Field Notes
Call for Art: Help Bear Witness to the Patagonia Mountains by Submitting Art of the Borderlands
January 15, 2021 Help us tell the story of the critical jaguar habitat in the Patagonia Mountains that is now threatened by border wall construction. If the Patagonias are cut off from Mexico by these 4.1 miles of planned border wall, jaguar and other species, like bear, will lose access to a large portion of their migratory…
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Notes from the Field: Searching for High Spring in the Huachuca Mountains
January 14, 2021Volunteers lie at the heart of our Spring Seeker program. In 2020, 63 people helped us check over 220 springs in the U.S. and Mexico—a feat that would be impossible for staff alone. Retired wildlands firefighter Brit Rosso is one of our steadfast Spring Seeker volunteers. Not only is he dedicated to hiking rough terrains in order to document the status of springs…
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No More Border Wall: Urging the Biden Administration to Act
January 12, 2021In less than two weeks, President-elect Joe Biden and his council will assume office of the U.S. federal government. One of Biden’s many talking points during the election season was the border wall—and his promise that “not another foot” will be constructed under his watch (source: Washington Post). Despite the few short days that are…
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What We Learned from Monitoring Springs in 2020
January 8, 2021Since the launch of Spring Seeker in July 2020, Sky Island Alliance and its volunteers have been able to visit 256 springs throughout the Sky Island region of southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Visitors of these springs completed a quick survey in an app on their phone, detailing the location and state of each water source—including which ones were impacted by ongoing drought, which ones need some restoration work or protection, and which ones are intermittent…
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A Microscopic View of a Cathedral Vista Beetle
January 4, 2021If we don’t include single-celled organisms, then beetles are the most numerous and diverse group of living things on this planet. They make up about 40% of all insects. One out of every four animals on this planet is a beetle. In fact, there are more known species of beetles then there are all known…
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A Lesson from the Bears
December 30, 2020I appreciate closing the year with reflection on where I’ve been, where I’m going next, and what I’ve learned that I want to carry with me. Here at Sky Island Alliance, we’ve marked our weeks, months, and seasons this year with special glimpses of our beautiful wildlife neighbors and springs through several of our programs:…
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Community’s Choice: The 19 Best FotoFauna Photos of 2020
December 17, 2020As 2020 comes to an end, we’re excited to look back at the best FotoFauna submissions of the year. Judges from several partnering organizations first helped us whittle 1,000+ photos down to 57 finalists across 19 categories. Then, earlier today, over 50 coffee break attendees voted live to select the the winners from these finalists. As the community…
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Get to Know Our Fall 2020 Interns: Osvaldo Dorame
December 14, 2020We launched our first binational internship program at Sky Island Alliance this year! Despite the many challenges we’ve faced during a global pandemic, the internship program has been an incredible success—so much so that four of our interns from the Universidad de la Sierra (UniSierra) decided to stay on into the fall. ¡Lanzamos nuestro primer…
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¡Hemos detectado más de 100 especies en las tierras fronteriza entre Estados Unidos y México!
December 11, 2020En marzo de 2020, Sky Island Alliance se asoció con la organización sin fines de lucro mexicana Naturalia, A.C. para documentar la vida silvestre que vive o migra a través de las zonas fronterizas entre Estados Unidos y México, uno de los últimos tramos restantes del corredor de vida silvestre abierto en la región. ¿Cómo…
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We’ve Detected Over 100 Species in the Borderlands!
In March 2020, Sky Island Alliance partnered with Mexican nonprofit Naturalia, A.C. to document the wildlife that lives in or migrates through the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, one of the last remaining stretches of open wildlife corridor in the region. How does the documentation work? An array of 58 trail cameras operates 24/7 along 34 miles of…
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