THE WHITE-COLLAR CONSERVATIONISTS

Preserving remnants of a vanishing Arizona is a full-time job for the business-suited staffers of The Nature Conservancy...

When the urgent call went out one day in 1982, Arizonans by the hundreds opened up their hearts-and, impressively, their pocketbooks.

Inspired by the appeal, a Tucson woman turned over five acres of land in Apache Junction. "Sell the property," she insisted, "and use the proceeds." Checks from individuals, corporations, and foundations flooded in, ranging from one dollar to 100,000 dollars. A Maryland couple, former Copper Staters, chipped in the 500 dollars earned from a recycling project. And Erma J. (Jonnie) Fisk, eighty-year-old naturalist and author, agreed to donate all royalties from her popular book of memoirs, Peacocks of Baboquivari.

The object of all this fiscal affection? The hoped-for acquisition-now a reality -by The Arizona Nature Conservancy of an environmentally exquisite 54,660-acre tract of southeastern Arizona known as the Muleshoe Ranch Preserve.

Muleshoe-wild, scenic, diverse, abundant with plants and wildlife is not the first tract of endangered wilderness the state Conservancy has acquired since it went into the land-saving business twenty years ago. Eight other sites have been preserved largely through Conservancy efforts. Of these, three, in addition to Muleshoe, are presently being managed by the Conservancy itself.

But Muleshoe holds two special distinctions. It is by far the largest and most ambitious of the Arizona Conservancy's ventures to date. In fact, it is the second largest (after California's Santa Cruz Island) of all acquisitions of the group's thirty-five-year-old Virginia-based national parent organization whose name it shares: The Nature Conservancy.

The Muleshoe also is, ecologically speaking, one of the most important, a genetic treasury of endangered flora and fauna. Captured in its eighty-five square miles is a complete, virtually unspoiled watershed, that of the upper Redfield Canyon complex, which to the Conservancy represents the best available example of protecting Arizona's most precious commodity: water.

Stretching upward from the flat, rolling Soza Mesa desert into the rugged wilderness of the Galiuro Mountains, northwest of Willcox, the Muleshoe includes three desert streams that have never been tampered with by man. Flowing through canyon bottomlands toward the San Pedro River, they are inhabited by native species of fish only; there are no introduced exotics.

In human terms, the Muleshoe has a fascinating, turbulent history. At various times it has served as one of the state's largest cattle ranches, a prosperous health spa (Hooker's Hot Springs), and the stage for so much real-life drama in the form of shootings, divorces, and other scandals (divorce was a scandal in the late 1800s) that one former resident even wrote a novel about the place.

To the Conservancy, though, Muleshoe's greatest value is natural, not man-made. Fish are the single most threatened class of species in Arizona, and Muleshoe Ranch is one of the two most important sites in the state (Aravaipa Canyon is the other) for watershed protection to provide habitat for native fish.

"Nowhere else south of the Gila River," observes Dan Campbell, director of the Tucson-based Arizona Conservancy, "is there such an opportunity to protect an aquatic and riparian habitat like this."

Muleshoe is, in fact, one of only fourteen projects approved by the national Conservancy for inclusion in the National Critical Area Conservation Program. Launched in 1980, this effort is designed to identify and preserve the nation's rarest and most threatened natural areas. Since the program started, Campbell explains, more than 138,000 acres of vanishing nat-ural systems-Muleshoe now among them-have been selected for special treatment. Muleshoe thus enjoys the company of such important though disparate ecosystems as California valley grasslands, northwestern wheatgrass communities, Hawaiian rain forests, and Texas mesquite-oak savannas, all once threatened by man.

them-have been selected for special treatment. Muleshoe thus enjoys the company of such important though disparate ecosystems as California valley grasslands, northwestern wheatgrass communities, Hawaiian rain forests, and Texas mesquite-oak savannas, all once threatened by man.

