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A rare ecosystem in the Sonoran Desert, this National Conservation Area is threatened with excessive groundwater pumping, resulting in reduced river flows.
Cochise County, Arizona, USA.
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The San Pedro riparian area, containing about 40 miles of the upper San Pedro River, was designated by Congress as a National Conservation Area on November 18, 1988. The primary purpose for the designation is to protect and enhance the desert riparian ecosystem, a rare remnant of what was once an extensive network of similar riparian systems throughout the Southwest.
Many recreational opportunities are available within the NCA. Murray Springs Clovis Site, a significant archaeological site contains an undisturbed stratigraphic record of the past 40,000 years. Excavations were conducted by the University of Arizona from 1966 to 1971. People first arrived in this area 11,000 years ago. They belonged to what we now call the Clovis Culture and were the earliest known people to have inhabited North America. Named after the distinctive and beautifully crafted Clovis spear points they made, they were expert hunters of the large mammals of the last Ice Age. An interpretive trail leads visitors through the site. From Sierra Vista, take State Highway 90 east 6 miles to Monson Road. Turn left, and go about 1.2 miles to the signed turnoff to Murray Springs. The access road is located on the right.
The Spanish Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate is the most intact remaining example of a once-extensive network of similar presidios. These fortresses marked the northern extension of New Spain into the New World. Only a stone foundation and a few remaining adobe wall remnants mark the location of an isolated and dangerous military station. From Fairbank on Highway 82, drive approximately 2 miles west on Highway 82, turn right on the Kellar Ranch Road and travel approximately 3 miles to the trailhead. Hike about 2 miles to the ruins and interpretive displays.
The San Pedro House, located 9 miles east of Sierra Vista on State Highway 90, is a popular trailhead for birdwatchers, hikers, and mountain bikers. The Friends of San Pedro operate a bookstore and information center.
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.
Cleaning undertaken by www.raconservation.co.uk
Sadly, the chairs were stolen in 2018 shortly after the conservation-cleaning project - a report to follow soon - www.libervitae.co.uk
Folded August 2016. Each elephant folded from an uncut square sheet of crepe paper. Learn how to fold this design here!
OrigamiUSA recently partnered with the World Conservation Society in attempt to break the current Guinness World Records™ title for the largest display of origami elephants. The goal is to fold 35,000 origami elephants to bring attention to the 35,000 African elephants that are killed each year for their ivory. I wanted to get involved, so I made a video tutorial on how to fold this elephant design by Rui Roda. Be sure to share this video and together we can break the world record while raising awareness for a very serious issue.
Find out more about how to submit your elephant for the world record here.
Special thanks to Rui Roda for granting me permission to create this tutorial on his wonderful design which is dedicated to Barth Dunkan. More of Rui's excellent work can be found on his Flickr photostream.
Upload photos of your elephant to Instagram and tag them with #ezorigami or submit your photos to my YouTube Gallery.
Sunrise at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area. This one was taken with a Nikon D850 and Sigma Pro 24-105mm lens. As everyone knows there appears to be a lot of haze apparently due to smoke and I assume this is coming from all the fires out west. Anytime you shoot straight into the sun it is a challenge because of the high dynamic range of light and the potential for lens flare. I did have two lens flare spots but was able to remove them using a technique developed by Sean Bagshaw using Tony Kuyper, TKActions panel. I underexposed this shoot knowing that since I shoot in RAW format I would be able to recover a lot of the shadows and darks. What is impossible to recover is blown out highlights. Shots like this are great candidates for bracketing three or more images and then blending them in post processing because you can meter for lights, darks, and shadows in each shot and then combine them later. However, this is just one shot. Camera settings were as follows: aperture f/8, shutter 1/1600sec, and ISO 200.
Hasselblad 500C SLR + Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 lens
Kodak Professional Tri-X 400 black and white film
Township 4 Range 6, Maine (Hobbstown)
Sadly, this is one of the few photographs I’ve made this summer. It’s an image of my field crew taken up along the Moose River, and they have been busy. You see, I manage conservation lands in Maine, which means that I get to spend time with some incredibly inspirational individuals. Self-motivated, team oriented, smart, thoughtful, inquisitive, dedicated to task-at-hand, and environmentally conscious… These people represent the best of young America, a cross-section spanning the country, and it’s my pleasure to cheer them on.
