Written by Dexter Kopas, Wild Stew Field Crew Leader.

Out in the field, Wild Arizona’s crews started just like any other hitch. We met up at our storage yard in Tucson, loaded the tools we needed into our trailers, and drove out to our two job sites, excited for a productive, fulfilling week. Chloe, Eric, Sam, Kile, Iman, and Max weren’t going far, targeting some improvements on a new loop of trail in Tucson’s backyard wilderness, the Pusch Ridge. Slightly further afield, Dexter, Sage, Foster, Charlotte, Viola, and Clay drove two hours to resume work on the popular Hackberry Spring Trail in the storied Superstition Wilderness. 

Up there in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, the crew was working to improve sections of the Pontatoc Trail ahead of the scheduled opening of the new connector trail that will form a loop between Pontatoc and the neighboring Finger Rock Trail. The main focus was improving safety in areas where large rocks caused difficult and dangerous step-ups, as well as removing smaller rocks that presented as tripping hazards, creating drainage where possible, and light brushing maintenance. Over at Hackberry, our trail aficionados touched up some steps from the last hitch, built a ramp to smooth out a scrambling section of rocky trail, constructed seven check steps, stacked five cairns to guide hikers across drainages, and dug in a drainage ditch. 

Unfortunately, it was here on the third day of hitch that some developments outside the dusty world of fieldwork reached us. A memo had been released from the White House Office of Management and Budget directing a freeze on federal funding of all grants and agreements. This directly impacts us, since we are under agreement with the U.S. Forest Service (a federal government agency) for both of these projects, in addition to over 80% of the work we do. Even though this memo was later rescinded and the funding freeze temporarily blocked by a Federal judge, the overall confusion raised concerns as to whether we would be able to get paid for our work.

Because of that concern, we decided to temporarily pull off federally funded projects mid-way through the hitch and shifted both crews to a State of Arizona-funded project nearby. The hardworking, dedicated, and adaptable crew we are so proud of packed up and drove to a familiar campsite outside Superior, AZ, to continue riparian restoration projects that we have been working on for nearly nine years in Arnett Creek and the past year in adjacent Queen Creek. 

From Saturday until Wednesday, we removed seven large Canary Island Date Palm trees, countless Mexican palo verde shrubs, some small Tree of Heaven regrowth, and two Chinese pistache trees. We filled five large bags of trash and carried them out of the creek, along with four old car tires. In addition to disposing of undesirable things, we began the next phase of planting native willow and cottonwood trees, bringing habitat, food, and shade to the area (shade being important for lowering the temperature of the creek so it is a better habitat for fish and other aquatic wildlife). We continued our scientific monitoring of the diversity of invertebrates in the ecosystem, a key indicator of the success of our efforts to improve the health of this crucial aquatic ecoystem in the desert. Along the way, we were assisted by our volunteer coordinator, Nizhoni, who helped to involve four local volunteers with us on Sunday. 

Yes, despite some setbacks, we managed to stay productive and pay our crew members for their valuable contributions. However, Wild Arizona is certainly not out of the woods yet. While the federal funding freeze has continued to be blocked by two Federal judges as the cases work through the court system, uncertainty remains regarding receiving payment from our Forest Service partners. For the time being, we are continuing to focus on projects that are privately or state-funded. Being a smaller non-profit, we do not have the pool of our own funds to justify taking the chance working on Federal projects that could end up unable to compensate us for our work. 

As we are often reminded when hikers thank us over a hundred times a day out on the trail, the service we provide is enjoyed freely by a wide swath of the public. Though nobody ever got into conservation work ’cause they wanted to make the big bucks, the truth is we can’t do it without reliable funding. We would love to continue doing this professional work that we find so rewarding. If you would like to help us continue making that happen, here are some ways to get involved. 

