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Borderlands Restoration Network is honored to have received a $245,000 grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society Climate Adaptation Fund established by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to fund critical ecological restoration work along the path of the jaguar in southeast Arizona. WCS's goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions, home to more than 50% of the world's biodiversity. The WCS Climate Adaptation Fund strives to increase the pace and scale of impact in climate adaptation for wildlife, ecosystems, and the people who depend on them by increasing innovation, accelerating learning, and mainstreaming proven adaptation approaches.
The Sky Islands region of southern Arizona and northern Mexico encompasses more than thirty mountain ranges and is recognized as a globally-significant biodiversity hotspot home to half the bird species in North America, and over 7000 species of plants and animals, including the last remaining jaguar in the United States. |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
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Corridors linking migratory populations in the United States and Mexico are facing increased pressures from climate change that are worsening trends of habitat degradation and fragmentation. Ongoing regional aridification means that 96% of Arizona’s historic rivers no longer have surface flows. Past mismanagement of Madrean Sky Islands oak woodlands and riparian areas have exhausted surface and soil carbon causing severe seasonal soil erosion. This topsoil loss has cascading effects on vegetation, water availability and wildlife habitat integrity for birds and large mammals, such as the jaguar, which must traverse an increasingly divided and deteriorating landscape. |
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THE WORK:
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During 2021 - 2022 BRN will perform restoration work in and around a critical migratory pathway between the Huachuca and Santa Rita mountains complimenting and expanding upon our work in the area. Our restoration activities engage a multi-pronged approach to mitigate climate change impacts in one of the sole remaining migratory wildlife corridors between the U.S. and Mexico. By installing erosion control structures (ECS) and revegetating native plant communities, groundwater will recharge, erosion will be repaired sequestering carbon and enhancing habitat for migratory wildlife. This work will move this corridor toward a trajectory of recovery and increase the resilience of the landscape to current and future climate impacts. This work also contributes to scientific understanding of carbon sequestration in arid landscapes and may contribute to the adoption of a carbon credit public policy in the Southwest US. |
DETAILS & DELIVERABLES:
Erosion Control Structures (ECS)250 erosion control structures will be installed including: one-rock dams, media-lunas, trincheras, stick structures, and one log dams. Borderlands Earth Care Youth, will build 26 of these structures as part of their programming.
Scientific studies show erosion-control structures on landscapes: decrease peak flows for small to medium flood events, decrease stress in plants and increase vegetation health, increase surface water availability at sites up to 5km downstream and up to 1km upstream, extend seasonal flows and increase in-stream volume by around 28%, increase organic matter (OM) in soils (i.e. carbon sequestration), increase soil moisture at structures by around 10%, increase sedimentation downstream. |
Erosion Control Structure
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Native Seed Collection
BRN staff seed collecting.
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Native mulch and native grass seed pellets will be distributed across at least 40 acres of bare soil surfaces in the BWP. Material will be chosen based on 1) distance to restoration site, 2) population size and health, 3) elevation, and 4) presence of fruit. Field personnel will monitor field sites at the BWP, which is ungrazed, private land, and make collections when seed is at the point of natural dispersal. Seeds will be cleaned, treated, and stored by staff at the BRN Seed Lab in accordance with seed needs. |
Native Mulch & Native Pelletized Seed
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Distribute native mulch and native grass seed pellets across at least 40 acres of bare soil surfaces in the BWP. Using a power chipper, restoration technicians will chip dead and down native, woody material, such as native velvet mesquite and Emory Oak trees, to cover bare ground. Mulch promotes soil moisture retention and revegetation of bare ground, further stabilizing the soil surface. It also acts as a seed refugia for hand-scattered seed pellets, further promoting vegetative recovery and stabilizing the soil surface. |
Pelletized native seed.
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Revegetation
PVC tubes used to prevent predation of saplings.
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Restoration planting activities will occur over two growing seasons and will include the planting of at least 4000 riparian trees, forbs, and graminoids including: oak acorns and saplings, ash seeds and saplings, cottonwood seeds and poles, sycamore seeds and saplings, netleaf hackberry seeds, soapberry seeds, Arizona black walnut seeds and saplings, desert willow seeds and poles, rubber rabbitbrush seeds, seep willow poles, willow ragwort, and other riparian species. Where feasible, plants will be placed in protective PVC tubing that will be buried around the plant to prevent predation. All plantings will occur on grazing-excluded sites and will be tied-in to water-harvesting rock structures to increase the likelihood of surviving. |
Effectiveness Monitoring
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Aerial photography, scientific monitoring, and wildlife cameras will be used to monitor effectiveness. Drones will be flown before, during, and after restoration activities to visualize restoration effects on the landscape. Sediment retention behind erosion control structures will also be measured. Wildlife cameras will be used to document wildlife at the BWP. |
A bobcat by a drinker at the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve.
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GET INVOLVED:
Nursery volunteers hard at work.
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VOLUNTEERWe need your helping hands to complete this project! When deemed safe to do so and with safety precautions in place, multiple volunteer opportunities will be available where you can work aside our staff and other volunteers to help restore the path of the jaguar. Projects will include seed collection, work at our native plant nursery, and hands on work at the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve. Get on our list by filling out the form at the button below and we will contact you when it's time to get busy! |
QUESTIONS?
Contact Tess Wagner, Watershed & Habitat Restoration Program Manager.