Thank you to all of our supporters who responded to our end of the year appeal.
With your help we were able to complete an ambitious agenda and protect some critical habitat for wildlife. But first, a brief description of the Wildlife Haven project for those that are unfamiliar.
Map of region where the Wildlife Haven project is located in Southern Arizona, USA.
Four years ago, Biophilia Foundation partnered with Wildlife Corridors, LLC. to advise and fund the purchase of a bankrupt housing development. That 1100 acre development, then known as the Three Canyons project, threatened to destroy what Northern Arizona University researchers found to be the most valuable wildlife corridor in the Southwest region (see the following map of Southern Arizona for location).
Without our intervention, the land today would look like this:
KEY: Green is protected federal land. Yellow is the wildlife corridor. Boxes are house lots.
This map shows the large number of homes that would have been built by the Three Canyons project in the heart of the wildlife migration corridor.
Instead, today the corridor is intact, and looks like this:
This map shows the wildlife corridor as it is today, completely protected and accessible to migrating wildlife.
Learn More About the Wildlife Corridors Project
Thanks to generous donors this past year, funds were raised to help us do the following:
- acquire an additional 72 acres (and an option to purchase additional land) to expand the existing wildlife corridor;
- establish new wildlife trails built by volunteers;
- engage volunteers and high school students in restoration activities in Smith Canyon and elsewhere on the Wildlife Haven property;
- install additional wildlife drinking stations;
- complete an information kiosk explaining the restoration work, wildlife corridor, and why these activities are crucial for wildlife and wildlife connectivity;
- continue grant writing to match federal funds with those raised privately (US Department of Agriculture Forest Legacy Program);
- reduce substantial debt and refinance the original land purchase debt;
- plan for new restoration projects in Smith and Casa Blanca canyons, the location of the wildlife corridor .
Biophilia Foundation, our partners in Patagonia, Arizona, and the wildlife benefitting from Wildlife Corridors project extend our deep thanks for your support of this ongoing project.
Richard has been the President of Biophilia Foundation since its inception in 1999. A native of Phoenix, AZ, he grew up in the open desert spaces alongside lizards, snakes, coyotes, & javelinas. These early experiences with wildlife led him to his career in conservation biology. He has had the opportunity to work for and volunteer with organizations such as the Trust for Public Land, Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, Wildlands Network, & Borderlands Restoration Network. Richard received his doctorate at Prescott College.