Episode 130: Conservation Challenges and Successes Amidst Increased Border Militarization In The Sky Islands

August 16, 2024

About Emily Burns Emily joined the Sky Island Alliance in 2019 after practicing conservation science and restoration for nearly a decade in the redwood forests of California at Save the Redwoods League. She leads the team running all programs,

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[00:08]
A
I really want people to know that no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands and we really. This region is so important to the natural history of North America as a whole. It's this continental crossroads between temperate species like mountain lion and black bear and wolves, and then the tropical species like jaguar and ocelot, white nose coat. And I want people to feel connected and have some personal responsibility from what's happening here.
[01:03]
B
You're listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. Program director for Sky Island Alliance, Emily Burns joined the group in 2019 after practicing conservation science and restoration for nearly a decade in the redwood forests of California. At Save the Redwoods League, she leads the team running all programs, including the Border Wildlife Study, the trinational internship program, Sky Island, Photo, Fauna, springseeker, their stewardship projects and communications. Her hope for the Sky Islands in the next 30 years is that communities make choices that keep water flowing, native plants thriving, and wildlife safely on the move between the US And Mexico. Emily, thanks so much for being on the Rewilding Earth podcast.
[01:57]
A
Great to be here. I'm excited to talk about all things Sky Islands.
[02:00]
B
This is like a blast from the past for me. I'm just so happy to see the work that you guys are doing. It's so extensive. You can get lost in your website with all of the cool things that you're doing, documenting, working on what's on the top of your mind these days.
[02:15]
A
Top of mind for me is often how this amazing region that spans northern Sonora and southeastern Arizona, just a corner of New Mexico, this beautiful diamond shape on the map with these great mountains scattered across the desert and the grasslands that surround each mountain range. We have this political hotbed, this border running between the US And Mexico that is creating such a challenge, but also opportunity to do continental scale conservation here in this region. Really thinking about how political decisions that get made at the national level are impacting our local Sky Islands.
[02:58]
B
Yeah, back in our day, we didn't really focus a lot on the border being a barrier because we just had the bollards in a lot of places, which wasn't an impediment at all to wildlife. But we were worried about the roads more than anything. I can't imagine. Well, I can because I talk to so many people these days. But compared to what we were worried about then, what you have to worry about now, what's much, much different. All the things you guys have to take into account when you're trying to educate people on this stuff.
[03:27]
A
In the last 20 years, there have been dramatic changes at the US Mexico border with increasing militarization and the building of infrastructure that has become almost impassable to large animals. In particular. It all started in 2005 when with the passage of the Real ID Act. And in that, it granted authority to the Department of Homeland Security director to be able to waive laws and statutes at the US Mexico border. Now, that is incredibly significant because it meant that the government could go ahead and issue law waivers and no longer have to comply with the Endangered Species Act. As one example of many that goes back to 2005. Yeah, that's where the original authority came from. And then the next year in 2006, the secure fence act provided the first big amount of funding to build border barriers, which included vehicle barriers, which we consider still fairly passable for large mammals crossing back and forth. But the first pedestrian barriers or the border walls. And a significant amount was built in the years following that. And then it slowed down quite a bit. But then under the Trump administration, 2017 to 2021, we had really rapid expansion of the pedestrian barriers, or border wall. And the result is now here in Arizona, two thirds of our southern border with Sonora is blocked by border wall, and the gaps between the bollards are only 4 inches. And that is a major impact for many species that are native to North America.
[05:24]
B
You have talked in the past about the cameras, the camera work, I imagine, in the border region, that's being some of the only recording and documentation that's going on with wildlife. Because I'm sure no one in the government waiving all the environmental laws, it's not their intention to really even worry about that stuff. So thank you guys all for doing this work that you do. Could you explain a little bit more what that is in case someone hasn't stumbled upon one of your great trail cam images or videos on social media yet?
[05:57]
A
Yeah, thanks. This has been a really exciting and motivating project for us to set out a network of remotely operated trail cameras. And this network of cameras, we have over 110 cameras now along 90 miles of the border in eastern Arizona. And these cameras are watching the whole variety of habitats that we have along the stretch of international boundary, from desert to grassland and oak woodland in the southern Huachuca Mountains and the Patagonia Mountains. So the recording, the ebb and flow and the just the changes that happen in the wildlife community at large, we document every single animal that shows up in front of one of our cameras. And we've detected over 135 different species so far between the Patagonia Mountains and the Huachuca Mountains. For place reference, that's between the town of Naco on the east and Nogales in the west. And so we have a baseline that in that area, which is so important because it's one of the places where we only have vehicle barrier and no wall has been built yet. So we're getting this sense of what is the native wildlife community that should be present in these border habitats without border wall. And then we're comparing that to areas further east that were, that are now bisected by border wall and looking at differences in the wildlife community there. Some of our wildlife cameras look directly at the international boundary itself and are documenting animal behaviors when they encounter different types of border infrastructure. In the grasslands of the San Rafael Valley, where there's only vehicle barrier, we are recording American black bear, North American porcupine, mountain lion, white nosed coat, colored peccary moving back and forth under the vehicle barrier and conversely across the San Pedro river and out in the San Bernardino Valley where there's the wall. We're looking at what happens when animals are unable to cross. Where do they attempt to cross? Where are they successful? Where do they fail? And we're studying exactly this issue so that we can understand if we can create wildlife openings that will allow animals to move back and forth again and re establish that connection between Arizona and Sonora. Where should those openings be? How big do they have to be to support the largest body animals and which species are able to use the smaller gaps? And we're hoping that all of this data will in the long term, make the wild the wall more wildlife friendly. If we have to continue to keep these walls on our landscape, I imagine.
[09:02]
B
That that's a heck of a fight to even talk about that with people who are really mad about anyone's attempt to make the wall seem weaker. Even though we've seen people cutting through the wall in 10 minutes and you only have to make one cut and the things are so tall it just bends out of the way. It's really just crazy that something that isn't even effective at keeping people out as it was intended is so effective keeping wildlife out in many cases. It's always been a frustration of mine. It's like, why do we even do it? And then I remember it was just a political cartoon that just somehow manifested in the real world. So that must be frustrating. But the views you get of how things are supposed to work or how they are working in the places where there are not these obstructions yet, and hopefully ever. It must be heartening because it's also probably because of the wall and because of all of this giving us a view that we didn't have before. We didn't have a hundred and some odd camera traps there before, ever, until there were. And I imagine we're learning things about animals and movements and things that we hadn't even dreamt of.
[10:13]
A
One of the biggest surprises was our own realization that there's a small population of porcupine down on the border. And we've seen it crossing back and forth between Sonora and Arizona in the San Rafael Valley. This is where the headwaters of the Santa Cruz river flow south into Sonora. And there's a beautiful cottonwood gallery and some old apple orchards that were planted probably decades and decades ago that are still out there on the landscape. And these amazing rodents, the largest rodent in North America, has a population here. It first showed up on our photographs as this mysterious blob at night that didn't have any of the features of the other mammals that we had been seeing. And until we got a clear image of it where we could see its face, we find that's when we finally knew it was porcupine. And now it's become a bit of a natural history obsession to understand where else are they? And we've picked them up now in the Patagonia Mountains and in the western foothills of the Huachuca Mountains. And it's fascinating. This is a species that's been. It's not listed, but it's somewhat increasingly rare in Arizona. And it's really exciting to know that the species is here. We're probably looking at some of the southernmost individuals right there at the border in Sonora. So it's fascinating. A species that's more common at higher latitudes, but here in the borderlands, it was really exciting to find it.