• Become a monthly supporter — monthly gifts provide steady income and give us the nimbleness to respond to emerging threats and opportunities.
• Join us at our volunteer events — make a difference directly out in the field. Volunteer time is an essential part of our agreements for project work and is used as match towards the overall grant, allowing our staff to get paid for their work and providing additional value to our partners with even more work completed per project. By volunteering with us, you are directly funding other Wild Arizona projects.
• Sign up for upcoming action alerts via our Wild on Wednesday and ActWILD enews series.

To close, and leave you as fired up as I am, here is a piece written by our Conservation and Wildlife Associate, Nico Lorenzen:

When we talk green, we’re not talking money. We instead speak of our forests and how to keep them resolute in the face of ever-worsening fires. When our Wilderness Stewardship crew talks bucks, they’re speaking about the antlered, woodland denizens. When we are making that scratch, we’re digging tread. We’re scratching in new trail with our crew and volunteers to ensure that there are safe and sustainable paths through our public lands.

If you ask about having a nest egg or stocks, you’re liable to get a litany of birds we have spotted or suppositions on which species of native fish occupy the nearby creek. And when we say freeze, we will tell you of winter’s frigid hitches in which headlamp light and the crunch of icy sleeping bags greet the crew each morning. This type of freeze we handle through a warmth encountered in smashing pick mattocks into trail, doublejack hammers into rock, or with wily smiles to our saw partner as we crosscut through a fallen tree.

Our work has met a new freeze. One that skews any meteorology. When we take on jobs we do so in locations of conservation importance, as outlined by clear scientific principle. Yet this current funding freeze that neglects pre-agreed contracts and a federal judge’s explicit restraining order reeks of something far more mercurial. 

We at Wild Arizona do not care about the color of the ticket you run on; we care about our wild lands and those who live and recreate on them. Whether it be in the silted sands of our desert arroyos or the sea of green sky island conifers, we ask that the funding freeze is lifted in name and in fact. Because, we have work to do and the will and calloused hands to do it.

The post wild stew field crew: The Federal Funding Freeze Hitch appeared first on Wild Arizona.

For Immediate Release:  April 25, 2024 

Contact:
Perry Wheeler, Earthjustice, 202-792-6211, pwheeler@earthjustice.org
Caitlyn Burford, National Parks Conservation Association, 541-371-6452, cburford@npca.org 
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, 801-300-2414, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org 
Michael Toll, Grand Canyon Trust, 303-309-2165, mtoll@grandcanyontrust.org 
Andrew Scibetta, NRDC, 202-289-2421, ascibetta@NRDC.org
Kelly Burke, Wild Arizona, 928-606-7870, kelly@wildarizona.org 
Cyndi Tuell, Western Watersheds Project, 520-272-2454, cyndi@westernwatersheds.org 
Chris Krupp, WildEarth Guardians, 206-417-6363, ckrupp@wildearthguardians.org
Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club, 602-999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org 

Phoenix, AZ – Conservation groups filed a motion to intervene yesterday in defense of President Biden’s designation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. The Arizona legislature and others filed lawsuits in February attempting to overturn the monument designation and attacking the Antiquities Act as unlawful. The monument lies within the homelands of and holds great cultural significance to numerous Tribes, who led the effort to protect the monument.  

The Havasupai Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, and the Navajo Nation also moved to intervene on Wednesday. 

“This monument is a testament to the decades of tireless advocacy by numerous Tribes to secure federal protections for their ancestral lands and waters around the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, the Arizona legislature and other parties have sued to eviscerate the monument and to gut the Antiquities Act,” said Michael Toll, staff attorney for the Grand Canyon Trust. “The legislature relies on the same basic arguments that have been rejected by every court to consider them, and we’ll work for that same outcome in this case.”

President Biden lawfully designated Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023, answering longtime calls from Tribal leaders to permanently protect over 900,000 acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. The monument safeguards sacred Indigenous cultural sites as well as remarkable archaeological and ecological features from uranium mining and other threats. 

