• Home
• About Us
• Programs
• Donate Now
• Membership
• Volunteer
• Publications
• Calendar
• News
• Interactive Map
• Contact Us

The Return of the Jaguar: The desert roars to life with the voice of a long-lost tropical cat

Inside Out Magazine - May, 2010 - It is winter in sky island country, and everywhere there is movement. Border Patrol trucks cruise back roads, water flows in desert streams, a cool wind slips between canyon walls and scours the hilltops.
Read full article

Forest Service Asked to Protect National Forests for a Changing Climate

“It has become clear to the resource-management, scientific, and conservation communities that protecting the natural systems wildlife and people depend on in the face of climate change will require new ways of thinking about land management,” said Louise Misztal, conservation biologist with the Sky Island Alliance in Tucson. “Now is the time for the Forest Service to ensure climate-smart management that safeguards our wildlife, water, and natural heritage.”
Read full article

Rare Ocelot photographed in southern Arizona

AZ Daily Star - April 16, 2010 - A rare tropical cat has been photographed by a remote camera in Southern Arizona. Volunteers from the Witness for Wildlife program retrieved images last week of an ocelot taken by cameras in Cochise County, according to a press release from the Sky Island Alliance, a local conservation organization.
Read full article

Camera catches ocelot creeping through county

Sierra Vista Herald - April 17, 2010 - SIERRA VISTA - Remote cameras in Cochise County have captured the image of an ocelot, a rare tropical cat.

Sky Island Alliance, a Tucson-based regional conservation organization, recently photographed the cat while participating in the Witness for Wildlife program, which is supported by the Freedom to Roam Coalition and Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company.  Sky Island Alliance sets remote cameras to unobtrusively observe wildlife and assess wildlife corridors in Arizona’s Sky Island region.
Read full article

AZ GFD employee has been put on administrative leave for Macho B death

AZ Daily Star - March 10, 2010 - An Arizona Game and Fish Department employee has been put on administrative leave as a result of an internal department investigation into last year's capture and death of the jaguar Macho B, the department said Tuesday.
Read full article

Jaguar filmed close to U.S.-Mexico border


Nogales International - February 23, 2010 - Almost one year after the death of a jaguar (Macho B) in Arizona, Sky Island Alliance (SIA) of Tucson, Ariz., released photographs of a northern jaguar in Sonora, Mexico. Three years into a conservationist-rancher partnership, a jaguar was photographed by a remote camera placed along an isolated canyon of the Sonoran Sky Islands. The photographs were taken 30 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read full article

Mexico to Place 5 Mexican Grey Wolves near Arizona


AZ Daily Star - February 7, 2010 - The government of Mexico is planning to reintroduce five endangered Mexican gray wolves in northeastern Sonora - within a wolf's walking distance of Arizona. The reintroduction, scheduled to occur as early as this month, has forced U.S. state and federal agencies to scramble. Their problem is to figure out what to do if a wolf wanders north into the United States.
Read full article

Bringing Back the Jaguar

NY Times - Jan. 26, 2010 - Re “Jaguars Don’t Live Here Anymore,” by Alan Rabinowitz (Op-Ed, Jan. 25):
I support the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to develop a recovery plan for the jaguar and encourage this agency to reclaim authority over jaguar recovery in the United States.
> Read full article

New Oracle expansion will include wildlife crossings

KVOA - Jan. 21, 2010 - One of Tucson's busiest roads will be getting an upgrade, and it may actually be a good thing for area wildlife.
> Read full article

State's capture of jaguar Macho B was intentional, federal investigators conclude AZ Daily Star

Jan 21. 2010 - The capture of Macho B, the last known wild jaguar in the United States, was intentional, according to a new investigative report by the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General.