[11:45]
B
That is so cool. Yeah, well, I'm. I have a tendency, as maybe some others do, to find the increasing rarity of everything wild and biodiversity in general, to make an assumption that we already. We know everything that's out there and it's not true. Of course, if you really just stop and look it in the eye, that's, of course, a preposterous thing to believe. But if you work so hard in this world and you are looking continual decline of biodiversity numbers in general, I start to think there's nothing else out there to probably discover. And I think that's a subconscious thought, not an active thought. But to have a conversation like this about species that are running around that we had no idea were, it's just really cool. Congratulations on the jaguar capture on camera last year.
[12:36]
A
Yeah, we're at Skyland Alliance. We actually love all the species. So we are just as excited about seeing a porcupine as we are about a jaguar. The jaguar was a stunning sighting that we are excited and humbled to have been part of this jaguar story here in the borderlands. We, like I've mentioned, we've have dozens of cameras all over the place. And this was for us, an unlikely camera where we ended up getting two photographs in 2023 of a male, young, male jaguar that had also been seen sighted in another mountain range. So we detected it in the Whetstone Mountains and it had been seen earlier in the year and then after our sightings in the Huachuca Mountains. So this is a place where the border wall stops and it transitions into that vehicle barrier. More open 30 mile stretch across the San Rafael Valley. So we know that this individual moved back and forth at least twice between the Huachuca Mountains that are adjacent to the border and the Whetstones further north, which is very clear evidence to us that this is clearly the path of the jaguar, at least this individual that it used, connecting the core population in Sonora up here into the US Sky Islands. And we're more committed than ever to making sure that we invest in habitat restoration and helping to ensure safe passage and protection for this jaguar and the ones that come after it as it comes into this landscape.
[14:18]
B
You're listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. Did you know we also publish insightful and inspirational content from leading Rewilding scholars, poets, artists and organizers from around the world. You can visit rewilding.org and sign up for our weekly digest to receive brilliant fresh insights on everything Rewild. Rewilding. You'll find over a decade of articles and news from the front lines of wildlands protection and all kinds of restoration efforts. Check us out@rewilding.org and don't forget to share it with friends. When I was at sky island, we did road ripping. We partnered with the Forest Service in different areas and they happily lent us resources and gave us permission to come in and get rid of volunteer roads. The ones that are not made by Forest Service especially. They did not like those roads and there was a dumb law in the books. I don't know if it's still a law that once a road like that is created, the Forest Service would start to maintain them. Like, and they're not even legal. They weren't even started by. I, I'm sure that law has to be off the books by now. But anyway, those were the roads that we, that we would tear out. And in, in exchange, we would have people like Sue Morse come in and take our volunteers out and track things. That was really cool. Learn from one of the world's greatest trackers. And so I wonder what restoration work looks now. I bet it's a lot more sophisticated and a lot more wide ranging than just working on getting rid of roads and other things, although that's probably still some part of it.
[15:49]
A
We're very interested still in lessening the road network, the footprint that roads have on the Forest Service. And so much of the sky island region that we're talking about on the US Side is owned and is managed by the Forest Service, probably just like when you were doing it. This continues to be a really core conservation activity. And in 2018, there was a new tribal management decision that closed about 20, administratively closed about 26% of the roads in the Sierra Vista district, which is down here by the border. And those have been sitting still open physically on the ground. So because we know the jaguar moved through this area, we are doing everything we can to begin closing physically roads that should be closed and nobody should be driving on. We want to see it return to grassland habitat and oak woodland habitat and give more of the land back just to animal movement instead of vehicle movement. So that is still a key conservation activity for us. But we are also working on restoring springs, these really important water sources and aquatic habitats that are scattered across the Sky Islands. And so we have a whole program to rescue springs. Sometimes it means separating cattle, helping cattle move back away from a spring source and aquatic habitat, giving them a separate drinker water that the cattle can use, but letting the aquatic habitat recover. To improve water quality, le let native plants come back and have that be a safe space for wildlife species like jaguar to be able to access as they're moving across the landscape. So we're really excited about our spring work and volunteers help us. Not only do those spring rescues on the ground remove invasive species, put up cattle exclusion fencing that's wildlife friendly, but they also just do the health checkups of where the springs are, what condition they're in, so that we can plan these projects and get the rescues happening. So working on springs is a, is a big passion of ours on both sides of the border.
[18:01]
B
And I can say firsthand, you will not have a more fulfilling volunteer experience in The Southwest or not many at least than doing something with Sky island alliance. And that comes from actually doing stuff with Sky island alliance, but being out there, being way, way out there in these places. You guys like to get remote. I bet you guys still have fun at. I'm sure the food is awesome as it has always been, and you have great things planned for volunteers.
[18:31]
A
Volunteers basically are welcome and needed every aspect of the work that we're doing. We have cameras that are maintained totally by volunteers. They go out and service them, change their batteries, retrieve the data, help us analyze the photos. We have people that work just in our office doing that photo analysis. Our spring seekers are volunteers that go out and use their smartphone to record the data in a free app about the condition of springs. We'll have special campaigns going throughout the rest of the year doing backpacking trips into wilderness, which is super fun to document springs that are very much off the beaten path. So those would be great trips to volunteer for. We're doing erosion control work to help stabilized the soil in the forests on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. This is a mountain range that was hit by a really devastating fire in 2020, the Bighorn Fire. And because of tree mortality and just the aftermath of the fires, we're really worried about springs getting buried in riparian areas being inundated by landslides. So we do rock work, which means making loose rock structures or carefully designed wooden and rock structures with local materials to help stabilize the slopes, let soil accumulate to help re vegetation. And it also helps more water get back into the groundwater to absorb into the mountainside as opposed to just running off as quickly as possible. So that's a really fun project that we have going on. It's a little bit heavy work so hard on on your back moving the rocks around, but we get to be in really beautiful parts of the forest. And up on Mount Lemmon is always fun, a great place to work in the summer when it's obviously hot down in the lower elevation areas.
[20:31]
B
You can learn more about the volunteer opportunities at sky island alliance@skyislandalliance.org Volunteer. Pretty easy URL to get to. And I just guarantee you guys are going to love the people. The people in the Sky Islands are just some of the most dedicated and wonderful and ecologically educated people compassionate you'll ever find. And doing work down there is in some cases pretty backbreaking, but really fulfilling, really fulfilling. You'll remember it for the rest of your life. So I highly encourage everyone who is interested in that to go check out sky island alliance.org volunteer.
[21:10]
A
Thank you.
[21:11]
B
Some more volunteers coming your way.
[21:13]
A
That's exciting. We're ready. It's going to take all of us to save the Earth, right?
[21:18]
B
