Celebrating World Habitat Day
October 7, 2020This year’s World Habitat Day was on Monday, October 5th! As communities around the globe take a moment to observe and appreciate the species and ecosystems that make up our planet, let’s also…
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Four Myths About Mining the Patagonia Mountains
September 28, 2020Roughly 60 miles southeast of Tucson—past Sonoita, Elgin, and Mt. Wrightson in the Santa Ritas—rests an eight-mile stretch of canyons and corridors known as the Patagonia Mountains. One of the largest transboundary Sky…
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Friday Creature Feature: Turkey Vulture
September 25, 2020Our bird of focus for this week’s creature feature is the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura). Despite the name, turkey vultures are more vulture than turkey—they belong to the vulture family—and…
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Notes from the Field: The Border Wall
September 18, 2020A large part of my job is maintaining our field cameras for the Border Wildlife Study stretching between the Patagonia Mountains and the Huachuca Mountains. I’ve always loved fieldwork—a chance to escape…
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Friday Creature Feature: Lesser Long-Nosed Bat
September 17, 2020For this week’s Friday creature feature, let’s take a closer look at the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae), one of the Sonoran Desert’s most important pollinator species for plants like agave…
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20 Fun Facts about Sky Island Geology
September 14, 2020Did you know that all of our favorite Sky Island mountain ranges are the direct result of millions of years of geological expansion, erosion, volcanic activity, landslides, snow melt, and…
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Supporting Pollinator Restoration in the Sky Islands
September 10, 2020The Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora are home to a diverse range of pollinator species, including insects (like bees and butterflies), hummingbirds, and bats. U.S. Fish and…
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Youngsters on the Wildlife Cameras
September 9, 2020 This is my favorite season for wildlife cameras, baby season! This year’s young are finally large enough to follow their mothers around and show up on camera. With the…
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New Sky Islands Borderlands Field Program
September 4, 2020We’re joining forces with Round River Conservation Studies to launch a new undergraduate field course in February 2021! Students who join this inaugural Sky Islands Borderland Field cohort will spend three months immersed in the mountainous grasslands…
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Wall Construction at the San Pedro River
September 2, 2020In July 2020, construction of a 30-foot steel border wall began across the last free-flowing river in Arizona. Despite monsoon floods that push water 140 miles from the San Pedro River’s headwaters in Mexico northwards to its convergence with the…
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