The report says Arizona Game and Fish Department employees meant to capture the jaguar Macho B on Feb. 18 last year, citing evidence gathered as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
> Read full article

Emerald Isle

AZ Highways - Feb. 2010 - In Arizona, it's known as the Tumacacori Highlands. In Mexico, it's the Emerald Mountains... Featuring Sergio Avila, Jessica Lamberton, and the Northern Mexico Conservation Program.
> Read full article (PDF)

In reversal, feds support jaguar's habitat, recovery

The AZ Daily Star - Jan. 13, 2010 - In a sharp reversal of its predecessor's position, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will protect the endangered jaguar's prime habitat and develop a jaguar recovery plan.
> Read full article

Panel to create eco-monitoring plan for border

The AZ Daily Star - Dec. 10, 2009A team of scientists brought together by the Department of the Interior is in Southern Arizona this week to develop a plan assessing the effects of the government's buildup of border security.The 16 scientists are scheduled to take a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meet with residents, environmentalists and public land managers before they begin work on a document they expect to be ready by April 2010.
> Read full article

Sahuarita has seat at Washington talks on mines

The Sahuarita Sun - July 14, 2009 - Activists from Sahuarita and Tucson joined Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday in calling for the Obama administration to reform the nation’s 1872 hardrock mining law.
> Read full article

• U.S.-Mexico Border Fence May Snag Wildlife

  Discovery News - July 8, 2009 - The United States-Mexico border fence may block more wildlife border crossings than people crossings. The already limited border populations of pygmy owls and bighorn sheep will likely be among those further threatened by the fence, says a new study. (has video segment with Sergio Avila of Sky Island Alliance).
  > Read full article

A Biological Bridge between the Tropical and Temperate Americas

Vermillion Flycatcher - July/Aug. 2009 - Special Feature by Sergio Avila: Living in southern Arizona we are lucky to enjoy diverse habitats like oak woodlands, deserts, and beautiful canyons; and some of the species in these areas live at the northern- or southern-most points of their distribution ranges.
> Read full article (PDF)
• > See full magazine from Tucson Audubon (PDF)

• The need for wildlife linkages

  The Explorer - July 1, 2009 - Above the town of Oro Valley is an open area designated as a wildlife corridor, allowing native animals to move with relative ease between the Catalina and the Tortolita Mountains.
  > Read full article

• Bear, lion track count ends after 20-year run - Official effort, aided by volunteers, followed populations in Huachucas

  AZ Daily Star - June 7, 2009 - Article on Sky Island Alliance's 20th anniversary and final Ft. Huachuca Track Count!
  > Read full article

• Analizarán impacto del cambio climático en la frontera

  www.impre.com - 19 de Mayo, 2009 - Un ambicioso proyecto internacional a cargo del Instituto Sky Island con sede en Tucson analizará el impacto del cambio climático en las especies de flora y fauna que habitan a lo largo de la zona fronteriza.
  > Read full article

• Guest opinion: Learning from Macho B – Jaguars can thrive in Arizona if we act now

  Tucson Citizen - April 28, 2009 - (by Sergio Avila) The death of the jaguar Macho B has left an enormous void in Arizona's wild lands, but another jaguar may be moving in to fill that void.
  > Read full article

• Sky Island Alliance on KXCI for Earth Day

  KXCI Radio - April 2009
  > Listen Here

• Camera traps offer glimpse into hidden world

  Tucson Citizen - March 16, 2009 - "Jessica Lamberton also checks camera traps for Sky Island Alliance, a local nonprofit, to track jaguars and ocelots in northern Mexico."
  > Read full article

• Border fence walls off environment, too

  Eco Americas.com - Jan. 2009 - "Sergio Avila, a biologist with the Sky Island Alliance, an Arizona green group, warns of the wall's effects in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands, a region where temperate and tropical species mingle in wildlife corridors and where ecologically unique mountain ranges called "Sky Islands" rise from the desert."
  > Read full article (PDF)

• US House must protect our national heritage

  Arizona Daily Star - 2-10-09 - (Opinion piece by Trevor Hare.) Jan. 15 was a great day for land protection and wildlife conservation in the United States as the U.S. Senate passed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act.
  > Read full article