Yeah. And people get tired of just reading about stuff. I highly encourage volunteer opportunities with any organization that you can. If you can't make it to the Southwest, look up your local organization. It is real good. Mental health, physical health, mental health. One of the aspects that I know must be a drain. Trail cameras cost between 3 and $5,000. Back in the 90s, they were. It was just cost prohibitive, like crazy. So the only people that had trail cams would be universities. And the government didn't really care, didn't really have much use for them. It's mostly universities. So you get a big old grant at your university and you'd be able to buy three cameras. It's changed a lot now, but it's an embarrassment of riches now that it's a lot cheaper relatively, to get a big network of cameras out there. There's a big problem that comes with that. It's not a problem, but it is a lot to manage. Can you talk a bit about that?
[22:12]
A
The cost has come down so much. So now we can buy a trail camera that we use for research for $150. And that's the cheapest part of the work that we do with monitoring wildlife. The real work comes in once it's installed in the field. The cameras, depending on their location, need to be checked by a person who needs to drive out and hike to the camera at least every two months. Generally, some can sit a little bit longer, but some need to be checked more often. And then we bring back the invaluable data and we analyze over a million photographs a year. And that is a human being or a whole variety of both. The wildlife staff at Skyland alliance are great volunteers and our paid interns that help look through all of those photographs, separating out photographs that are just moving vegetation without an animal. And then when we do have an animal, identifying what the species is, how many individuals and any other notable observations about it to create the database and that we can use to understand how the wildlife community is changing and animal behaviors around the border. There's just hundreds and hundreds of hours that go into making that data available.
[23:29]
B
Are you bombarded by people doing studies, universities, others who now know you have this wonderful database that's gone back some years? I imagine it's extraordinarily valuable for conservation biologists and others in the area. Do you share that.
[23:48]
A
Our goal really is to provide our data as widely available, to make it as widely available as possible so that it can be used to guide conservation actions and better knowledge about the species we care about here. We work really closely with the Wildlands Network and on our border work and are working to put out an upcoming publication on animal crossing rates at the border itself. So that will be out in the public domain soon. And we are willing to share our other border data with partners and conservation practitioners. We participate in Snapshot usa, which is a look across the United States about which animal species are showing up where. And so we like contributing to that. And we have a second project that we do that anyone listening can contribute to, whether you're here or somewhere else, where we set up a framework for you to put out a camera in your own backyard. We do ask you to source your own camera, but then you can contribute just a simple checklist with one representative photo of every animal species that that you see on your camera. And that's allowed us to create a public database called Sky Island Photofauna. And you can view that on our website to get a sense of what are the wildlife species in my community. And with that knowledge, help your neighbors or agencies in your area make more informed decisions about development projects that might be going on. You're concerned about a highway, new highway project that could be going on. You can look at the sky island interactive map and get a sense of, oh, my gosh, that's in mountain lion habitat. That seems really scary if there aren't good mitigation measures in place and you'd have more information to write comment letters or just to be excited about the animals in your region. So that is a really fun project. We have a lot of resources about how to find a camera, how to identify different species, and we hope people will take advantage of that data set that we're all collectively generating.
[25:55]
B
How powerful is it to be able to go to a hearing and say definitively something about mountain lions that you learn from the data, to be able to say, this is what mountain lions are doing, and that's because of or in part of data that your team and volunteers are putting together. Just supposed to be a really big source of pride to be able to arm people with that information when it really counts?
[26:21]
A
Yeah, we feel really good about it. We do think that it's important that everyone has access to information about the species that are around us in our communities. We can't be good conservation practitioners and stewards of the habitats in our midst if we don't have that information. And we just love the fact that it can happen across jurisdictions. So Photofauna is happening in Sonora, it's happening in Arizona, it's happening in New Mexico on public and private land. We've got a lot of public land partners that are participating and even sharing data out here in this, through this project, into the public domain. And it gives us a sense of what's happening in urban areas and in also in the more remote areas. It's really fun to poke around and we take care to make sure we're not revealing specific camera locations. And we don't have sensitive species list shown on the map. So we're doing our best to protect everyone's privacy, including our rarest species. And yet you'll still get a lot of great information about what, which species are being found where and where they're not showing up. Often we learn the most about why don't we see this animal in this area? What's going on? Is there something that we could do if it is a place where we should expect to see a certain species?
[27:39]
B
What do you wish you could do better? What do you wish for in terms of capacity?
[27:45]
A
We really have a big goal to have the future of conservation in our region be driven and conducted by the workforce that reflects our skyline region. This means we want conservation practitioners to be coming from Mexico and from the US that have fluency and are comfortable working across borders. The sky island region transcends so many different types of land ownerships and of course across the US Mexico border that we've talked about. So we have an ambitious goal to be providing paid work opportunities and on the job experiences for members of indigenous groups, tribal nations. We would like our practitioners to be bilingual and comfortable working in Sonoran Arizona, moving back and forth, because our species in the sky island region need to be able to move back and forth across the border in between different sky islands. And so we're really trying to build out that capacity for practitioners here so that we can do conservation in this region in the best way possible, including local perspectives. So we have a growing internship program where undergraduates from Sonora, the Dhonatham Community College and universities in Arizona all get to participate in the projects we've been talking about this morning.
[29:10]
B
What's a question that people don't ask you enough that you wish they would?
[29:15]
A
I think I really want people to know that no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands and we really. This region is so important to the natural history of North America as a whole. It's this continental crossroads between temperate species like mountain lion and black bear and wolves and then the tropical species like jaguar and ocelot. White nose coat. And I want people to feel connected and have some personal responsibility from what's happening here. I hope they feel impassioned to think about the implications of border policy on this region because it's going to influence many other species that are found throughout North America. If we continue to build border wall and block black bears from being able to walk south into Sonora, we're dooming that species because it's endangered in Sonora. Likewise, how are we going to have jaguar recovery in the US if we continue to wall off our border and jaguar can't walk northwards? So I really encourage folks to think about not just the humanitarian issues of what's happening with border policy, but but also the environmental and think about the species that you might find in your own backyard and how they can be affected here in the sky island region. This really is an international gem and we need everybody talking about it and helping us protect it.
[30:49]
B
And you can do that and get involved in many different ways. As we've mentioned@skyislandalliance.org Emily, thank you so much for taking the time. I love making a connection with my alma mater. This is really cool. Anytime you need to come back and talk about this beautiful region that you're representing, please do.
[31:08]
A
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me and for spending this time talking about the Sky Islands. Come down and go for a hike.
[31:15]
B
I'm on my way. Thanks for listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. We do what we do because of you. This podcast is supported by listeners like you who long to live in a wilder world. Please consider donating@rewilding.org and subscribe to our weekly news and article digest. While you're there to go the extra mile, you can follow and share Rewilding Earth on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Bonus points for sharing this podcast with your friends. To listen to past episodes, go to rewilding.org pod that's rewilding.org pod.