They’ve been focusing their boundless energy on rebuilding an old Fire Warden’s trail, leading to the summit of No. 5 Mountain. The three mile pathway dates back to the 1930’s. Few switchbacks or erosion control measures, so over the past 80 years it has significantly degraded. But the crew has been rebuilding and rerouting. Diverting water with rock and wood… Turnpikes, waterbars, bog bridging, optimizing trail grade, French drains, bench cuts, stone staircases… The end goal is protecting the resource while ensuring visitor connection to the outdoors, and I’m positive that they’ve met their mark.
I’m so lucky to have had this time with them. A humbling experience... And as the shirts say, Conservation Begins Here. Yes, our shared natural heritage is in good hands. So, who wants to go for a hike?
Flickr Explore - September 13, 2013
Salvador Prieto gets nearly ground level to see how well this micro-sprinkler is working under one of his avocado trees, in Somis, CA, on Nov 15, 2018.
Salvador Prieto grew up watching and helping his father grow corn and beans on a small farm in Mexico. The journey from bean fields to 20-acre orchard owner with his wife Martha Romero was not a straight and narrow path to Somis, Calif. In fact, it was music that brought him to the United States. Today the passion is agriculture.
Similarly, Romero didn’t follow a career in agriculture to her beautiful and healthy avocado and lemon orchard. Romero grew up a city girl in the heart of Los Angeles. Now sharing this farm with her husband and two children, she quickly credits her success to the support and assistance from her family to navigate the learning curve.
Constantly seeking improvement on the family’s orchard, Romero discovered the local Farm Bureau and the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Land Group (VCAILG) coalition. VCAILG put Romero in touch with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Ventura Resource Conservation District, for technical and financial assistance to implement conservation and management practices.
NRCS California District Conservationist Dawn Afman, Soil Conservationist Elizabeth Keith, and Resource Conservationist Brooks Engelhardt, have all provided technical assistance and invested their time and expertise in helping Prieto and Romero incorporate conservation practices in their orchard. Prieto and Romero were immediately intrigued by NRCS’s efforts to improve soil health.
“At first it was overwhelming, but many other farmers I know are members, so it is comforting to know that I am not alone,” said Romero. “We need to make a profit, obviously, but, for me, I want to do it while protecting mother nature and precious resources like water. I am able to do this with NRCS’s help.”
Prieto and Romero learned a lot from trial and error. Romero admits that she even bought her trees before the land was ready. But learning opportunities, like an early community garden project, gave them critical knowledge and experience.
A big first conservation practice they learned was mulching to save water and reduce weeds. NRCS helped Prieto and Romero with this, through an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract, to apply mulch to their orchard floor to conserve soil moisture and improve soil health in the Fall of 2018.
“Every time we have a question or need assistance, NRCS has been nothing but helpful,” added Romero. “They let us know about other programs out in the community and invited us to their annual Latino Farmer Conference, where my husband and I learned about other helpful resources.”
Recently, Prieto and Romero entered into a new NRCS contract to implement Irrigation Water Management (IWM) to their orchard. The IWM plan includes installing moisture sensors into the ground, which transmit continuous data to cloud-based storage, and accessed through a smart device app on their phones. The information lets them know when, where and how long to irrigate. This knowledge will help them toward their goal of producing 6,000 pounds of produce per acre.
Looking toward the future, Romero expressed that knowledge is key. “Before we plant further, we need to get educated on how to do it best,” concluded Romero. “From the planting of a seed or planting of a tree, we need the entire process to be profitable. It's not just about planting it. It's about preparing the land and using the resources wisely.”
In the meantime, Romero enjoys the weekends because she does not need to be worried about picking up the kids from school or rushing around. She just wants to be out in the orchard, making it better From mulching to pruning or irrigating and weeding. The family’s goal is to make the farm “better tomorrow than it was today.”
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Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.
The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).
NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners for more than 80 years. USDA helps people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.