• The Cuatro Gatos Project: Wildlife Research and Conservation in Northwestern Mexico and the Implications of the Border Fence

  Wild Felid Monitor - Winter 2009 - Article by Sergio Avila, Sky Island Alliance. Purchase a copy of the Winter 2009 Wild Felid Monitor at http://wildfelid.com/.
  > Read full article (PDF)

• An Addition to the 100-Mile Circle: Neotropical Whipsnake (Coluber mentovarius)

  Sonoran Herpetologist - 1/1/09 - An amazing range extension for the Neotropical Whipsnake from more tropical areas to the south and east. Rancho El Aribabi is now the norhternmost known extension of this species. Full article by Jim Rorabaugh, Sergio Avila (Sky Island Alliance), Carlos Robles Elías, and George Ferguson.
  > Read full article

• Feds, state must cooperate on area land uses (Rosemont Mine)

  Arizona Daily Star - 1/4/09 - As we enter the new year with new administrations imminent in both Washington and Arizona, we have a unique opportunity to approach how best to protect our watersheds and keep them healthy, preserve our Sonoran Desert wildlife habitat and continue to provide recreational opportunities for us and for future generations, while operating within today's economic realities.
  > Read full article

• Desired Conditions: Environmentalists and Forest Service officials find themselves largely agreeing about the Coronado's future

  Tucson Weekly - 12/11/08 - The air is cool, and the hiking is easy these days here in the Madrean Archipelago--but I wouldn't know. I've been inside for weeks, reading reports about the state of the Coronado National Forest.
  > Read full article

• 'Green' groups push for Coronado National Forest protections

  Tucson Citizen - 11/27/08 - A partnership of environmental groups and other nonprofits is calling for a wider swath of wilderness and more emphasis on quiet recreation in the Coronado National Forest.
  > Read full article

• Guest opinion: In the forest, gentlemen, stop your engines (by David Hodges)

• Tucson Citizen - 11/20/08 - We residents of southern Arizona are slowly losing an important part of our natural heritage. Bit by bit, a freedom we have long enjoyed is eroding: the freedom to experience our wild lands on the Coronado National Forest as a place of solitude and solace.
• > Read full article

• Seasonal tributaries in the Southwest are under scrutiny in the wake of a Supreme Court decision (multi-media)

• NPR - Living on Earth- 11/14/08 - Two years ago, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling on America's rivers that limited the reach of the Clean Water Act. The ruling has many repercussions, especially in the arid Southwest. Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet reports.
• > Read full article

• Black-tailed prairie dogs are released in area near Sonoita

• Nogales International - 10/14/08 - Nearly 50 years ago they vanished from Arizona’s landscape, but thanks to a multi-partner reintroduction effort, black-tailed prairie dogs are making a comeback. The animals used to re-establish black-tailed prairie dogs were chosen based on their similar genetics to the population that previously lived here. The reintroduction is an effort by Game and Fish and the state Land Department. Volunteer support for the site preparation was provided by Sky Island Alliance, Animal Defense League and the Sierra Club.
• > Read full article

• Trabaja mexicano en preservación de habitats en Sonora y Arizona

• La Estrella de Tucsón/AZ Daily Star - 8/29/08 - Cuando era niño, Sergio Ávila soñaba con jugar con un jaguar como mascota. Y su sueño no sólo se volvió realidad, sino que el trabajo del biólogo por la preservación de estos felinos y el medio ambiente en la frontera Arizona-Sonora está siendo reconocido nacionalmente.
• > Read full article

• Supes set to audit county staffers' correspondence
  Environmentalists fear attack on Santa Cruz River's "navigable" status