Episode 130: Conservation Challenges and Successes Amidst Increased Border Militarization In The Sky Islands

August 16, 2024

Summary4 min read

Rewilding Earth Podcast: Episode 130 Summary

Title: Conservation Challenges and Successes Amidst Increased Border Militarization In The Sky Islands
Host: The Rewilding Institute
Guest: Emily Burns, Program Director for Sky Island Alliance
Release Date: August 16, 2024

Introduction to the Sky Islands

Emily Burns opens the discussion by emphasizing the global connection to the Sky Islands region. She states, “no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands” (00:07). The Sky Islands, spanning northern Sonora, southeastern Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, serve as a crucial natural crossroads in North America, housing both temperate and tropical species.

Impact of US-Mexico Border Militarization

A significant portion of the episode delves into the ramifications of increased militarization along the US-Mexico border. Emily explains how policies initiated with the Real ID Act in 2005 and the Secure Fence Act in 2006 led to extensive construction of border barriers. She highlights the rapid expansion under the Trump administration (2017-2021), resulting in two-thirds of Arizona's southern border with Sonora now obstructed by walls with only 4-inch gaps (02:57; 03:27).

The host reflects on past and present challenges, noting, “you have to worry about what you have to worry about now, what's much, much different” (03:27). Emily underscores the detrimental effects of these barriers on wildlife movement, particularly for large mammals like black bears and jaguars, arguing that such infrastructure “is effectively keeping wildlife out in many cases” (09:02).

Wildlife Monitoring Through Trail Cameras

To combat the challenges posed by border walls, Sky Island Alliance has established an extensive network of over 110 trail cameras covering 90 miles of the border in eastern Arizona (05:57). Emily describes how these cameras capture a diverse range of habitats, documenting over 135 species between the Patagonia and Huachuca Mountains. This data provides a crucial baseline for understanding native wildlife communities in areas without border walls and assessing the impact in regions where walls have been erected.

Notable Wildlife Discoveries

One of the most exciting revelations from the camera data is the presence of porcupines and jaguars in the region. Emily shares, “there's a small population of porcupine down on the border,” highlighting their movement across Sonora and Arizona (10:13). Additionally, the capture of a male jaguar via camera in 2023 marks a significant milestone, demonstrating cross-border movement essential for the species' recovery (12:35). Emily expresses her commitment to ensuring safe passage and habitat restoration to support these magnificent creatures.

Volunteer Engagement and Restoration Efforts

Sky Island Alliance relies heavily on volunteers for various conservation activities. Emily outlines several volunteer roles, including maintaining trail cameras, analyzing photographic data, and assisting in spring restoration projects (18:31). She elaborates on restoration efforts such as reducing road networks to minimize habitat fragmentation and restoring springs to improve water quality and support native flora and fauna.

