Frontera NorteSur November  2002

Since its release in 2000 as the first Wildlands Network Design to be published in North America, the Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Vision (Sky Islands Wildlands Network) has added a new approach to land and wildlife protection in the borderlands region of southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and northern Mexico.

In essence, the Sky Islands Wildlands Network provides a broad-brush painting of what conservation can look like if applied across a 10,000,000-acre ecoregional landscape that includes the work areas of hundreds of conservation groups, state and federal agencies, private individuals, ranchers, outdoors organizations, land trusts, and many other land-protection advocates.

Based on a connected matrix of large Core Wildlands Areas, Wildlife Movement Linkages, and Compatible Use Lands, the overall goal of the plan is to first slow, then reverse the extinction crisis that threatens many species in the borderlands ecoregion.  To accomplish this lofty end will likely take generations of effort, including specific conservation actions aimed at “healing ecological wounds” across the landscape.

The challenges to implementation of such a visionary concept are many, not the least of which is remaining true to a strict scientific methodology in the face of social and economic factors that have often compromised conservation efforts in the past.  The optimistic underpinning of the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, however, and the fact that its rationale recognizes the need to make networks of people, as well as networks of land, the centerpiece of its success, has already begun to expedite its achievement.

The Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Vision is guided by a set of principles adopted by its primary sponsor groups--Wildlands Project, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Sky Island Alliance, Arizona Wilderness Coalition, and The Wilderness Society--that provide a broad avenue for involvement by other groups.

• A focus on rewilding, which recognizes the vital ecological role of large carnivores, other keystone species and processes, and the need for large protected core areas and landscape linkages connecting them.

• Ecological restoration based on six “Healing the Wounds” goals:
              -protection and recovery of native species;
              -protection and restoration of native habitats;
              -protection, restoration, and maintenance of ecological and evolutionary processes;
              -protection and restoration of connectivity between wilderness core areas;
              -control of exotic species; and
              -reduction of pollution and restoration of areas degraded by pollution.

• Protection of nature by the best science available.  

• Conservation exists in both ecological and social contexts.

• People can successfully adopt economic and social uses of the land that are compatible with fully functioning ecosystems.

• Reliance on networks of people using varying approaches to protecting networks of land.

Such guidelines were specifically designed to accommodate the interests of a wide array of conservation entities with the ultimate goal of connecting not only landscapes, but people, as well.  Currently, the Sky Islands Wildlands Network has been endorsed and supported by more than 50 groups and individuals now forming an unofficial "network of people protecting networks of land."

The work of these groups and individuals includes efforts to:

• expand existing, and designate new, Wilderness areas;

• identify and propose other public lands protection mechanisms;

• protect private land within Landscape Linkages;

• build grassroots and political support; and

• create excitement for conservation in the region through public outreach meetings and media coverage.  

These broad efforts are resulting in many success stories that, like jigsaw puzzle pieces being placed together, are gradually shaping a conservation vision across the region.  Conservation action successes have included:

• an agreement between the Sky Island Alliance and the Coronado National Forest to close 100 miles of non-designated roads over the next decade;

• the inclusion of Landscape Linkages identified in the Sky Islands Wildlands Networks in Pima County’s (AZ) Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan;  

• focus by the Arizona Open Land Trust on protecting private lands in the Sky Islands for their biological values;  

• recognition of endangered species protection by ranching coalitions like the Malpai Borderlands Group and other private ranchers;  

• increased reliance on prescribed burning programs by the National Parks Service; and  

• collaborative, nature-based tourism development to protect private lands and wildlife in northern Mexico by Proyecto Corredor Colibri and Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory.   

Perhaps one of the best indications that a broadly inclusive implementation approach is beginning to work across differing conservation methodologies, across political boundaries, and across a wide social and cultural landscape was last month’s “Sky Islands 2002: Restoring Connections" conference in Tucson.  With a primary goal of informing and inspiring the public and existing network participants of the numerous complementary conservation initiatives going on in the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, the event drew more than 300 people representing more than 100 state, federal and private conservation organizations. 

The conference featured 32 speakers, each describing different efforts to protect the region’s biodiversity. The end result was striking--a recognition throughout the audience that regional, landscape-level conservation in the Sky Islands cannot be accomplished without embracing the fact that every effort, no matter how small, contributes to an end goal that is shared by all: a robust, connected Sky Islands ecoregion that protects and preserves land and native species, and contributes to healthy people and healthy communities.

The Sky Island Alliance, based in Tucson, Arizona, works to restore and protect the sky island region of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico through legal advocacy and on the ground restoration activities.  For field schedules or more information, contact the Sky Island Alliance (www.skyislandalliance.org; 520/624-7080).

 For more information on the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, contact the Wildlands Project’s southwest field office in Tucson (520/884-0875).