Tribes including the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Paiute Tribe, Las Vegas Band of Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Shivwits Band of Paiutes, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Pueblo of Zuni and the Colorado River Indian Tribes urged President Biden to designate a national monument to honor their deep cultural ties to the Grand Canyon.

Uranium mining around the Grand Canyon threatens to further deplete and permanently pollute the aquifers that feed the Grand Canyon’s springs, which provide water for both the Havasupai Tribe and a rich diversity of plants and animals. Previous mining in the Grand Canyon region has contaminated land and water and radiation has sickened people living nearby, including on the Navajo Nation, where hundreds of abandoned uranium mines still await cleanup. 

“Like the Grand Canyon itself, this breathtaking monument safeguards globally significant cultural values and biodiversity, and we’re determined to defend it,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It enshrines decades of Tribal and community advocacy, and we’re confident that these lawsuits will be shown to be on the wrong side of both the law and history.” 

“The critical significance of this lawfully designated monument to the well-being and long-term resilience of Tribal communities, Grand Canyon’s waters and wildlife, the Colorado River, our Grand Canyon state, the nation and the world, cannot be overstated,” said Kelly Burke, executive director for Wild Arizona. “Apparently all this is lost on the Arizona legislature’s leadership, and is why we are committed to stand with Tribal nations in defense of this treasured living landscape against such self-serving attacks.” 

The region is also home to many sensitive and endangered species, including the humpback chub, California condor, desert bighorn sheep, Mexican spotted owl and Western yellow-billed cuckoo, as well as endemic plant and animal species like the Kaibab monkey grasshopper, the House Rock Valley chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, Grand Canyon ringlet butterfly and Tusayan rabbitbrush. Paleontological resources are also found throughout the area, with fossils documented in written scientific literature for nearly 150 years. 

“The state and special interest lawsuits against the monument’s designation show a blatant disregard for the cultural values and widespread importance of protecting this amazing place,” said Cyndi Tuell, Western Watersheds Project’s Arizona and New Mexico director. “Private commercial interests cannot outweigh the national significance of these lands, and in fact, the Biden Administration should have done more to ensure that land uses like livestock grazing do not continue to damage natural and cultural resources.”

The attack, led by the Arizona legislature, follows a similar lawsuit involving the Antiquities Act in Utah, in which Utah and others challenged President Biden’s restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Both the Utah and Arizona lawsuits target monuments that were set aside to protect and honor Indigenous cultural sites, along with important archaeological and ecological features, and were filed despite strong Tribal support for the designations. The federal court in Utah dismissed the case last year, and it is now on appeal. 

“For more than a century, the Antiquities Act has preserved some of the most treasured and iconic landscapes in the country, including the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument,” said Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter. “This lawsuit from Arizona legislators is an attack on a monument promoted by and supported by at least 14 Tribal nations and is just the latest in a series of attacks by big industry and its enablers to undercut the Antiquities Act and sell off public lands to the highest bidder. Presidents from both sides of the aisle have used the act to protect our historical and cultural heritage, and we will keep working to defend these landscapes for future generations.”

In 1920, the Supreme Court upheld President Teddy Roosevelt’s use of the Antiquities Act to protect 800,000 acres in Arizona when he declared the Grand Canyon a national monument. Presidents since have on many occasions designated monuments of a million acres or more. Courts have consistently found that culturally and scientifically rich landscapes, even large ones, are eligible for protection under the Act. In their motion to intervene, the conservation groups signaled their opposition to Utah’s erroneous claim that a president can designate only small monuments centered on specific sites.

“These lawsuits by the Arizona legislature and others seeking to overturn President Biden’s declaration of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument represent yet another misguided attack on the Antiquities Act of 1906,” said Sara Husby, executive director for Great Old Broads for Wilderness. “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni was lawfully created to honor Indigenous cultural sites—along with important archaeological and ecological features—and protect them from uranium mining and other threats. Great Old Broads for Wilderness is proud to work in support of the Tribal and Indigenous community in defense of both Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni and the Antiquities Act as a whole.” 