• Tucson Citizen - 7/19/08 - The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Friday ordered an internal audit of staff activities that critics said could lead to softening of federal restrictions on development near the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. "I ask that immediate action be taken by our elected officials to ensure that the public may trust our county leadership to represent our interests in the protection of our water resources, watershed integrity and dedication to ecological stewardship," Matt Skroch, executive director of the Sky Island Alliance, told the supervisors.
• > Read full article

• Board deems river navigable, calls for Public Works review

  Arizona Daily Star - 7/19/08 - The Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed unanimously Friday to support full federal protection and regulation of the Santa Cruz River and many of its tributaries under the Clean Water Act. Environmentalist Matt Skroch, director of the Sky Island Alliance, said he is concerned because Huckelberry has already said how he believes the county audit will likely turn out.
  "I think the most important thing about initiating a review such as this is that you go into it without assumptions or preconceptions about what the conclusion will be," said Skroch. "You follow the facts."
• > Read full article

• Pima County Board Members In Uproar Over Internal Staff Memos On Santa Cruz

• By Jim Becker, KOLD News 13 Reporter - 7/18/08 - "In no correspondence have I seen a substantial or even minor concern on Pima County's behalf regarding the protection of streams and washes, clean water and the integrity of our community's watersheds," said Matt Skroch of the Sky Island Alliance, during a special board meeting.
• Skroch calls on supervisors to make changes in staff leadership "that will reflect an environmentally-minded concern for the actions and positions the county takes."
• > Read full article

• Tohono O’odham Demand Halt to Construction of Border Wall

• intercontinentalcry.org - 7/18/08 - On Thursday, July 10, the O’odham Solidarity Project issued the following call to mobilize against the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, which will cut through the heart of the Tohono O’odham’s traditional territory.
• With the April 1st announcement by the Department of Homeland Security to suspend thirty six federal laws to finish the border wall by the end of 2008, the border threatens to destroy the O’odham way of life, their traditions, religious practices, sacred sites, and pilgrimage routes, notes the Washington times, USA Today. There are a host of environmental concerns as well.
• > Read full article

• County's memos counter its conservation plan

• AZ Daily Star - 7/13/08 - Pima County officials boast about their efforts to save open space and curb private development of sensitive lands through their Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. But at the same time, they've quietly opposed a measure that would bring tough federal environmental regulations of their own riverside road and flood-control projects, public records show.
• > Read full article

• Decision may pose threat to Santa Cruz

• AZ Daily Star - 7/10/08 - Regulation of the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries has been thrown up in the air less than two months after it appeared the U.S. government had permanently agreed to protect them from the effects of new homes, roads and mines.
• > Read full article

• Public should accept more frequent, but less destructive, forest fires

• AZ Daily Star - 7/6/08 - (By Matt Skroch and Tom Swetnam) It is fire season, and our forests will burn this summer. There are choices to be made about our communities' relationships with fire. Old habits must be broken and we will benefit from increasing our tolerance for more fire and smoke — not less. We would like to propose why.
• > Read full article

• Words vs. Deeds: McCain's Legislative History Clashes With Support for River He Calls a 'National Treasure'

• Washington Independent - 6/26/08 - SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Sen. John McCain’s environmental legacy in Arizona may be inexorably linked with the fate of a narrow ribbon of Fremont cottonwoods and willows lining the diminutive San Pedro River, the last free-flowing, wild river in the desert Southwest.
• > Read full article

• Proposed Rosemont mine continues to draw ire

  Vail Sun - 6/24/08 - ...Trevor Hare, of the Sky Island Alliance spoke about the animals and plant life that will be impacted if the mine is fully operational. ...
• > Read full article

• Board OKs transit projects that rely on 1-cent sales tax

  AZ Daily Star - 6/20/2008 - Regarding I-10 bypass through San Pedro or Aravaipa: "Janice Przybyl, who spoke on behalf of the Sky Island Alliance, said she wanted assurance the money that could pay for the long-term project plans would not be used for other projects, such as the bypass."
• > Read full article

• Poll: Most New Mexicans, Arizonans back wolf recovery

  Associated Press - 6/16/2008 - A program to release Mexican gray wolves in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona has more support in Arizona than in New Mexico, according to a poll commissioned by wildlife groups and environmentalists.
• > Read full article

• On the Prowl

• Smithsonian magazine - 11/2007 - Rare jaguar sightings have sparked a debate about how to ensure the cats' survival in the American West.
  
