Arizona

Our Beginnings

Since 1966, The Nature Conservancy has protected more than 1.5 million acres of Arizona lands important to people and wildlife. We’ve harnessed science and partnerships to keep our rivers flowing and our forests and grasslands healthy.

1966

Purchased TNC’s first property in Arizona: the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, which protects three miles of Sonoita Creek in southern Arizona.

1970–1979

During the ’70s, the Conservancy protected some of southern Arizona’s iconic lands and waters, from properties along the San Pedro River to the Phoenix area, where we helped secure Squaw Peak as part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.

1971

Worked with the Defenders of Wildlife and the George Whittell Trust to purchase Aravaipa Canyon Preserve. One of the Southwest’s natural wonders, Aravaipa Canyon and the creek running through it cuts a jagged 11-mile gash through the Sonoran Desert uplands.

1974

Ramsey Canyon Preserve is born. Visitors from around the globe travel to this 380-acre preserve to experience its rich bird life, lush gallery of Arizona sycamore trees and moist canyon set in the Huachuca Mountains.

1978

The Arizona Department of Water Resources grants the Conservancy the first in-stream flow water rights permits in the state—at Ramsey and O’Donnell (Canelo Hills Cienega) creeks, meaning that the water can stay in the stream to benefit fish and wildlife.

1980–1989

In the ‘80s, the Conservancy purchased two lands that would become the Muleshoe Ranch and Hassayampa River preserves, and acquired two properties that became national wildlife refuges.

1982

Purchased the Muleshoe Ranch, and signed a Cooperative Management Agreement with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service covering the ranch’s 55,000 acres. Muleshoe has some of the finest native fish streams in Arizona.

1986

Purchased three properties along the Verde River to help create the Verde River Greenway, now managed by Arizona State Parks.

1989

Purchased Kartchner Caverns, a subterranean complex of caves, and played a key role by secretly negotiating and providing bridge funding until it could become a state park in 1999.

1990–1999

During this decade, the Conservancy began working with partners to protect working lands and restore fish and wildlife habitat.

1990

Purchased, then protected with a conservation easement, the 321,000-acre Gray Ranch in southwestern New Mexico which pioneered the concept of a grassbank. That preceded the incorporation in 1993 of the Malpai Borderlands Group, one of the first and most successful landowner-led collaborative conservation groups that works with scientists, government agencies and conservation groups, like the Conservancy.

1994

Dick and Jean Wilson donate his family’s homestead to become the Conservancy’s Hart Prairie Preserve, located in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

1999

Worked with Arizona State Parks to purchase and protect the 22,000-acre San Rafael Ranch, a scenic southern Arizona grassland where the movie “Oklahoma” was filmed.

2000–2009

The Conservancy took a lead role in passing open space bonds, addressing grassland management of public lands and working on water, forest and river conservation.

2001

Acquired farms along the middle San Pedro River, protected with conservation easements and retired groundwater pumping.

2004

Took a lead role in passing the $174 million open space bond to protect 186,000 acres of high priority Sonoran Desert lands.

2007

With partners, protected five ranch properties along the Babocomari River, an important tributary to the San Pedro River.

2010–2019

This decade saw our work expanding along the Verde River, our ponderosa pine forests and our largest city, Phoenix, to make it greener and more liveable.

2010

Purchased 306 acres of the Shield Ranch along the Verde River, securing its water rights and keeping the land in farming, where we’ve worked with farmers to test low-water-use crops.

2014

With partners, built a first-of-its-kind system to funnel stormwater underground to replenish the aquifer and the San Pedro River, one of the last remaining flowing rivers in the desert Southwest and a critically important wildlife migration corridor.

2016

TNC celebrated 50 years of collaborative conservation in Arizona. TNC’s first project, the purchase of the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, has some of the oldest and tallest Fremont cottonwood trees in the Southwest, and is considered one of the premier bird-watching sites in the United States.

2016

With partners, developed the Verde River Exchange Water Offset Program that allows a surface water user to be compensated for using less water in a given year without giving up the rights to that water in following years.

2017

As a partner in the Cochise Conservation and Recharge Network, ramped up water recharge efforts to capture 1 billion gallons of water and save 1 billion gallons from future pumping. Result: 2 billion gallons yearly to replenish groundwater and add to San Pedro River flows.

2017

Launched the Salt and Verde Alliance, a collaborative effort to allow downstream water users to invest in land and water conservation efforts upstream that improve water quality and quantity.

2017

Launched the Future Forest Project to restore forest health in Arizona’s forests, benefitting communities, clean water and wildlife.

2018

Worked with a Verde Valley farm family to grow a low-water-use-crop—barley—in place of high-water-use crops. Invested in Sinagua Malt to purchase the barley to sell to brewpubs to make a “water-friendly” beer.

2019

Celebrated the Park Central Farm project, in which the Conservancy worked with Hauser and Hauser Farms to purchase and protect 1,000 acres of farmland and open space, and a valuable streamside forest for native fish and wildlife.

2019

Launched the Healthy Cities Initiative to reduce heat and improve livability in one of America’s fastest growing cities: Phoenix.

2019

Led a major Conservancy study which found that large-scale thinning of Arizona’s overgrown forests will lead to increased carbon storage. The quicker the thinning, the more carbon stored.

2019

Worked with Mexico to secure more than 3.5 billion gallons of treated water annually to go to the parched Colorado River Delta estuary, which is now showing signs of a resurgence of plants important to birds.

2020 and beyond

With the new decade, we're expanding our urban program and our clean air/clean energy work while continuing to restore our rivers, lands and forests. This work—so vital to this great state we call home—could not have been possible without our many supporters.

2020

Launched Arizona Thrives with Arizona businesses, utilities and governments aimed at putting Arizona on a path to clean energy, clean air and a clean economy.

…and more to come. Want to see these wins multiply? Join us as a supporter of The Nature Conservancy.