Calendar

If you've been working in Bear Canyon with us recently, you know that we have been working hard to remove invasive grasses from the allong the creek, and planting native plants that will benefit wildlife in our wake. Now we need to make sure our new additions to the canyon are able to get established! Come out and help us hold the space we've cleared of invasive fountain grass! 

If you've been working in Bear Canyon with us recently, you know that we have been working hard to remove invasive grasses from the allong the creek, and planting native plants that will benefit wildlife in our wake. Now we need to make sure our new additions to the canyon are able to get established! Come out and help us hold the space we've cleared of invasive fountain grass! 

Come with us to check up on some native pond plantings and remove invasive cattails! SIA has partnered with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Tom Biebighauser of Wetland Restoration and Training LLC to install ponds near the Muleshoe Ranch in the southern Galiuros to provide habitat for lowland leopard frogs, and potentially endangered...
Read more »

Join SIA staff in Bear Canyon for a day of habitat restoration! Our work will focus on watering native plants that we've recently installed - helping them to get established until the relief of the monsoon rains come!

The weather is hot and dry. and this job will entail carrying water for some distance to our waiting plants, so volunteers should be in good physical condition, and comfortable hiking over uneven terrain.

Our Tracking Tuesday volunteer get-together is a chance for our current wildlife trackers to get questions answered, to review best practices for gathering data in the field, and to learn how they can use iNaturalist to improve our data set.

Help us repopulate a burned hillside at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument with native plant species! Sky Island Alliance is teaming up with the National Park Service and Borderlands Restoration to restore a recently-burned slope near the main ruin loop at the Monument. Volunteers will be removing invasive plants that have moved into the site,...
Read more »

Sky Island Alliance is putting together a team, or teams, to help out during The Nature Conservancy's annual wet-dry mapping of the San Pedro river. TNC coordinates this mapping annually, every 3rd Saturday of June with their local, industry, state and federal agency partners throughout the watershed. This year’s mapping is scheduled for Saturday, June 16th.

Join SIA staff in Bear Canyon for a day of habitat restoration! Our work will focus on watering native plants that we've recently installed - helping them to get established until the relief of the monsoon rains come!

The weather is hot and dry. and this job will entail carrying water for some distance to our waiting plants, so volunteers should be in good physical condition, and comfortable hiking over uneven terrain.

Sky Island Alliance has been helping TNC and the BLM in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. During this trip we are continuing our work to remove the invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the understory of the creek banks. This work is part of our long-term goal of eradicating vinca from the entire canyon!

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

Sky Island Alliance has been helping TNC and the BLM in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. During this trip we are continuing our work to remove the invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the understory of the creek banks. This work is part of our long-term goal of eradicating vinca from the entire canyon!

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

We are running out to Aravaipa Canyon for a quick trip to install soil moisture monitors and to plant more native plants! We could really use the help of a couple more volunteers to get this work (especially the planting) done.

SIA is partnering with The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve to install native plants around some newly created ponds. Many native animals are sure to benefit from this new habitat, and we want to jump start the revegetation process with some plants that will be beneficial to as many species as possible.

Join us for a weekend of restoration work at Kartchner Caverns State Park! Recently the park has re-routed some trails, and we will be working to manage erosion and to re-plant these sections with native species. This trip is free of charge and no experience is necessary.

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

Sky Island Alliance has been helping TNC and the BLM in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. During this trip we are continuing our work to remove the invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the understory of the creek banks. This work is part of our long-term goal of eradicating vinca from the entire canyon!

Join us for a day of collecting walnuts in Bear Canyon! Walnuts are especially important because they provide food for the Santa Catalina gray squirrel, a sub-species of the Arizona gray squirrel that seems to be less common than it used to be due to habitat changes and competition with the introduced Abert's squirrel. The seeds we collect will be grown out to be re-planted in Bear Canyon, and other nearby canyons.

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

Spend a day with us in beautiful Bear Canyon. We have been working to create a healthier habitat for pollinators and other wildlife in Bear Canyon by removing fountain grass to make way for native plants. Today will be all about planting beautiful flowering plants in areas that we have cleared!

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

SIA has taken on a project to help the Coronado National Forest inventory and assess water resources in the Galiuro, Miller Peak, Rincon, Chiricahua, Mt. Wrightson, Pajarita, and Santa Teresa Wilderness Areas. This weekend, we will be working to assess springs and other water resources in the Turkey creek area of the Chiricahua Wilderness.

For these assessments, no special skills are necessary, but we are looking for strong hikers, and tracking skills, plant identification skills, invertebrate identification skills can be helpful. Prior spring assessment training or experience is preferred, but not required.

Join us for a day of removing invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!

We will be meeting at the South end of the Safeway parking lot on the NE corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon Rds. Access to our work area on the National Forest is restricted, so we will need to carpool into the canyon in as few vehicles as possible.

Come join us for a daytrip somewhere on the Coronado National Forest in the San Pedro watershed. Exact location TBD. We'll be spending just a short amount of time at each site, and trying to get to as many springs and tanks as possible. Spring assessments experience is preferred, but not required. Hiking will vary - it could be on or off trail, for various distances. 4WD vehicles a plus.

