Conservation of Arizona Important Bird Areas--Tucson Audubon Society

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Arizona Important Bird Areas Program / Tucson Audubon Society
Arizona IBA Conservation

IBA Program Pursues Conservation at Important Bird Areas (IBAs)
by Scott Wilbor
(This article first appeared in the December 2002 – January 2003 Vermilion Flycatcher Newsletter)
The Arizona IBA Program has been actively pursuing and encouraging conservation proposals at a number of potential and recently identified Important Bird Areas across Arizona. Beginning in September and continuing right on through November the IBA Program has been active in designing strategies, proposals, and providing leadership or assistance in conserving, enhancing, or expanding protected acreage at priority IBA sites. All of these efforts have been through collaborative partnerships between Arizona’s eight Audubon chapters, the public agencies managing these lands, and with other conservation groups in Arizona.

Tumacacori National Historic Park, some 50 miles south of Tucson along the Santa Cruz River is one such potential IBA. A Southern Arizona Bird Conservation Committee was formed from biologists and conservationists who attended the Arizona All-Bird Workshop held in September. This committee has made it a priority to pursue funding opportunities and provide other assistance to help the National Park Service secure funding to acquire an additional 310 acres for both cultural and natural habitat protection. The total available property open to purchase is over 500 acres, the majority of which is riparian habitat along the Santa Cruz River corridor, with nearly perennial water from treated wastewater from Nogales in combination with natural spring water along the drainage. Partners in this effort are, the National Park Service, Friends of the Santa Cruz River, Sonoran Institute, Arizona Partners in Flight, Arizona Sonora-Desert Museum, Sonoran Desert National Parks-Inventory and Monitoring Program, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Liberty Wildlife, Aplomado Environmental, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The IBA program will use birders to be part of an IBA Stewardship Team to conduct bird surveys and habitat assessment from Tumacacori to Tubac in the potential expansion area, and to conduct Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Gray Hawk nesting pair surveys next year.

Tuzigoot IBA, including Tuzigoot National Monument, Tavasci Marsh/Peck’s Lake, and the Arizona State Park managed Verde River Greenway is another priority area. This area is near the communities of Cottonwood, Clarkdale, and Jerome. Here there is also an opportunity for the National Park Service to expand its boundaries to include management of Tavasci marsh. Conservation opportunities and needs at this IBA include purchasing the lake and surrounding uplands from Phelps Dodge Mining Co. and securing them in conservation ownership. Secondly, we want to restore the marsh hydrology by re-designing the presently artificially constructed hydrology of the lake-marsh system. The present system has Verde River water flowing into and through Peck’s Lake into the marsh to dilute the lake to meet water quality standards. This has altered the marsh and its riparian habitat community to the detriment of wildlife, while the lake has remained prone to eutrophication in the summer, to the detriment of birds and other wildlife. Cattle grazing on the mining company owned land has also significantly impacted the riparian habitat. A newly formed Tuzigoot IBA working group will have had two meetings by December. The first meeting, held in October, was to unify conservation groups working in the region around our IBA strategy for the area, and the second meeting, held in late November, was to present our vision of the IBA to the chamber of commerce, city council members of three communities, and county officials. In partnership with The Trust for Public Lands, the Nature Conservancy, Arizona State Parks, and the National Park Service we will pursue both funding for land purchase or easements at the site. Audubon’s IBA Program and Northern Arizona Audubon Society will take the lead in promoting of economic benefits of enhancing the eco-tourism potential for the region through the public support of an Audubon Important Bird Area designation for the site. We will promote an eco-tourism strategy for the area focusing on low-impact recreation opportunities, conservation management of the lands, and habitat restoration, which will benefit the economies of three local communities through increased visitation of the region by birders, photographers, hikers, campers, anglers, bicyclists, and nature seekers.

Lower Oak Creek At Page Springs IBA, between Cottonwood and Sedona, we continue to perform bird surveys, work with private landowners to plan a nest box program, and facilitate tree planting in the riparian zone this winter. We are now working with three families all on Oak Creek, who support our efforts to recognize the river corridor, and riparian habitat as an expanded Oak Creek IBA extending from Page Springs Fish Hatchery to Red Rock State Park. An immediate conservation opportunity for us at Page Springs Fish Hatchery is the expansion of AZ Game and Fish Property to include 52 additional acres along Oak Creek, which are presently for sale on the hatchery’s south border. The IBA Program and Audubon AZ State Office will assist Northern Arizona Audubon Society in this effort.

Lastly, we continue to promote conservation efforts along the Lower San Pedro, near San Manuel. Here with technical assistance from The Nature Conservancy, we continue to assist private landowners Carole and Mack Skeen in securing a conservation easement for their property. Recently, we contributed assistance and support on behalf of their application for an additional Partners for Wildlife Grant to meet environmental interpretation needs for their future nature retreat center. This eventual Lower San Pedro IBA will include conservation lands from Cascabel to Winkleman.

Other Audubon conservation projects with potential future IBA status include: the Aqua Fria National Monument, where on-going bird surveys are being conducted by the Sonoran Audubon Society, a potential fencing project is also being explored, the Gila/Salt River IBA, where IBA Program will contribute to the development of a management plan by AZ Game and Fish, the South Fork of the Little Colorado River, where on-going surveys and avian data compilation are being conducted by the White Mountain Audubon Society. We will keep you posted on our conservation progress every so often, but until then, check out our IBA section within the Tucson Audubon website, and see about being part of an IBA citizen-science team in 2003!

List of Identified & Potential Arizona IBAs
This is a list of sites that 1) have already been identified as IBAs, and 2) are potential IBAs.

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This page was updated on 02/21/06