Arizona Conservation Priorities Receive Boost from $13 Million Grant

Arizona’s Verde River is a critical source of water to communities and wildlife along its path from northern Yavapai County to the Phoenix Valley, which is why residents have decided to partner with The Nature Conservancy in Arizona to protect this land and the precious Verde River for generations to come.
That decision and protection [...]

Arizona’s Verde River is a critical source of water to communities and wildlife along its path from northern Yavapai County to the Phoenix Valley, which is why residents have decided to partner with The Nature Conservancy in Arizona to protect this land and the precious Verde River for generations to come.

That decision and protection of the Verde River, received a significant boost today as the first land and water conservation projects supported by a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant were announced by The Nature Conservancy. Two of the three Arizona projects increase protection along the upper Verde River including its origin.

These efforts are supported in part by a $13 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to The Nature Conservancy to support state wildlife action plans across five Rocky Mountain states – Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. Regionally, $11 million of the total grant will be devoted directly to wildlife conservation and will be matched on a five-to-one basis, which will result in more than $55 million for wildlife conservation during the next three years.

The Conservancy expects five of Arizona’s high-priority wildlife conservation projects to be supported by approximately $1 million of the grant in 2008. More projects and funding will follow in the next two years. In Arizona, the Conservancy teamed with organizations such as Arizona Open Land Trust, The Trust for Public Land, the Conservation Fund, Malpai Borderlands Group and Grand Canyon Trust to identify critical land and water priorities within the state wildlife action plan, to positively impact both nature and people.

Last year, the Conservancy acquired 313 acres of the Wells’ family property, located at the origin of the Verde River. Last week, the Conservancy transferred ownership of 293 acres of this property, located 25 miles north of Prescott, to the Arizona Game and Fish Department to extend its Upper Verde River Wildlife Management Area. The state’s Heritage Fund Program provides the resources for Game and Fish to preserve and manage this land. Supported by funds from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant, the Conservancy will retain 20 acres at the river’s headwaters as its new Verde River Springs Preserve.

Also along the upper Verde River where it joins Sycamore Creek, The Trust for Public Land will match Doris Duke Charitable Foundation funds to purchase 139 private acres and convey that to the United States to become part of the National Forest system and extend the boundaries of the Coconino and Prescott national forests. The land provides important public access to Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area and the Verde River

Patrick Graham, Arizona State Director for The Nature Conservancy, said, “Arizona is the fastest growing state in the country, and the priorities we set now will impact future generations. This is a tremendous example of how private dollars from an organization such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation can work together with public funds to preserve Arizona’s and our world’s most critical lands and waters.”

Trust for Public Land Arizona State Director Paul Audley said, “The Conservancy’s coordination of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant demonstrates the cooperative nature of conservation organizations in Arizona. We are all about doing our best to maximize resources to protect vital landscapes, water and habitat to ensure the health and beauty of our natural environment.”

Conservation along Arizona’s borders also expanded today as the grant supports a 9,500-acre voluntary land protection agreement between the Maplai Borderlands Group and the owners of Cloudt Ranch. The agreement extends the land protected by the Malpai group to nearly 85,000 acres and provides a critical buffer to subdivisions. This property contributes to a corridor of wildlife habitat from the grasslands of the San Simon Valley to the oak woodlands of the Coronado National Forest and provides a vital migratory corridor for wildlife along the U.S. – Mexico border, preserving the migration of several species including the northern-most occurrence of jaguars.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. The Nature Conservancy in Arizona has been protecting nature and preserving life for more than 40 years. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web .

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties.

State wildlife action plans were first conceived in 2000, when Congress mandated that each state develop a comprehensive strategy for conserving its wildlife in order to receive federal funds. The states submitted their plans to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the fall of 2005, and they were all approved by Congress in February of 2007. In developing these plans, the state wildlife agencies were careful to consider the broad range of wildlife, including game and non-game species, common species as well as endangered ones. They identified and prioritized key wildlife habitat, in many cases using the latest technology to map these lands.