“This case is yet another attack on the Antiquities Act at the behest of extractive industries and anti-federal government groups. It’s disappointing that state officials keep trying to prevent the federal government from managing federal lands in a way that protects sacred Indigenous sites, one-of-a-kind ecosystems, and other cherished public resources,” said Tom Delehanty, senior associate attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “The Supreme Court has recognized for a hundred years that the Antiquities Act gives the president broad authority to protect important sites and landscapes. We’ll continue to fight these meritless lawsuits to ensure our most special places are protected for future generations.” 

“The leadership of the state legislature is defying the interests of Arizonans, who widely support the use of the Antiquities Act to protect the irreplaceable Native cultural sites and unique ecosystems of the greater Grand Canyon,” said Chris Krupp, public lands attorney with WildEarth Guardians. “The leaders of the Arizona House and Senate would rather carry water for the mining and grazing industries that fund their political campaigns than listen to the people of Arizona.” 

“Baaj Nwaavjo is a textbook example of what Congress intended to achieve through the Antiquities Act. Despite decades of extraction and unchecked mining pollution, there are over 3,000 known cultural and historical sites within the protected lands. The monument’s unique hydrological features also give scientists insights into the formation of the Grand Canyon,” said Jackie Iwata, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Just as the Supreme Court affirmed the Grand Canyon’s designation as a monument a century ago, there is no question that the president can and should protect these resources from further spoliation today.”

“A decade in the making and with resounding Tribal and public support, this monument protects not just a landscape, but a legacy – a tapestry of red rock canyons, irreplaceable waterways, and cultural and historic sites sacred to many Tribal Nations,” said Sanober Mirza, Arizona program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). “The Antiquities Act has been a bedrock conservation law for over a century, protecting cultural and historic treasures and iconic landmarks like Grand Canyon National Park. With the courts repeatedly affirming its authority, we are proud to defend Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.”

“Without the Antiquities Act, our public lands would look starkly different, especially here in Arizona, where the landscape is layered with cultural, natural, and historic resources,” said Mike Quigley, Arizona state director with The Wilderness Society. “Protecting and preserving the ancestral lands of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument is widely supported: a recent poll showed 86% of Arizonans support presidents continuing to use their ability to protect existing public lands as national monuments.”

Earthjustice is representing the Center for Biological Diversity, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians and Wild Arizona in the intervention. The Grand Canyon Trust and NRDC are co-counseling with Earthjustice and representing themselves. 

Media requests on the Tribes’ efforts can be directed to media@narf.org.

Photos are available here.  

The post conservation groups defend Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument, Antiquities Act appeared first on Wild Arizona.

As 2023 comes to a close, it’s time for us at Wild Arizona to take a moment to reflect on the incredible journey we’ve had throughout this remarkable year. The historic triumphs and transformative challenges that filled 2023 orbited one constant—the unwavering and enthusiastic support we’ve received from our volunteers, followers, and donors. We first want to pause and express our deepest gratitude to all those who have contributed, in a myriad of ways, to support our initiatives and campaigns. In 2023, we’ve come together as a vibrant community to help move forward enduring protections; riparian restoration; and wilderness and trail stewardship projects, for Arizona’s gorgeous wild landscapes, natural waters, wildlife, and Native ancestral homelands.

This last week of December also marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, reminding us that the dynamic vitality of intact webs of life in natural habitats is increasingly threatened. In a time of accelerating loss and public division, the ESA stands as a beacon of hope and shared responsibility for life on Earth our one living planet. Enacted to safeguard our nation’s most vulnerable flora and fauna, this crucial legislation points to preservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage as not merely an option but imperative for a sustainable future, and as our most effective and just means to stabilize climate. The Endangered Species Act compels us to act with foresight and compassion for the natural world, recognizing that the health of our environment is inseparable from our own well-being, and that by this pathway we are securing a legacy of beauty and diversity for all generations.