To those whose image of a "conservationist" is one of a backpacking, jeansclad, corporation-battling activist with a legal brief at the ready, the style of The Nature Conservancy ("TNC" by its own abbreviation) comes as somewhat of a surprise. Chartered in 1951 by a small group of naturalists and concerned laymen, its low-key, business-suited staffers avoid the limelight, would far rather woo than sue corporations, prefer boardrooms to courtrooms, and (though their goals are compatible) even shun coalitions with the more vocal conservation organizations with which the public tends to be familiar.

Leaving whaleand tiger-saving to the others, TNC is the only nationwide, private, non-profit organization that devotes its resources solely to the acquisition and management of ecologically significant lands; and since 1951 this single-minded effort has paid off handsomely. In terms of budget, TNC has become the nation's third largest conservation organization (after the National Wildlife Federation and, perhaps surprisingly, Ducks Unlimited). To date, TNC has saved more than 2.4 million acres of American marsh, forest, lakes, rivers, prairie, beach, islands, and desert, representing an investment exceeding 50 million dollars per year, all from donations of one sort or another. The acquisitions-nearly 4000 of them, constituting the largest network of private nature preserves in the world-are carefully planned. By its own statement of purpose, TNC first identifies and inventories those areas felt to be most seriously threatened, assigns them priorities, and acquires them either by gift, by purchase, or by assisting money-short government agencies with funding. Finally, through its Stewardship Program, TNC then manages many of the sites itself, as it presently does in four cases in Arizona.

None of this comes cheaply, of course. Although foundations provide the lion's share of TNC revenues (31.7 million dollars or fifty-nine percent in the 1984 budget), corporations (3 million dollars, six percent) and individuals (18.8 million dollars, thirty-five percent) are no less important; and it is individuals who give TNC its strength numerically. Since 1951 TNC's roster has mushroomed to more than 260,000 dues-paying members nationally, of which 6500 are counted in the very active and growing Arizona chapter, chartered in 1979.

In Arizona, the Conservancy arrived on the scene none too soon.

"While Arizona's natural environment is truly unique in its diversity, we are beginning to realize that it is also one of the most fragile," says Governor Bruce Babbitt, one of the Conservancy's staunchest supporters (along with Senator Barry Goldwater and Congressman Morris Udall). Early Spanish explorers, the governor points out, described the lush grasslands that once covered the Gila River basin, for instance. Early settlers camped in the shade of large stands of mesquite and cottonwoods along desert streams rich in a variety of aquatic life. They shared the region with gray wolves, grizzly bears, and jaguars, all of which roamed here freely.

Conservationists

But much has changed. Throughout Arizona, man's imprint has often been harsh, and the state's aridity has only compounded the problem, making its ecosystems particularly vulnerable even to moderate human use.

While stimulating agriculture, practices of overdrafting of water have destroyed many of Arizona's riparian habitats. Mining has scarred the foothills. Overgrazing during a period of two centuries has almost entirely eliminated some of the sprawling grassland systems that once dominated central and southeastern Arizona, forcing away a variety of mammals and birds once found there.

In many parts of the state, alarmed citizens recognized the danger early and took action, through government channels, to protect threatened areas.

"But many of Arizona's most seriously threatened ecosystems are not in the scenic areas of the state," says Babbitt. "They are not currently included in parks, refuges, or wilderness areas. And many of those that have been included have begun to suffer problems of overuse and the continuing encroachment of adjacent development."

Man especially threatens water-based habitats here, and fish populations continue to dwindle as a result. About eighty percent of the fish species native to Arizona are now threatened; the Monkey Spring pupfish has not been seen in years and is presumed extinct, and seven other species may have disappeared.

Nor is there danger to fish alone. An estimated 100 of Arizona's native plants are threatened. That's a startling number even in a state that has so many plant species-3700 or so at last count, eighty three of them found nowhere else in the world, with 110 others enjoying very limited distribution elsewhere.

Despite the dryness and seeming harshness of its natural environment, Arizona in fact supports communities of both plants and animals whose diversity is rivaled in few places on the North American continent. Scientists say that more species of mammals can be found within a 200-mile radius of the point where Arizona, New Mexico, and old Mexico meet than in (with one exception) any comparable region in North America. The exception is the California seacoast, because of its profusion of marine mammals-which Arizona, of course, does not have.

