of the Sky Islands and what committed, caring people can achieve together.