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BORDERLANDS AND OTHER CRITICAL ARIZONA LANDS AND WATERS RECEIVE CONSERVATION BOOST

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Grant Helps Region

PHOENIX, ARIZONA — March 20, 2008 — Protection of some of the most biologically important lands in the Southwest increased today as the first projects supported by a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant were announced by The Nature Conservancy in Arizona. The grant will help conserve 9,500 acres in Cochise County along the Arizona-New Mexico border, an area rich in rare and endangered species and also vital to profitable ranching and other traditional livelihoods. 

The grant, matched by funds raised by the Malpai Borderlands Group, enables a voluntary land protection agreement between the Malpai group and the Cloudt Family Partnership, 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 secures a corridor of wildlife habitat from the grasslands of the San Simon Valley to the oak woodlands of the Coronado National Forest and contributes to a vital migratory corridor for wildlife along the United States – Mexico border, preserving the migration of several species including the northern-most occurrence of jaguars.

The Conservancy also announced two projects along the Upper Verde River which will increase protection of that vital water source for nature and communities along its path from northern Yavapai County to the Phoenix valley.

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 over 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 total 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.

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.”

Bill McDonald, Executive Director of the Malpai Borderlands Group, said, “The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant is an important contribution to completing a critical ranch protection project. Protecting the Cloudt Ranch will prevent development from spreading into the Malpai Borderlands area from subdivided country north of us.”

As part of today’s announcement, the Conservancy will create the Verde River Springs Preserve, made up of 20 acres of land at the origin of the Verde River in Yavapai County. 

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 also provides important public access to Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area and the Verde River.

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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. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation 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.