Tucson spring cleaning

‘Spring Cleaning’ Weed Removal at Tucson Springs

September 3, 2024

Join our campaign to remove invasive species at nine priority springs in the Tucson area. Together, we can restore these crucial wildlife oases! We’ll meet every Tuesday morning and be working mostly in the Sabino Canyon area on the northeast side of town and near Vail and Davidson Canyon on the southeast side. Stay as long as you like, and leave for work if you need to. This is a great way to create an impact, get in a workout, and meet other volunteers.

Center for the Future of Arizona

The Arizona We Want: The Decade Ahead

August 15, 2024

Join SIA staff for a virtual Coffee Break as we host Dr. Sybil Francis and Ian Dowdy from Center for the Future of Arizona. Our guest speakers will review the results of their groundbreaking Gallup Arizona Project. And they’ll share more on what they learned about what an overwhelming majority of Arizonans agree on related to shared appreciation, concern, and aspirations for our air, land, water, and wildlife — plus how Arizonans’ shared public values can shape the decade ahead. Don’t miss this informational talk as we head into election season!

Galiuros Wilderness spring seeking

Road Rewilding in the Huachucas (Test)

August 5, 2024

Background In 2019, after a years-long public process, the Coronado National Forest decided to close 160 miles of old roads within southern Arizona’s Sierra Vista District that no longer served…
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Sonoran Desert bee

The Sonoran Desert: A Bee Diversity Hotspot

July 31, 2024

Did you know that the Sonoran Desert is a hotspot of bee diversity, home to more than 1,000 species!? How many of these can you name? Join us for our next virtual Coffee Break to learn more from Kim Franklin, associate director of conservation at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. She’ll take us on a tour of this incredible bee diversity, from the tiny Perdita species that pollinate our tiniest flowers to our gentle giants, the carpenter bees, which are both critical pollinators and pollen “thieves.”

Seeding

Road Rewilding in the Huachucas

July 26, 2024

Join SIA as we physically decommission closed roads in the southern foothills of the Huachuca Mountains. We’ll be camouflaging roads with rocks and woody debris, reseeding native plants, building erosion-control…
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Turkey

FotoFauna Lending Library Kickoff in Douglas

June 26, 2024

During this presentation, participants will learn about SIA’s FotoFauna program and how they can participate in this community science project through the Douglas Public Library. Patrons can check out a wildlife camera kit from the library and submit an online monthly checklist of species they observe. This data will help SIA and partners study when and where wildlife is present so we can better protect their habitats and pathways.

Southwest spring firefly

Coffee Break: Searching for the Southwest Spring Firefly

June 24, 2024

Join us for our next virtual Coffee Break to learn more about the Southwest spring firefly, a nocturnal species associated with permanent streams and marshy areas in the Sky Islands and surrounding foothills of southern Arizona and New Mexico. This rare and imperiled firefly is currently under review for Endangered Species Act listing. For this talk, we’ll be joined by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Laura and Xerces Society biologist Candace Fallon. They’ll discuss this firefly’s life history and the threats it faces, efforts to map its distribution, current research and conservation needs, and the ESA listing process.

Spring cleaning

‘Spring Cleaning’ Weed Removal at Tucson Springs

June 21, 2024

Join our campaign to remove invasive species at nine priority springs in the Tucson area. Together, we can restore these crucial wildlife oases! We’ll meet every Tuesday morning and be working mostly in the Sabino Canyon area on the northeast side of town and near Vail and Davidson Canyon on the southeast side. Stay as long as you like, and leave for work if you need to. This is a great way to create an impact, get in a workout, and meet other volunteers.

Catalina springs restoration

Erosion Control in the Catalinas

June 7, 2024

Join us up on Mt. Lemmon for a weekend of camping at Spencer Canyon and help build erosion-control structures. Our goal is to slow down precious water, so it can…
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Porcupine in the San Rafael Valley

Coffee Break: Porcupines in the Sky Island Borderlands

June 5, 2024

North American porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) are found across Arizona, but little is known about their distribution in the Sky Island region, and public perception is that porcupines do not live in the borderlands at all. Join SIA Wildlife Specialist Meagan Bethel for our next virtual Coffee Break to learn more about these fascinating creatures, surprising detections on our Border Wildlife Study cameras, and their documented crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border.