Acknowledging the impact:

Our success is not just measured by the projects we undertake but by the collective impact we have achieved together. A big thank you goes out to the generous contributions and unwavering efforts of our supporters and crews. We have been able to make significant strides in preserving the natural beauty of Arizona. Whether it’s the restoration of ecosystems, the protections of endangered species, or the creation of spaces that foster a sense of community through the outdoors, every action taken this year has left a lasting imprint on the landscapes we hold dear.

A Special Thanks to Our Followers:

To our followers, who engage with our content, spread awareness, and amplify our message-your dedication is the heartbeat of Wild Arizona. Your enthusiasm and commitment inspire us to continue our mission with renewed vigor. We appreciate every like, share, and comment that helps us reach a wilder audience and create a stronger community united by the love for Arizona’s wild places.

Celebrating our donors:

To our generous donors, your financial support has been the fuel propelling our initiatives forward. Your belief in our vision and commitment to preserving the natural wonders of Arizona have allowed us to embark on ambitious projects that make a real difference. Whether through one-time contributions or ongoing support, your investment in the future of our landscapes is truly invaluable.

As we are about to step into a new year, our commitment to the conservation of Arizona’s wild and native landscapes remains steadfast. With your continued support, we aim to undertake even more ambitious projects, engage in meaningful community initiatives, and be at the forefront of the continued progress for a sustainable and thriving Arizona.

We are beyond grateful for each and every one of you who have been a part of the Wild Arizona family in 2023. Your love, dedication and support are the forces behind our successes. Let’s continue to work hand in hand, ensuring that the beauty and biodiversity of Arizona’s wild spaces endure for generations to come. Lastly, please join in and support us in 2024, another year full of urgent opportunities to save the humpback chub and beaches downriver along the Colorado River in Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon, keep Colorado River flows high enough through the Grand Canyon to sustain the Colorado River Ecosystem, seek landscape-scale protections for the amazing Sky Islands, and call for Wild and Scenic River designation to preserve the treasured upper Verde River. Thank you again for an incredible year, and cheers to a future filled with even greater achievements in conservation and community!

Check out some of our Wild Stew project locations and accomplishments in this End of Year Presentation.

The post celebrating a year of historic conservation wins and a wilder future! appeared first on Wild Arizona.

Contributing Photographers: Nizhoni Baldwin, Luke Koppas, Volunteers: Robin Longacre, Robert Dayton, Linnea Cordts

Embarking on a journey of ecological stewardship, Wild Arizona’s intrepid Volunteer Coordinators Nizhoni and Luke came together to coordinate three wonderful volunteer events this fall. Our Coordinators and volunteers came together in fostering a shared love for Nature and a commitment to preserve Arizona’s native and wild flora. Let us delve into the warming experiences of these events where Wild Arizona volunteers connected with the land, and each other in the spirit of conservation.

Sonoran Insider Collaboration (October 20-21)

Under the scorching Arizona sun, volunteers from Sonoran Insiders converged at Boyce Thompson Arboretum to help the team retrieve trees and grasses for planting. Unfortunately, trees weren’t yet ready and the soaring temperatures made for truly unpleasant planting conditions. Thermometers were already reading 98 degrees by noon—making outside planting a little unbearable for the team and the plants. Despite a few minor setbacks the camaraderie was there to make the best out of the situation as Nizhoni and Luke led the volunteer group through a cooler option at the Arboretum, immersing themselves in the beauty of learning about native Cacti and other plants.

2. Empowering Women in Nature (Nov 3-5)

For this three-day event, Wild Arizona teamed up with BOW and B2B founder, Trica Hawkins and the Arizona Wildlife Federation. Nizhoni arrived at Oak Flat Campground for native planting in Arnett Creek on the evening of November 3rd. Upon her arrival and to her surprise, Apache Stronghold tribes were holding a sacred prayer ceremony. Traditionally, non-tribal members would be asked to leave, but graciously Trica gave Nizhoni and other volunteers the welcoming option to stay the night and join them for the prayer circle in the morning.