The host lauds the volunteer experience, stating, “you will not have a more fulfilling volunteer experience in The Southwest” (20:30), emphasizing the dedication and passion of those involved in Sky Island’s initiatives.

Data Sharing and Conservation Impact

Emily emphasizes the importance of data accessibility for effective conservation. Sky Island Alliance contributes to public databases like Snapshot USA and their own Sky Island Photofauna, enabling broader community involvement in wildlife monitoring (22:11). This transparency empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions regarding local development and conservation strategies.

The host highlights the potential of this data in advocacy, noting, “it's really just really fun” to utilize the collected information for meaningful conservation actions (25:55).

Future Goals and Building Local Capacity

Looking ahead, Emily discusses Sky Island Alliance’s ambition to cultivate a conservation workforce reflective of the Sky Islands’ diverse community. This includes creating opportunities for indigenous groups and bilingual practitioners to work seamlessly across the US-Mexico border (27:44). The organization is actively expanding its internship programs to include participants from local colleges and universities, fostering a collaborative and inclusive approach to conservation.

Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

In her concluding remarks, Emily reiterates the global significance of the Sky Islands, urging listeners to recognize their personal connection to the region’s biodiversity. She states, “we need everybody talking about it and helping us protect it” (29:14), highlighting the broader implications of border policies on wildlife across North America.

The host wraps up the episode by encouraging audience engagement through volunteering and supporting Sky Island Alliance’s efforts, reinforcing the collective responsibility in rewilding efforts.

Key Takeaways

Sky Islands' Ecological Significance: A unique region housing a blend of temperate and tropical species, serving as a critical wildlife corridor.
Impact of Border Militarization: Construction of border walls severely disrupts wildlife movement, threatening species like black bears and jaguars.
Innovative Monitoring: Deployment of over 110 trail cameras has been instrumental in tracking wildlife and understanding the effects of barriers.
Community and Volunteer Efforts: Volunteers play a pivotal role in data collection, analysis, and on-the-ground restoration projects.
Collaborative Conservation: Sharing data publicly empowers communities and conservationists to make informed decisions and advocate effectively.
Future Aspirations: Building a diverse and bilingual conservation workforce to ensure sustainable and inclusive protection of the Sky Islands.

Notable Quotes

Emily Burns (00:07): “no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands.”
Emily Burns (03:27): “...worry about what you have to worry about now, what's much, much different.”
Emily Burns (10:13): “there's a small population of porcupine down on the border.”
Host (20:30): “you will not have a more fulfilling volunteer experience in The Southwest.”
Emily Burns (29:14): “we need everybody talking about it and helping us protect it.”

For more information or to get involved, visit skyislandalliance.org/volunteer.