• > Read full article

   

• Tumacacori wilderness sought: Grijalva's bill would protect Highlands area

• Tucson Citizen - 8/5/2007 - The debate over a proposed Tumacacori Highlands wilderness area swings into high gear now that U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva has introduced a bill to protect 83,400 acres of national forest from Tubac south to the Mexican border.
  
• > Read full article




• Our Opinion: Congress should enact Tumacacori Highlands bill

• Arizona Daily Star - 8/4/2007 -Godspeed to legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva this week to protect and preserve about 84,000 pristine acres in the Tumacacori Highlands.
  This swath of southern Arizona is extraordinary.
  
• > Read full article




• Group presses for critical habitat in U.S. for jaguars

• Sierra Vista Herald - 8/6/2007 - The elusive jaguar could disappear forever in the U.S. wilderness unless critical habitat is designated for the large cats, according to the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
  
• > Read full article




• Hotter, Drier Climate Moves Up Sky Islands' Slopes

• Weekend Edition Saturday - 7/21/2007 -If you look at a topographic map of North America, you'll see two huge spines in the West: the Rocky Mountains which stretch from Canada to the desert in the Southwest, and the Sierre Madre of Mexico.
  
• > Read full article




• Richardson calls for moratorium on wolf killing

• Associated Press – 07/07/07 -ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Gov. Bill Richardson is calling for the suspension of a policy that requires federal wildlife officials to trap or shoot to death any endangered Mexican gray wolf that kills three head of livestock in a year. The governor's request for a moratorium comes a day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shot and killed a female wolf that had been released April 25 in Catron County.
  
• > Read full article




• News Analysis: Augusta says it’s moving forward

• Green Valley News- 07/14/2007 -Jamie Sturgess, the face of the oft-vilified Canadian mining concern Augusta Resource Corp., asserted last week that his company’s commitment to building a potentially very lucrative open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains has not waned, despite the inhospitality of the county supervisors, residents near and far, and the clamorous environmental community.
  
• > Read full article




• Guest Opinion: San Pedro recovery doesn't stand a chance

• Tucson, Arizona - 07/9/2007 -A recent article described the formation of an advisory group to recommend measures to keep the San Pedro River flowing. The creation of this group is the latest in a series of ineffective steps to preserve the flows of the San Pedro in the Sierra Vista subbasin.
  
• > Read full article




• Buscan proteger la Sierra Tumacacori

• La Estrella de Tucson -- Apoya Grijalva una propuesta legislativa - Por casi 30 años, David Courtland, sus hijos y amigos, han realizado sus caminatas y excursiones familiares en la Sie-rra Tumacacori.
  
• > Read full article




• Rosemont Rising

• The Tucson Weekly - 3/8/2007 - Can this mine fight turn a national tide? In February, Grijalva held a congressional hearing in Tucson to consider the Rosemont mine proposal. But he also tapped that pulpit to pitch a far broader agenda, which includes prohibition of new mining on public land in Pima County.
• > Read full article




• The wilderness is next to godliness

• The Arizona Republic - 12/19/2006 - As pastor of a congregation in Tempe, I am naturally interested in the spiritual lives of our church members. I sometimes ask, "When have you felt closest to God?" They don't say: "During your sermons." For many, the most intense experience of the holy has been on a mountaintop, or by a stream, or next to the ocean.
• > Read full article

Home | Contact Us |About | Join or Give | Volunteer | Publications | Calendar | Programs

Copyright © 2007 Sky Island Alliance * Site designed by Jennifer Judge Hensel