What We Do
Our Grass Roots Efforts
The Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance focuses on three main program areas. These are what we do best, and what we have sufficient volunteerism to conduct:
Conservation Advocacy, including administrative/legal efforts, and the development of educational materials
Collaborative Conservation, including efforts of outreach to diverse stakeholder groups and collaboration with other activist conservation groups
Maintaining Conservation Standards, including the monitoring of conservation easements and habitat conditions
If you would like to get involved or make suggestions regarding our program areas, please contact us or join today.
Why we focus on three main program areas
When the Alliance was formed in 2013, it was envisioned that the organization would include a broad range of stakeholders, including representatives from governmental agencies, local agricultural interests, businesses, traditional conservation groups, and non-governmental organizations. Our goal was to develop a protection plan for the riparian zone of the San Pedro River and its major tributaries. We quickly realized that organizing something that diverse during a politically charged era in American history would require neutral facilitation. Our membership mainly consisted of volunteer conservationists who lived in the region, along with supporting conservationists from other parts to the state and the nation who were aware of the ecological importance of the last remaining natural and intact desert river ecosystem in southern Arizona.
Our original aim was to provide a platform for collaboration among diverse interest groups, which would be the over-arching program area, with the four sub-programs of producing/disseminating multi-media educational materials, engaging in cooperative research, conducting on-the-ground conservation projects, and engaging in community outreach and conservation advocacy efforts. In the years following the establishment of these five original program areas, we have recognized the strengths and weaknesses of being an all-volunteer organization based in a low population rural area, and we have adapted to political and practical realities.
Collaborative Conservation
With regard to the need for collaborative conservation efforts by diverse interests, in 2017 we helped to form the Lower San Pedro Collaborative, a neutrally facilitated association of about 20 different groups and agencies who have a major interest in the lower San Pedro watershed. As a participating member in the Collaborative, we see that this association is making some progress in building relationships and cooperative efforts among the various participating groups. However, the challenges we face in the lower San Pedro watershed often require immediate and effective legal action, especially during this era when there is a movement to undermine laws and Acts of Congress that protect ecological sustainability.
Hope does not spring from standing on the sidelines wishing that things will get better while conditions drift toward ecological degradation. Hope springs from action. As a result, our collaborations with other activist conservation groups have been critical to addressing our mission. We actively collaborate with other groups on issues related to water resources, mining, protection of critical habitat, climate change, and large-scale development, all in an effort to respond to major ecological threats to our watershed and to the planet as a whole.
Conservation Advocacy
A major strength in being entirely run by volunteers is that we owe nothing to major corporations, business interests, or governmental agencies. We can focus on our mission of ecological sustainability without worrying about the loss of corporate sponsorship or about trying to raise sufficient funds to cover a large payroll. We can freely speak our minds to agencies that develop policies. Conservation advocacy through administrative and legal processes has become a major program area. We have become a watershed-wide voice for conservationists in legal and other advocacy efforts, and we are fortunate to have some pro-bono assistance from Earthjustice, a national legal firm that focuses on ecological sustainability.
Maintaining Conservation Standards
With over 190,000 acres of our 1.3 million-acre watershed in some sort of conservation designation, we understand the importance of maintaining a high standard for protecting these conservation lands. In 2017, we took on the major program area of monitoring and helping to manage a large conservation easement held by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation at the Three Links Farm near Cascabel. Conservation easement monitoring has become an important concern for our organization and for our sister organization, Cascabel Conservation Association.
We still engage in some cooperative research and on-the-ground conservation projects on our individual properties, but we mainly conduct these activities as part of maintaining our properties in a responsible and sustainable manner, and we integrate those efforts into our three main program areas. We still develop educational materials, but this is done in conjunction with our advocacy efforts.
You Can Help
The success of all of our programs depends on the dedication of members, donors, volunteers, and allies like you. Join today to learn more about what you can do to support our many efforts to protect this vital and vibrant habitat.