The public dollars earmarked to save the environment can be stretched only so far, however, especially in lean times when other programs-anti-poverty efforts, education, defense-necessarily take priority. That's where the privately operated, nonprofit, fund-raising Nature Conservancy gathers steam.

As bird lovers will long remember, the Conservancy's first acquisition in Arizona, in 1966, was a 309-acre stretch of Sonoita Creek near Patagonia, which subsequently became known as the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Sanctuary (PSCS). The Arizona group at that time was just forming under the auspices of the national organization.

Part of the original San Jose de Sonoita Spanish Land Grant, the site was purchased twenty years ago with the help of the Tucson Audubon Society and is a birder's delight. It was given high priority early on, because many conservationists worried that the building of Patagonia Lake downstream might have a "domino effect" of development that would threaten this unique riparian habitat.

Drawing 10,000 visitors each year, PSCS, because of its year-round stream and surrounding forest, is classified as a deciduous riparian woodland. According to the Conservancy, it is probably the best remaining example of this type of habitat in southern Arizona.

More than 200 species of birds have been sighted in the sanctuary, located at (OPPOSITE PAGE) Geoffrey and Yvonne Babb, staff assistants, oversee The Nature Conservancy's Mile Hi facility, six cozy cabins nestled beneath towering Arizona sycamores and oaks on twenty acres below the Ramsey Canyon Preserve. Guests can bike a self-guiding nature trail along Ramsey Creek and acquaint themselves with the wide variety of the canyon's flora (ranging from desert to riparian to forest) and fauna-coatimundis, ringtail cats, javelina, deer, and an amazing variety of bird life, including more species of North American bummingbirds than in any other location in the United States.

(ABOVE) A great horned owl surveys The Nature Conservancy's 312-acre Patagonia - Sonoita Creek Sanctuary, a deciduous riparian woodland northeast of Nogales. Cloaked in extremely soft feathers for nearly silent flight, great horned owls live mostly on rabbits and other rodents. ALL BY DUANE LAWSON

Conservationists

About 4000 feet within a narrow flood-plain valley with gently sloping sides between the Santa Rita and Patagonia mountain ranges.

Avian visitors include a number of spe-cies usually found in Mexico; only through this section of southern Arizona do they enter the United States. Among the most popular are the gray hawk, beardless flycatcher, rosethroated becard, and vermilion flycatcher. Warblers stage a "fly-in" here in the spring, and patient bird-watchers may also catch a glimpse of the elusive Montezuma quail.

The sanctuary also is home to many aquatic and terrestrial animals, including white-tailed deer, bobcat, coati, javelina, badger, coyote, and desert tortoise.

As with most of the sanctuaries it manages, the Conservancy encourages the public to visit PSCS and sponsors public tours throughout the year. The Ramsey Canyon Preserve, located on the east slope of the Huachuca Mountains ten miles from the Mexican border and bounded on three sides by the Coronado National Forest, was acquired by the Arizona Conservancy in 1975 through a

Conservationists

The preserve also provides habitat for such amphibians and reptiles as the canyon tree frog, red-spotted and western spadefoot toads, southwestern leopard frog, Sonoran mud turtle, and several snakes. Visitors have sighted more than 170 species of birds here, and the cienega's tiny, grass-bordered stream harbors several rare fish, specifically, the Gila chub, the coarse-scaled sucker, and the longfin dace.

Since 1969 the Conservancy has twice added acreage to the original sixty-five acres, increasing it to its present size. Chapter director Dan Campbell explains the logic of adding to earlier acquisitions, a common Conservancy practice. “If sometime in the future wells should be dug on nearby acreage to provide water for agricultural, residential, or commercial use,” he says, “the cienega would dry up. A habitat therefore cannot always be protected by saving only that habitat, but may require surrounding areas as well.” While the Conservancy has been acquiring these three major preserves and setting up management programs for them, it has been equally involved in raising seed money for sites to be managed by other agencies.

