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ANOTHER LINK FOR THE WORLD-CLASS SAN PEDRO RIVER
The Nature Conservancy of Arizona Acquires Farm to Restore River and Wildlife Habitat
Tucson, ARIZONA — September 6, 2002 — The Nature Conservancy of Arizona announces that it has purchased the 2,150-acre Three Links Farm on the San Pedro River about 15 miles north of Benson, Arizona. By reducing groundwater pumping by 90 percent at this site, the Conservancy plans to restore and enhance both groundwater levels and surface flows through about 20 miles of the river.
The San Pedro River and its tributary streams top the list of the most precious riparian (streamside) habitats in the Sonoran Desert and have earned the Conservancy’s designation as one of the Last Great Places on Earth. An estimated 60 to 75 percent of Arizona's wildlife species depend on riparian habitats, but most of the state’s riparian habitats have been degraded or lost altogether in the last century. The San Pedro River's riparian area is one of the last and one of the healthiest. This river is unusual, too, because it flows northward for 140 miles from Mexico into Arizona. Towering Fremont cottonwood-Goodding willow forests (the rarest forest type in North America) and mesquite bosques (another rare forest type) line its banks and form a green ribbon of life through the desert.
Millions of birds—representing 345 species, or nearly half of the entire North American bird fauna— depend on this desert oasis to survive. Thirteen species of breeding raptors (birds of prey like hawks and owls) are found there, one of the most diverse concentrations of breeding raptors in North America.
The river also hosts more than 80 species of mammals, 40 species of reptiles and amphibians, 100 species of butterflies, and 20 species of bats. (For more information about the diversity of life in the San Pedro, please visit our Last Great Places website at lastgreatplaces.org and click on the San Pedro River or go directly to the San Pedro River section).
Said Pat Graham, director of the Conservancy’s Arizona chapter, “The Nature Conservancy’s Three-Links Farm acquisition project is a significant part of the Conservancy’s longstanding program to protect the San Pedro River by reducing groundwater pumping, restoring native habitat and improving natural flows in the river.” Since 1990, in the northernmost 85-mile section of the San Pedro alone, the Conservancy has protected thousands of acres of riparian forest habitat and retired water use amounting to approximately 5,800 acre-feet per year. The Three-Links Farm water-use retirement will bring the total amount of agricultural water use retired on the lower San Pedro to 8,800 acre-feet. [An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, enough water to cover one acre (about the size of a football field) to a depth of one foot. One acre-foot can supply three families with water for one year. Source: Marin Municipal Water District, CA.]
The Three Links Farm contains more than six miles of the river and rare cottonwood-willow riparian habitat. With more than 3,500 acre-feet of water pumped annually for irrigated agriculture in recent years, the San Pedro River no longer flows year round on all of the farm, or for miles downstream. According to Dave Harris, the Conservancy’s Lower San Pedro Program Manager, "Our hydrologic modeling shows that by retiring approximately 850 acres of irrigated agriculture this project alone could reestablish year-round flow in 14 miles of the river that is now dry most of the year and enhance existing flows in another six miles of river. Our experience shows that these additional miles of the river can recover to extremely high-value Fremont cottonwood-Goodding willow forest."
The Conservancy will also restore about 1,000 acres of the farmlands to low-water-use native grassland habitat on both sides of the river. Native grasses will hold soil in place and both prevent erosion and enhance water absorption. At the Conservancy’s San Pedro River Preserve near Winkelman, about 250 acres of river terrace lands are being restored to native grasses with help from volunteers from Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona and INTEL Corporation. Near the preserve, another conservation easement and partnership project area at the Southwest Wildlife San Pedro River Sanctuary, is retiring 305-acres of irrigated agriculture to enhance about 4 miles of flow in the river and is restoring native habitat to degraded farmlands.
To accomplish conservation goals on the Three Links Farm, the Conservancy purchased the property and placed a conservation easement on the land, a legally binding agreement that, typically, permanently prohibits intensive residential development, protects native habitat, and restricts groundwater use. The terms of this conservation easement also include a provision for The Nature Conservancy to restore native habitat in disturbed areas. The Conservancy will sell a conservation easement to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over a 1,420-acre portion of the farm. This will both satisfy Bureau mitigation requirements to protect native fish and provide the essential public partnership needed to achieve this private conservation initiative. The Conservancy will retain the conservation easement on the remaining 736 acres. With the conservation easements in place, the Conservancy will seek conservation buyers for up to five parcels ranging in size from 275 acres to 600 acres. Some parcels include existing houses, corrals and other facilities.
The northern San Pedro River (called “lower San Pedro River” due to its northerly flow)—where the Three Links Farm, the Conservancy’s San Pedro River Preserve, and the Southwest Wildlife San Pedro River Sanctuary (another conservation easement project) are located—contains some of the best riparian habitat remaining in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion. Some of the best cottonwood-willow riparian forest and mesquite bosque remaining in the Southwest is found here. It is a haven for wildlife, including native fish, migratory birds, and other birds like the federally listed endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. Among the wildlife species found on the Three Links Farm site are: a healthy population of native lowland leopard frogs, a native fish called the longfin dace, zone-tailed hawks, yellow warblers, and the rare yellow-billed cuckoo.
In summary, Pat Graham said; “We can restore this river for wildlife and for people. Returning water will give the river life and sustain the millions of birds that follow its course every year. The same river supports family farms and provides water to local communities downstream. By selling the property to buyers who cannot build subdivisions along the river, we ensure the river will remain healthy and vital forever. It also makes good business sense for us to recover our investment, so we can protect other special places in Arizona.”
The Nature Conservancy is an international nonprofit membership organization committed to the preservation of natural diversity. Its mission is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.
The Conservancy owns and manages thirteen nature preserves in Arizona. Of these, six are open to the public for bird watching, hiking and nature studies. The Nature Conservancy has been actively engaged in preserving the San Pedro River for many years. Several of its well-traveled preserves lie in the vast, 2-million acre, lower San Pedro watershed: Bingham Cienega, Buehman Canyon, San Pedro River, and Aravaipa Canyon preserves, and Muleshoe Ranch Cooperative Management Area. Conservation work in all these locations involves the purchase of priority land sites, hydrologic research, stream-flow restoration and habitat restoration projects, as well as demonstration management on preserves. The Conservancy—working in partnership with public agencies, private landowners and other nonprofit organizations—has already protected more than 100,000 acres in the lower San Pedro watershed. Statewide it has helped to protect more than 1 million acres of significant habitat.
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