Sky Island Alliance has been helping TNC and the BLM in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. During this trip we are continuing our work to remove the invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the understory of the creek banks and we will plant islands of native vegetation as well. This work is part of our long-term goal of eradicating vinca from the entire canyon!

Come join us for a daytrip somewhere on the Coronado National Forest in the San Pedro watershed. Exact location TBD. We'll be spending just a short amount of time at each site, and trying to get to as many springs and tanks as possible. Spring assessments experience is preferred, but not required. Hiking will vary - it could be on or off trail, for various distances. 4WD vehicles a plus.

This will be a backpacking trip to assess some springs in the Chiricahua Wilderness.
For these assessments, no special skills are necessary, but we are looking for strong hikers, and tracking skills, plant identification skills, invertebrate identification skills can be helpful. Prior spring assessment training or experience is preferred, but not required.

Join us for National Public Lands Day as we remove invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!

We will be meeting at the South end of the Safeway parking lot on the NE corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon Rds. Access to our work area on the National Forest is restricted, so we will need to carpool into the canyon in as few vehicles as possible.

Sky Island Alliance has been helping TNC and the BLM in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. This trip will mark the first restoration project we have done on the West end of the canyon! Join us as we plant islands of pollen and nectar bearing plants to increase the diversity and availability of resources for our pollinator friends.

Sky Island Alliance is teaming up with the National Park Service and Borderlands Restoration to restore a recently-burned slope near the main ruin loop at the Monument. Volunteers will be removing invasive plants that have moved into the site, and collecting new seed that can be grown out for future plantings in the park. The slope sits just above the riparian zone of the scenic Gila River and our efforts are essential to make sure these fragile soils are not lost via erosion.

Join us for a day of removing invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!

We will be meeting at the South end of the Safeway parking lot on the NE corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon Rds. Access to our work area on the National Forest is restricted, so we will need to carpool into the canyon in as few vehicles as possible.

Join us for a day of removing invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!

We will be meeting at the South end of the Safeway parking lot on the NE corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon Rds. Access to our work area on the National Forest is restricted, so we will need to carpool into the canyon in as few vehicles as possible.

REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wilderness-waters-powers-garden-backpack-registration-50879867052 DESCRIPTION IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE A BACKPACK WITH SKY ISLAND ALLIANCE PREVIOUSLY, PLEASE CHECK WITH SAMI (CONTACT INFO BELOW) BEFORE REGISTERING!!! That said, the Galiuros are really beautiful to get out in, so come join us! As part of Sky Island Alliance's work to collect water rights validations for the Forest, we...
Read more »

Come join us for a daytrip somewhere on the Coronado National Forest in the San Pedro watershed. We'll be spending just a short amount of time at each site, and trying to get to as many springs and tanks as possible. Spring assessments experience is preferred, but not required. Hiking will vary - it could be on or off trail, for various distances. 4WD vehicles a plus.

During this trip we are continuing our work to eradicate invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the riparian understory of the creek banks. This will require digging and fastidious removal of vegetative material and roots with tools provided by Sky Island Alliance.

As part of Sky Island Alliance's work to collect water rights validations for the Forest, we are doing a weekend dayhike to reach an old dam. We tried this in December, but changed our plans due to the weather. Let's hope this time works out!

Join us for a day of removing invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area as we take part in Tucson's annual Save Our Saguaros event!

For several years Sky Island Alliance has been working to document springs and their surrounding ecosystems in the Sky Islands. We are planning a backpacking expedition into the Galiuro Mountains, one of the least documented of the Arizona Sky Islands, from March 2-8 to continue our springs assessments and water rights validations for the Forest Service. Due to the current government shutdown, there are still some particulars that need to be determined before everything is entirely nailed down (for instance the dates could shift a day or two), but we want to start getting interested folks in the loop.

We had to reschedule our February vinca pulling trip due to sloppy wet roads in the canyon, so you get another chance to go out to this amazingly beautiful place. Join us as we work to clear vinca right along the banks of Aravaipa Creek! We will be wading in and out of the water throughout each day; getting dirty and getting wet. This work is part of our long-term goal of removing vinca from the entire canyon!

Join us for a long weekend in beautiful Aravaipa Canyon. During this trip we are continuing our work to eradicate the invasive plant vinca (or periwinkle) from the riparian understory of the creek banks. This will require digging and fastidious removal of vegetative material and roots with tools provided by Sky Island Alliance.

Celebrate National Public Lands Day with Sky Island Alliance as we remove invasive grasses from the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area!

Sky Island Alliance has been helping The Nature Conservancy in Aravaipa Canyon for several years on a variety of projects to increase watershed health along this perennial riparian area. Join us as we work to ramp up our efforts to address the threat of invasive periwinkle (Vinca major) throughout the canyon.

Join a SIA staff member OR another volunteer in the field for a physically-distanced spring survey! Did you know that springs on U.S. Forest Service land might not be protected unless they are surveyed to validate the water rights? Come learn how to use our new Spring Seeker to survey wilderness springs and other waters...
Read more »