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Transcript34 lines

[00:08]
A
I really want people to know that no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands and we really. This region is so important to the natural history of North America as a whole. It's this continental crossroads between temperate species like mountain lion and black bear and wolves, and then the tropical species like jaguar and ocelot, white nose coat. And I want people to feel connected and have some personal responsibility from what's happening here.
[01:03]
B
You're listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. Program director for Sky Island Alliance, Emily Burns joined the group in 2019 after practicing conservation science and restoration for nearly a decade in the redwood forests of California. At Save the Redwoods League, she leads the team running all programs, including the Border Wildlife Study, the trinational internship program, Sky Island, Photo, Fauna, springseeker, their stewardship projects and communications. Her hope for the Sky Islands in the next 30 years is that communities make choices that keep water flowing, native plants thriving, and wildlife safely on the move between the US And Mexico. Emily, thanks so much for being on the Rewilding Earth podcast.
[01:57]
A
Great to be here. I'm excited to talk about all things Sky Islands.
[02:00]
B
This is like a blast from the past for me. I'm just so happy to see the work that you guys are doing. It's so extensive. You can get lost in your website with all of the cool things that you're doing, documenting, working on what's on the top of your mind these days.
[02:15]
A
Top of mind for me is often how this amazing region that spans northern Sonora and southeastern Arizona, just a corner of New Mexico, this beautiful diamond shape on the map with these great mountains scattered across the desert and the grasslands that surround each mountain range. We have this political hotbed, this border running between the US And Mexico that is creating such a challenge, but also opportunity to do continental scale conservation here in this region. Really thinking about how political decisions that get made at the national level are impacting our local Sky Islands.
[02:58]
B
Yeah, back in our day, we didn't really focus a lot on the border being a barrier because we just had the bollards in a lot of places, which wasn't an impediment at all to wildlife. But we were worried about the roads more than anything. I can't imagine. Well, I can because I talk to so many people these days. But compared to what we were worried about then, what you have to worry about now, what's much, much different. All the things you guys have to take into account when you're trying to educate people on this stuff.
[03:27]
A
In the last 20 years, there have been dramatic changes at the US Mexico border with increasing militarization and the building of infrastructure that has become almost impassable to large animals. In particular. It all started in 2005 when with the passage of the Real ID Act. And in that, it granted authority to the Department of Homeland Security director to be able to waive laws and statutes at the US Mexico border. Now, that is incredibly significant because it meant that the government could go ahead and issue law waivers and no longer have to comply with the Endangered Species Act. As one example of many that goes back to 2005. Yeah, that's where the original authority came from. And then the next year in 2006, the secure fence act provided the first big amount of funding to build border barriers, which included vehicle barriers, which we consider still fairly passable for large mammals crossing back and forth. But the first pedestrian barriers or the border walls. And a significant amount was built in the years following that. And then it slowed down quite a bit. But then under the Trump administration, 2017 to 2021, we had really rapid expansion of the pedestrian barriers, or border wall. And the result is now here in Arizona, two thirds of our southern border with Sonora is blocked by border wall, and the gaps between the bollards are only 4 inches. And that is a major impact for many species that are native to North America.
[05:24]
B
You have talked in the past about the cameras, the camera work, I imagine, in the border region, that's being some of the only recording and documentation that's going on with wildlife. Because I'm sure no one in the government waiving all the environmental laws, it's not their intention to really even worry about that stuff. So thank you guys all for doing this work that you do. Could you explain a little bit more what that is in case someone hasn't stumbled upon one of your great trail cam images or videos on social media yet?
[05:57]
A
Yeah, thanks. This has been a really exciting and motivating project for us to set out a network of remotely operated trail cameras. And this network of cameras, we have over 110 cameras now along 90 miles of the border in eastern Arizona. And these cameras are watching the whole variety of habitats that we have along the stretch of international boundary, from desert to grassland and oak woodland in the southern Huachuca Mountains and the Patagonia Mountains. So the recording, the ebb and flow and the just the changes that happen in the wildlife community at large, we document every single animal that shows up in front of one of our cameras. And we've detected over 135 different species so far between the Patagonia Mountains and the Huachuca Mountains. For place reference, that's between the town of Naco on the east and Nogales in the west. And so we have a baseline that in that area, which is so important because it's one of the places where we only have vehicle barrier and no wall has been built yet. So we're getting this sense of what is the native wildlife community that should be present in these border habitats without border wall. And then we're comparing that to areas further east that were, that are now bisected by border wall and looking at differences in the wildlife community there. Some of our wildlife cameras look directly at the international boundary itself and are documenting animal behaviors when they encounter different types of border infrastructure. In the grasslands of the San Rafael Valley, where there's only vehicle barrier, we are recording American black bear, North American porcupine, mountain lion, white nosed coat, colored peccary moving back and forth under the vehicle barrier and conversely across the San Pedro river and out in the San Bernardino Valley where there's the wall. We're looking at what happens when animals are unable to cross. Where do they attempt to cross? Where are they successful? Where do they fail? And we're studying exactly this issue so that we can understand if we can create wildlife openings that will allow animals to move back and forth again and re establish that connection between Arizona and Sonora. Where should those openings be? How big do they have to be to support the largest body animals and which species are able to use the smaller gaps? And we're hoping that all of this data will in the long term, make the wild the wall more wildlife friendly. If we have to continue to keep these walls on our landscape, I imagine.
[09:02]
B
That that's a heck of a fight to even talk about that with people who are really mad about anyone's attempt to make the wall seem weaker. Even though we've seen people cutting through the wall in 10 minutes and you only have to make one cut and the things are so tall it just bends out of the way. It's really just crazy that something that isn't even effective at keeping people out as it was intended is so effective keeping wildlife out in many cases. It's always been a frustration of mine. It's like, why do we even do it? And then I remember it was just a political cartoon that just somehow manifested in the real world. So that must be frustrating. But the views you get of how things are supposed to work or how they are working in the places where there are not these obstructions yet, and hopefully ever. It must be heartening because it's also probably because of the wall and because of all of this giving us a view that we didn't have before. We didn't have a hundred and some odd camera traps there before, ever, until there were. And I imagine we're learning things about animals and movements and things that we hadn't even dreamt of.
[10:13]
A
One of the biggest surprises was our own realization that there's a small population of porcupine down on the border. And we've seen it crossing back and forth between Sonora and Arizona in the San Rafael Valley. This is where the headwaters of the Santa Cruz river flow south into Sonora. And there's a beautiful cottonwood gallery and some old apple orchards that were planted probably decades and decades ago that are still out there on the landscape. And these amazing rodents, the largest rodent in North America, has a population here. It first showed up on our photographs as this mysterious blob at night that didn't have any of the features of the other mammals that we had been seeing. And until we got a clear image of it where we could see its face, we find that's when we finally knew it was porcupine. And now it's become a bit of a natural history obsession to understand where else are they? And we've picked them up now in the Patagonia Mountains and in the western foothills of the Huachuca Mountains. And it's fascinating. This is a species that's been. It's not listed, but it's somewhat increasingly rare in Arizona. And it's really exciting to know that the species is here. We're probably looking at some of the southernmost individuals right there at the border in Sonora. So it's fascinating. A species that's more common at higher latitudes, but here in the borderlands, it was really exciting to find it.
