A section of the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve on Coronado National Forest land on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. The preserve is co-managed by the Borderlands Restoration Network and Wildlife Corridors.
A Southern Arizona environmental non-profit is grappling with more than $1.2 million of federal funding being frozen as several of its agency funders are unable to access congressionally approved funds.
The Borderlands Restoration Network, based in the town of Patagonia, co-manages about 1,800 acres of land it has acquired over the past decade to help maintain natural movement across the landscape amid growing development pressures.
In partnership with its sister nonprofit, Wildlife Corridors, the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve connects two major units of the Coronado National Forest, serving as a wildlife corridor for bobcats, foxes, deer, javelina, mountain lions, coatis within the Sky Island Region, wedged between the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains.
Rodrigo Sierra Corona, executive director of the Network says that by purchasing these chunks of land, it curbs excessive development, offering a safe passage and protecting the quiet, peaceful spaces and dark skies that travelers from around the world come to experience.
Beyond conservation, the Network’s approach to land management aims to inspire creative solutions on how humans interact with the natural world.
The development pressures stem from a local housing crisis, tourists who are looking to buy a second home and ranchers selling to development companies to keep up with demand.
VIEW LARGER A conservation sign near the entrance of an Arizona Trail, trailhead in Patagonia, Arizona, on Thursday, February 27, 2025. There’s also a mine developing just a few miles away.
Along with preserving wildlife corridors, the organization does restorative watershed work to increase drought resiliency and mitigate erosion across degraded landscapes.
Sierra Corona estimates that the Network has built more than 5,000 rock structures over the last five to six years.
It’s hard, manual labor, but the crew knows it’s important work for ecosystems to thrive, become more resilient to unnatural fire regimes, provide habitat and nutrient-dense forage for native animals and raise water tables.
Zach Farley, the Network’s restoration crew lead described the work as putting the earth back together so to speak.
“This is our Earth,” he said. “If we let it go, what do we got? Nothing.”
VIEW LARGER Zach Farley, restoration crew lead working inside of a Zuni bowl on Coronado National Forest lands on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. The Borderlands Restoration Network claims to have built more than 5,000 of these erosion-control structures throughout their maintained lands. The Network collaborates with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Resource Conservation Service among other organizations.
Ryan Golb, a restoration specialist, surveys sites for the rock crew to implement erosion control structures like Zuni bowls which watershed restoration technician Dalton Trantham, helps build.
These structures slow down head cuts or erosion channels that grow overtime by adding rocks, armoring the walls with stone work that helps hold everything together.
“The idea with that is to permeate water, increase soil moisture and then create microhabitats with our structures for native plants,” Golb said.
Aspen Thies, watershed restoration project manager, emphasized the significance of their work even though it often goes unseen.
“Everything does rely on water and in Southern Arizona, where water is so precious but also powerful, it’s really important to make sure we keep our watersheds healthy and balanced for us, but also all the plants and wildlife that are so special to this region,” Thies said.
VIEW LARGER Dalton Tranthan, Aspen Thies and Ryan Golb in the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. They are part of the watershed restoration crew for the Borderlands Restoration Network and are surveying the land. The crew is aware of the looming uncertainty of these projects amid the federal funding freeze, but remains committed to the work.
“Just makes you feel really good about the future despite all of the challenges we’re facing,” Thies said.
Around 70% of the Network’s budget and this particular hands-on restoration work comes from federal funding sources.
“Which were to stop– a lot of this work will stop,” Sierra Corona said. “And we’re not just talking about Borderland Restoration Network in Patagonia, now we’re talking about 1000s of organizations across the country doing awesome work from environment to human services to health so it’s very important to understand that this money is not trivial and is not being wasted.”
The freeze has already impacted the organization.
$1,246,323 that accounts for 40% of their operating budget and 55% of their programming budget has been put on hold.
VIEW LARGER Jordan Sene, education program manager at the Borderlands Earth Care Center in Patagonia, Arizona, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. Sene was going to run the Borderlands Earth Care Youth program that was slated to start this spring. The program was funded by the Forest Service and cancelled due to the federal funding freeze. “The money’s frozen but it’s not frozen and it’s there but it’s not there and reimbursements are not coming in so not having any certainty of what is going on obviously affects how you have your own organization and how you manage your expectations, morale on the team,” Sierra Corona said.
The Network has scaled back their operations to a very lean basis and cut its youth education program, the Borderlands Earth Care Youth program known as BECY, which Jordan Sene, the education program manager, helps oversee.
“This year’s program actually was going to be hosted in Douglas, but I’m really heartbroken to share that that program was actually cancelled,” Sene said.
BECY, a paid internship program for youth in the borderlands was primarily funded by the Forest Service and scheduled to run for six weeks aligning with the Cochise County school district schedule.
“I already had 72 applicants, so that’s 72 youth that were down, that were ready to try something new, get their hands dirty and see if this was a possible trajectory for them,” Sene said.
As a BECY graduate herself, Sene called the news disheartening.
VIEW LARGER The Borderlands Earth Care Center in Patagonia, Arizona, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. The 19-acre property is an education demonstration space for the Borderlands Restoration Network. The program would’ve accepted 12 students and hired two facilitators.
A seasonal employee and fellow BECY graduate was also laid off.
Sierra Corona said the Network is just one example of many nonprofits across the country being forced to make difficult decisions.
“It’s all about the bottom line, I understand it, but again at the end of the day, you’re talking about livelihoods, you’re talking about neighbors, you’re talking about communities and in my book that’s very important,” Sierra Corona said.
Beyond programming cuts, the region is also losing out on economic return.
Last month, the nonprofit sent a letter to the offices of Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, Congressman Juan Ciscomani, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and the late Congressman Raúl Grijalva asking for their support to get the congressionally approved funds reinstated as fast as possible.
VIEW LARGER Rodrigo Sierra Corona, executive director of the Borderlands Restoration Network standing inside of a greenhouse in Patagonia, Arizona, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. The nonprofit grows and sells native plants for people and pollinators. The letter stated that small organizations like the Network cannot survive when funding is suddenly taken away.
Despite the setbacks, the Network was able to secure some funding from the Inflation Reduction Act last year for a new greenhouse to support native seed production.
Construction began before the end of the year.
“We were very lucky to have most of those resources already [in] our account,” Sierra Corona said. “This project got frozen and for what we know, sounds like it was mostly cancelled.”
The building is wrapping up and located on 60 acres of land the Network acquired from Native Seeds Search after renting for the past ten years with the help of donors.
The area is where they grow and sell more than 100,000 kinds of native plants annually and houses a regional seed center with more than 2,000 native seeds.
VIEW LARGER Dormant, native grasses grown by the Borderlands Restoration Network on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. The grasses are used as food for quail. These seeds support restoration efforts like agaves for bats, milkweeds for pollinators and native grasses for quail.
Sierra Corona acknowledged the consequences of the funding freeze but remains hopeful.
“When what you do is driven by your personal mission, by your ethics, by your passion, pretty much there’s nothing that can stop you.”
The Network is seeking donations and community support to continue restoring and protecting the region’s fragile ecosystems.
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