From weather to pests, and from a lack of time to markets, each American farmer faces a unique set of challenges. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps agricultural producers confront those challenges – all while conserving natural resources like soil, water, and air.
This voluntary conservation program helps producers make conservation work for them. Together, NRCS and producers invest in solutions that conserve natural resources for the future while also improving agricultural operations.
Through EQIP, NRCS provides agricultural producers with financial resources and one-on-one help to plan and implement improvements, or what NRCS calls conservation practices. Using these practices can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat, all while improving agricultural operations. Through EQIP, you can voluntarily implement conservation practices and NRCS co-invests in these practices with you.
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
For more information, please see:
USDA
FPAC
www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/mission-areas
NRCS
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
EQIP
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/program...
Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Punto panoramico posto sulla cresta del cratere.
Targa in memoria delle persone decudute nella creazione e protezione di Ngorongoro.
Tragedie dovute a incidenti e attacchi di animali ma, anche, da sparatorie con banditi e bracconieri.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Viewpoint on the crest of the crater.
Plaque in memory of the people lost in the creation and protection of Ngorongoro.
Tragedies due to accidents and attacks by animals but also from gunfights with bandits and poachers.
IMG20241206160504m
As a writer, lecturer, explorer, and conservationist John Muir connected his love of nature with the power of writing to influence legislation that would preserve and protect our nation’s natural resources. The historic home of the man who many call “the father of our National Park Service” is preserved 30 miles outside of San Francisco.
Lacecap bred by Ruth Tindale in the 1990s. At George Tindale Memorial Garden mid December 2014. The GTMG holds the hydrangea collection for the OPCAA. OPCAA stands for Ornamental Plant Conservation Association of Australia Inc. (now Garden Plant Conservation Association of Australia Inc.)
In a state where desert arroyos, washes, and many streambeds remain bone-dry most of the time, the year-round flow of Cienega Creek makes it a highly valuable resource. A lush green ribbon of vegetation defines one of the most significant riparian zones in southern Arizona. Cienega Creek gets its name from the cienegas, or marshes, which occur along its length. This rare vegetation community has nearly disappeared in the Southwest. The national conservation area includes a working cattle ranch. Visitors are asked to leave all gates as they are found. There is no trash pick up, so visitors need to pack up all trash. The area is a travel corridor for illegal immigrants traveling from Mexico. Visitors should report all suspected illegal activities to BLM or local law enforcement authorities and stay safe by avoiding contact with persons exhibiting suspicious behavior or engaged in dangerous activities.
www.blm.gov/visit/las-cienegas
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.
In a state where desert arroyos, washes, and many streambeds remain bone-dry most of the time, the year-round flow of Cienega Creek makes it a highly valuable resource. A lush green ribbon of vegetation defines one of the most significant riparian zones in southern Arizona. Cienega Creek gets its name from the cienegas, or marshes, which occur along its length. This rare vegetation community has nearly disappeared in the Southwest. The national conservation area includes a working cattle ranch. Visitors are asked to leave all gates as they are found. There is no trash pick up, so visitors need to pack up all trash. The area is a travel corridor for illegal immigrants traveling from Mexico. Visitors should report all suspected illegal activities to BLM or local law enforcement authorities and stay safe by avoiding contact with persons exhibiting suspicious behavior or engaged in dangerous activities.
www.blm.gov/visit/las-cienegas
Photo by Bob Wick, BLM.
Photo Credit: John Newby, Sahara Conservation Fund
Thanks to the oryx collaring team, the Scimitar-horned oryx reintroduction project will result in the collection of one of the most comprehensive datasets for any wildlife species returned to its native habitat.
THE NOSE ASSEMBLY OF A MOCK B61-12, MOUNTED ON AN ALUMINUM TUBE TO REPLICATE THE BODY OF THE BOMB, SITS IN A STAND AWAITING MOVEMENT TO SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES' DAVIS GUN, WHICH FIRED THE TEST ASSEMBLY INTO A POOL IN ONE OF A SERIES OF IMPACT TESTS.
For more information or additional images, please contact 202-586-5251.
U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman speaking with attendees at the American Conservation Coalition's 2022 Summit at the JW Marriott Washington, D.C. in Washington, D.C.
Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.