[11:45]
B
That is so cool. Yeah, well, I'm. I have a tendency, as maybe some others do, to find the increasing rarity of everything wild and biodiversity in general, to make an assumption that we already. We know everything that's out there and it's not true. Of course, if you really just stop and look it in the eye, that's, of course, a preposterous thing to believe. But if you work so hard in this world and you are looking continual decline of biodiversity numbers in general, I start to think there's nothing else out there to probably discover. And I think that's a subconscious thought, not an active thought. But to have a conversation like this about species that are running around that we had no idea were, it's just really cool. Congratulations on the jaguar capture on camera last year.
[12:36]
A
Yeah, we're at Skyland Alliance. We actually love all the species. So we are just as excited about seeing a porcupine as we are about a jaguar. The jaguar was a stunning sighting that we are excited and humbled to have been part of this jaguar story here in the borderlands. We, like I've mentioned, we've have dozens of cameras all over the place. And this was for us, an unlikely camera where we ended up getting two photographs in 2023 of a male, young, male jaguar that had also been seen sighted in another mountain range. So we detected it in the Whetstone Mountains and it had been seen earlier in the year and then after our sightings in the Huachuca Mountains. So this is a place where the border wall stops and it transitions into that vehicle barrier. More open 30 mile stretch across the San Rafael Valley. So we know that this individual moved back and forth at least twice between the Huachuca Mountains that are adjacent to the border and the Whetstones further north, which is very clear evidence to us that this is clearly the path of the jaguar, at least this individual that it used, connecting the core population in Sonora up here into the US Sky Islands. And we're more committed than ever to making sure that we invest in habitat restoration and helping to ensure safe passage and protection for this jaguar and the ones that come after it as it comes into this landscape.
[14:18]
B
You're listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. Did you know we also publish insightful and inspirational content from leading Rewilding scholars, poets, artists and organizers from around the world. You can visit rewilding.org and sign up for our weekly digest to receive brilliant fresh insights on everything Rewild. Rewilding. You'll find over a decade of articles and news from the front lines of wildlands protection and all kinds of restoration efforts. Check us out@rewilding.org and don't forget to share it with friends. When I was at sky island, we did road ripping. We partnered with the Forest Service in different areas and they happily lent us resources and gave us permission to come in and get rid of volunteer roads. The ones that are not made by Forest Service especially. They did not like those roads and there was a dumb law in the books. I don't know if it's still a law that once a road like that is created, the Forest Service would start to maintain them. Like, and they're not even legal. They weren't even started by. I, I'm sure that law has to be off the books by now. But anyway, those were the roads that we, that we would tear out. And in, in exchange, we would have people like Sue Morse come in and take our volunteers out and track things. That was really cool. Learn from one of the world's greatest trackers. And so I wonder what restoration work looks now. I bet it's a lot more sophisticated and a lot more wide ranging than just working on getting rid of roads and other things, although that's probably still some part of it.
[15:49]
A
We're very interested still in lessening the road network, the footprint that roads have on the Forest Service. And so much of the sky island region that we're talking about on the US Side is owned and is managed by the Forest Service, probably just like when you were doing it. This continues to be a really core conservation activity. And in 2018, there was a new tribal management decision that closed about 20, administratively closed about 26% of the roads in the Sierra Vista district, which is down here by the border. And those have been sitting still open physically on the ground. So because we know the jaguar moved through this area, we are doing everything we can to begin closing physically roads that should be closed and nobody should be driving on. We want to see it return to grassland habitat and oak woodland habitat and give more of the land back just to animal movement instead of vehicle movement. So that is still a key conservation activity for us. But we are also working on restoring springs, these really important water sources and aquatic habitats that are scattered across the Sky Islands. And so we have a whole program to rescue springs. Sometimes it means separating cattle, helping cattle move back away from a spring source and aquatic habitat, giving them a separate drinker water that the cattle can use, but letting the aquatic habitat recover. To improve water quality, le let native plants come back and have that be a safe space for wildlife species like jaguar to be able to access as they're moving across the landscape. So we're really excited about our spring work and volunteers help us. Not only do those spring rescues on the ground remove invasive species, put up cattle exclusion fencing that's wildlife friendly, but they also just do the health checkups of where the springs are, what condition they're in, so that we can plan these projects and get the rescues happening. So working on springs is a, is a big passion of ours on both sides of the border.
[18:01]
B
And I can say firsthand, you will not have a more fulfilling volunteer experience in The Southwest or not many at least than doing something with Sky island alliance. And that comes from actually doing stuff with Sky island alliance, but being out there, being way, way out there in these places. You guys like to get remote. I bet you guys still have fun at. I'm sure the food is awesome as it has always been, and you have great things planned for volunteers.
[18:31]
A
Volunteers basically are welcome and needed every aspect of the work that we're doing. We have cameras that are maintained totally by volunteers. They go out and service them, change their batteries, retrieve the data, help us analyze the photos. We have people that work just in our office doing that photo analysis. Our spring seekers are volunteers that go out and use their smartphone to record the data in a free app about the condition of springs. We'll have special campaigns going throughout the rest of the year doing backpacking trips into wilderness, which is super fun to document springs that are very much off the beaten path. So those would be great trips to volunteer for. We're doing erosion control work to help stabilized the soil in the forests on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. This is a mountain range that was hit by a really devastating fire in 2020, the Bighorn Fire. And because of tree mortality and just the aftermath of the fires, we're really worried about springs getting buried in riparian areas being inundated by landslides. So we do rock work, which means making loose rock structures or carefully designed wooden and rock structures with local materials to help stabilize the slopes, let soil accumulate to help re vegetation. And it also helps more water get back into the groundwater to absorb into the mountainside as opposed to just running off as quickly as possible. So that's a really fun project that we have going on. It's a little bit heavy work so hard on on your back moving the rocks around, but we get to be in really beautiful parts of the forest. And up on Mount Lemmon is always fun, a great place to work in the summer when it's obviously hot down in the lower elevation areas.
[20:31]
B
You can learn more about the volunteer opportunities at sky island alliance@skyislandalliance.org Volunteer. Pretty easy URL to get to. And I just guarantee you guys are going to love the people. The people in the Sky Islands are just some of the most dedicated and wonderful and ecologically educated people compassionate you'll ever find. And doing work down there is in some cases pretty backbreaking, but really fulfilling, really fulfilling. You'll remember it for the rest of your life. So I highly encourage everyone who is interested in that to go check out sky island alliance.org volunteer.
[21:10]
A
Thank you.
[21:11]
B
Some more volunteers coming your way.
[21:13]
A
That's exciting. We're ready. It's going to take all of us to save the Earth, right?
[21:18]
B