Nizhoni made everyone breakfast with B2B volunteers to ensure full bellies for a day of work! After breakfast, she and 3 other volunteers headed back to Boyce Thompson Arboretum to collect grasses. When they arrived back to camp, they were thrilled to see 2 more volunteers had shown up for the event. Everyone regathered and enjoyed lunch together followed by an archery lesson, instructed by a B2B instructor. After their lesson, the group headed to Picketpost Trailhead to do some planting along Arnett Creek. A total of five volunteers, Nizhoni and Trica collectively were able to plant 25 plots of grass in the burn scar area. After a very fun filled day everyone went back to camp to enjoy a nacho dinner provided by B2B volunteers followed by s’mores and shared stories around the campfire.

On the morning of the last day, everyone woke up early and enjoyed one more meal together, once again provided by B2B volunteers. The weekend culminated in sharing a love for restoring nature, yummy meals together, and campfire stories. Volunteers all said their goodbyes and exchanged numbers. What an amazing turn out they had and in total the 5 volunteers contributed over 150 hours in 3 days of hard work and restoration.

3. Grand Finale (Nov17-18)

The grand finale for planting at Arnett Creek brought forth an impressive turnout of 17 volunteers (including John Wotten and Sheila Shattuck from EVBCH) and Volunteer Coordinators Nizhoni Baldwin and Dexter Kopas were ready to transform the landscape. After a night of camping under the vast Arizona sky, the group planted 100 plots of grass, 9 native cacti, and 2 velvet mesquite trees. An unexpected rain shower helped nourish the new plantings. Luckily the showers didn’t dampen the spirits of our dedicated volunteers as water in the desert is always a blessing. The day ended with a warm spaghetti dinner and tales of the day well-spent, marking the culmination of a series of successful plantings.

Arnett Creek’s native planting events weren’t just about putting plants in the ground; they were about creating community, shared experiences, and a deep appreciation for the Arizona desert. Through the collaboration of passionate volunteers, these events not only contributed to the restoration of the Arnett Creek area but also cultivated a sense of harmony, friendship, and shared commitment to preserving the natural beauty of this area.

The post Wild Stew Volunteers: Harmony in Nature—Native Planting in Arnett Creek appeared first on Wild Arizona.

Julie Watson’s watercolors took her chasing the light into the treasured places where WildAZ works today, with local communities toward enduring protections.

“To have art wash away from the soul,
the dust of everyday life.”

—Pablo Picasso

In her lovely, insightful book Chasing Light: A Beginner’s Guide to Watercolor on the Road, one-time New York fashion illustrator turned backcountry landscape painter Julie Watson has left us with the marvelous gift of her love for the wild places of the Southwest and Arizona.

Born in Chillicothe, Missouri to a successful businessman father and an accomplished portrait and landscape artist mother, art was an integral part of Julie’s upbringing and family life from an early age. After receiving her initial fine arts training from the University of Kansas, Julie took her first big step down a lifelong path of exploration and travel, when she left behind the traditional midwestern lifestyle for cosmopolitan New York and the prestigious Parsons School of Design.

Always fascinated with new experiences – new people, new places, and forms of artwork, her time at Parsons blossomed into a prominent career in fashion illustration, and embracing a new life in the city. Today her illustrations have been accepted into the Parsons archives for their value as a historical retrospective on fashion in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s.

The heart-wrenching loss of her first husband and the need for change and freedom from artistic stasis eventually pulled Julie across the country to San Francisco where she re-met her high school sweetheart. Together they studied gemology and jewelry design and Julie was drawn to the color of the stones and the variation each stone brought to the creative process. Following gemology days that brought her to the far reaches of Asia in search of gems for her jewelry, Julie had one last stint as an illustrator in San Diego before retiring and setting off with her husband Larry on a grand expedition to see the west, from Mexico to Canada.