Aravaipa Canyon is a case in point. To protect the canyon when exploitation appeared imminent, TNC contracted to purchase the Woods Ranch at the west end as a kind of buffer. It is now managed by a private land trust funded by the estate of George Whittell, a wealthy Californian.

To prevent loss of another parcel, between Squaw Peak Park and Palm Canyon in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, TNC loaned the City of Phoenix the money for the purchase from its revolving fund. Phoenix then repaid the sum when it purchased back the tract.

Two other sites - a parcel on the Planet Ranch on the Bill Williams River near Lake Havasu, and the former 640-acre Riggs Ranch in Thomas Canyon-owe their preservation at least partly to Arizona Conservancy efforts.

And then along came the Muleshoe Ranch prize.

Few would fault Dan Campbell or his Conservancy staffers for cheering over the success of the Muleshoe fund drive, or for the opportunity given Arizonans to save one of their last truly unspoiled wilder. ness areas.

Consider, for instance, that as determined by the Arizona Natural Heritage Program, there are only twenty streams left in the entire state with at least four native fish and no introduced species, and that three of them, in pristine condition, are found within the Muleshoe's 54,660

Conservationists

Acres. Or that, perhaps for centuries more, Arizonans will be able to watch golden eagles and peregrine falcons soaring high above woodland forests of juniper and ponderosa, or catch a glimpse of bighorn sheep grazing on the rimrock, just as earlier visitors did. Naming its funding effort for the late Edward R. Steele, a long-time Arizona conservationist, the Arizona Conservancy in 1982 established a goal of 1,600,000 dollars to protect the Muleshoe and the other three preserves it now manages. The ranch acreage itself was appraised at 1,220,000 dollars but was offered to the Conservancy for 900,000 dollars. The balance of the fund was used to create a 600,000-dollar stewardship endowment to benefit all four preserves and provide 100,000 dollars in Muleshoe start-up expenses (fencing alone will run 17,500 dollars) and other management costs. The Goodhill Foundation of New York primed the pump by offering to donate - up to a total of 625,000 dollars-three dollars for each dollar raised by the Conservancy through other contributions. This fund drive was completed in the summer of 1985, and constituted the largest conservation effort ever undertaken by Arizona's private sector. Meanwhile, the Arizona chapter had already quietly launched a Twentieth Year Oasis Fund in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Patagonia preserve in 1966. Included in the five projects constituting this effort are a twenty-seven-acre buffer zone for the Canelo Hills Cienega and a 3372-acre Bass Canyon addition to the Muleshoe. The Conservancy acquired the Bass Canyon parcel in 1984 because this addition includes the other half of Bass Canyon's perennially flowing stream and because it contains the only suitable habitat on the preserve for the rare Gila chub. On a one-day field trip to the new addition, participants saw nesting zone-tailed and black hawks, beardless flycatchers, a troop of coatimundis, a pair of gray foxes drinking from the creek, a small group of javelina, a western diamondback rattlesnake, a barn owl, five species of native fish, turtles and bear sign. The Arizona chapter has been issued another challenge from the Goodhill Foundation: for every three dollars raised, Goodhill will contribute one until the project goal of 215,000 dollars is realized.

Selected Reading

Peacocks of Baboquivari, by Erma J. Fisk. W. W. Norton Co. Inc., New York, 1983. Planet Steward, by Stephen Levine. Unity Press, Santa Cruz, California, 1974. Animal Extinctions: What Everyone Should Know, edited by R. J. Hoage. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1985.

These titles are available through The Arizona Nature Conservancy. To order, write to Mile Hi, R.R. 1, Box 84, Hereford, AZ 85615.

WHEN YOU GO...

Visiting in southern Arizona is at its best during the cool season of the year, from October through April. Dress comfortably and wear walking shoes. And always be sure you have a supply of drinking water with you as you travel.

The preserves of The Nature Conservancy in Arizona are open to the public free of charge. While the information listed below was accurate at press time, it is subject to change, so call ahead before starting out on your trip.