Yeah. And people get tired of just reading about stuff. I highly encourage volunteer opportunities with any organization that you can. If you can't make it to the Southwest, look up your local organization. It is real good. Mental health, physical health, mental health. One of the aspects that I know must be a drain. Trail cameras cost between 3 and $5,000. Back in the 90s, they were. It was just cost prohibitive, like crazy. So the only people that had trail cams would be universities. And the government didn't really care, didn't really have much use for them. It's mostly universities. So you get a big old grant at your university and you'd be able to buy three cameras. It's changed a lot now, but it's an embarrassment of riches now that it's a lot cheaper relatively, to get a big network of cameras out there. There's a big problem that comes with that. It's not a problem, but it is a lot to manage. Can you talk a bit about that?
[22:12]
A
The cost has come down so much. So now we can buy a trail camera that we use for research for $150. And that's the cheapest part of the work that we do with monitoring wildlife. The real work comes in once it's installed in the field. The cameras, depending on their location, need to be checked by a person who needs to drive out and hike to the camera at least every two months. Generally, some can sit a little bit longer, but some need to be checked more often. And then we bring back the invaluable data and we analyze over a million photographs a year. And that is a human being or a whole variety of both. The wildlife staff at Skyland alliance are great volunteers and our paid interns that help look through all of those photographs, separating out photographs that are just moving vegetation without an animal. And then when we do have an animal, identifying what the species is, how many individuals and any other notable observations about it to create the database and that we can use to understand how the wildlife community is changing and animal behaviors around the border. There's just hundreds and hundreds of hours that go into making that data available.
[23:29]
B
Are you bombarded by people doing studies, universities, others who now know you have this wonderful database that's gone back some years? I imagine it's extraordinarily valuable for conservation biologists and others in the area. Do you share that.
[23:48]
A
Our goal really is to provide our data as widely available, to make it as widely available as possible so that it can be used to guide conservation actions and better knowledge about the species we care about here. We work really closely with the Wildlands Network and on our border work and are working to put out an upcoming publication on animal crossing rates at the border itself. So that will be out in the public domain soon. And we are willing to share our other border data with partners and conservation practitioners. We participate in Snapshot usa, which is a look across the United States about which animal species are showing up where. And so we like contributing to that. And we have a second project that we do that anyone listening can contribute to, whether you're here or somewhere else, where we set up a framework for you to put out a camera in your own backyard. We do ask you to source your own camera, but then you can contribute just a simple checklist with one representative photo of every animal species that that you see on your camera. And that's allowed us to create a public database called Sky Island Photofauna. And you can view that on our website to get a sense of what are the wildlife species in my community. And with that knowledge, help your neighbors or agencies in your area make more informed decisions about development projects that might be going on. You're concerned about a highway, new highway project that could be going on. You can look at the sky island interactive map and get a sense of, oh, my gosh, that's in mountain lion habitat. That seems really scary if there aren't good mitigation measures in place and you'd have more information to write comment letters or just to be excited about the animals in your region. So that is a really fun project. We have a lot of resources about how to find a camera, how to identify different species, and we hope people will take advantage of that data set that we're all collectively generating.
[25:55]
B
How powerful is it to be able to go to a hearing and say definitively something about mountain lions that you learn from the data, to be able to say, this is what mountain lions are doing, and that's because of or in part of data that your team and volunteers are putting together. Just supposed to be a really big source of pride to be able to arm people with that information when it really counts?
[26:21]
A
Yeah, we feel really good about it. We do think that it's important that everyone has access to information about the species that are around us in our communities. We can't be good conservation practitioners and stewards of the habitats in our midst if we don't have that information. And we just love the fact that it can happen across jurisdictions. So Photofauna is happening in Sonora, it's happening in Arizona, it's happening in New Mexico on public and private land. We've got a lot of public land partners that are participating and even sharing data out here in this, through this project, into the public domain. And it gives us a sense of what's happening in urban areas and in also in the more remote areas. It's really fun to poke around and we take care to make sure we're not revealing specific camera locations. And we don't have sensitive species list shown on the map. So we're doing our best to protect everyone's privacy, including our rarest species. And yet you'll still get a lot of great information about what, which species are being found where and where they're not showing up. Often we learn the most about why don't we see this animal in this area? What's going on? Is there something that we could do if it is a place where we should expect to see a certain species?
[27:39]
B
What do you wish you could do better? What do you wish for in terms of capacity?
[27:45]
A
We really have a big goal to have the future of conservation in our region be driven and conducted by the workforce that reflects our skyline region. This means we want conservation practitioners to be coming from Mexico and from the US that have fluency and are comfortable working across borders. The sky island region transcends so many different types of land ownerships and of course across the US Mexico border that we've talked about. So we have an ambitious goal to be providing paid work opportunities and on the job experiences for members of indigenous groups, tribal nations. We would like our practitioners to be bilingual and comfortable working in Sonoran Arizona, moving back and forth, because our species in the sky island region need to be able to move back and forth across the border in between different sky islands. And so we're really trying to build out that capacity for practitioners here so that we can do conservation in this region in the best way possible, including local perspectives. So we have a growing internship program where undergraduates from Sonora, the Dhonatham Community College and universities in Arizona all get to participate in the projects we've been talking about this morning.
[29:10]
B
What's a question that people don't ask you enough that you wish they would?
[29:15]
A
I think I really want people to know that no matter where you're listening in from wherever you are on Earth, there are probably species in common that we have here in the Sky Islands and we really. This region is so important to the natural history of North America as a whole. It's this continental crossroads between temperate species like mountain lion and black bear and wolves and then the tropical species like jaguar and ocelot. White nose coat. And I want people to feel connected and have some personal responsibility from what's happening here. I hope they feel impassioned to think about the implications of border policy on this region because it's going to influence many other species that are found throughout North America. If we continue to build border wall and block black bears from being able to walk south into Sonora, we're dooming that species because it's endangered in Sonora. Likewise, how are we going to have jaguar recovery in the US if we continue to wall off our border and jaguar can't walk northwards? So I really encourage folks to think about not just the humanitarian issues of what's happening with border policy, but but also the environmental and think about the species that you might find in your own backyard and how they can be affected here in the sky island region. This really is an international gem and we need everybody talking about it and helping us protect it.
[30:49]
B
And you can do that and get involved in many different ways. As we've mentioned@skyislandalliance.org Emily, thank you so much for taking the time. I love making a connection with my alma mater. This is really cool. Anytime you need to come back and talk about this beautiful region that you're representing, please do.
[31:08]
A
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me and for spending this time talking about the Sky Islands. Come down and go for a hike.
[31:15]
B
I'm on my way. Thanks for listening to the Rewilding Earth podcast. We do what we do because of you. This podcast is supported by listeners like you who long to live in a wilder world. Please consider donating@rewilding.org and subscribe to our weekly news and article digest. While you're there to go the extra mile, you can follow and share Rewilding Earth on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Bonus points for sharing this podcast with your friends. To listen to past episodes, go to rewilding.org pod that's rewilding.org pod.