For five years Julie lived out of their Winnebago, traveling to parks and beautifully remote wilderness, and learning to paint outdoors with a limited and focused set of tools. She was fascinated by the way the light would change the mood and feeling of the spaces she was painting and would spend hours at one location altering her paintings to capture the light and color. Deeply in love with the desert and its vistas of unspoiled landscapes, Julie’s final wish was to set up a charity dedicated to preserving the beauty and nature of the southwest and making sure it remained a sanctuary for its wildlife and unblemished palette of Arizona colors.

Wild Arizona is deeply honored to help realize Julie Watson’s dream of a conservation legacy through offering her book Chasing Light for purchase. You can join in the adventure of more intimately ‘seeing’ Arizona’s wild places and wildlife, while creating your own visual diaries of wild nature, and even helping to protect what you love to see, as 100% of the proceeds will go to WildAZ to fulfill Julie’s wish to protect the lands in Arizona.

“I drew and painted all the way through this long life and used to say it kept me sane. It still does. What a fine adventure. I am grateful for all the cities, grateful for all the small towns. Most grateful for all the beauty of it.”

–Julie Watson

The post chasing light is this Arizona artist’s legacy to champion the wild appeared first on Wild Arizona.

the global movement to rescue biodiversity and slow the climate crisis begins with you and me.

“One word: Poetry. That’s what the world has to offer us. A whole series of mysteries, of possible discoveries, of phenomena, of unexpected events, and objects, and things, and living organisms and so on. An infinitude, almost, on this planet, waiting out there to be enjoyed.”

–E.O. Wilson

In 2015, my conservation mentor and dear friend Michael Soulé invited me to Washington, D.C. to sit down with international conservation scientists and leaders, and tackle a strategy to save our wild family and our only home, the natural world. Renowned Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson was just about to publish his seminal book Half Earth and wildlife scientist Eric Dinerstein of RESOLVE was intent on stemming the loss of animal and plant life that was tipping our planet toward collapsing ecosystems and the derailing of nature’s climate buffering responses. The story of extinctions was being lost to the narrative of climate change and renewable energy. Solve the climate with technological interventions and all the rest would fix itself was fast becoming the emerging paradigm.

For those of us bearing witness over our own lifetimes to the heart-wrenching fates of wild creatures—and notably, Indigenous peoples—all around us, and recognizing how we are all part of the same interwoven and interdependent tapestry of life, the larger problem was the cumulative loss of so many brightly colored strands of the fabric that holds us. The dynamics of feedback loops seemed to be unraveling even the larger framework of physical processes like fire, ice, ocean currents, springflow, weather. In a conceptual reversal of what ‘chaos theory’ had suggested, the butterfly no longer flapping its wings was changing the weather around the globe.

At the D.C. meeting the answer was simple and clear, however far it was from easy. Save every square inch of still wild nature and every living creature we possibly can over the ensuing 15 years and turbocharge the people-powered movement to do it, in the way that the climate movement was rising up globally. Half Earth, the science-based fifty percent metric, gave us the end goal. The year 2030 gave us a milepost to sight by. The call for thirty percent by 2030 has launched a now global movement, and a new Executive Order by President Biden — 30×30 is you and me, working together for a healthy planet!

“Protecting our important lands and waters is a top priority for our organization. Across Arizona, we have multiple wild areas that should be considered for protection to reach 30×30. Protecting landscapes like the iconic Grand Canyon, the culturally significant Great Bend of the Gila, and the ecologically unique “Sky Islands” of southern Arizona will create landscape connections across the state, critical to sustaining our diverse wildlife, peoples, and economy for generations to come.”

—Kelly Burke, Wild Arizona’s executive director, responding to the recent release of the Biden administration’s ‘America the Beautiful’ report.

The post saving nature, protecting the places we love, healing the climate, that’s 30×30. appeared first on Wild Arizona.