Last October, the Sky Island Alliance (SIA) rolled out ‘Road Rewilding,’ a new volunteer program to support the Sierra Vista District of the Coronado National Forest (CNF) in their plan to close 160 miles of Forest Service roads in an area that stretches from I-10 to the Mexico border, including the Whetstones, Patagonias, Huachucas and Canelo Hills, and restore the land to its natural state.
Reevaluation of the U.S.’s 371,000 miles of Forest Service (FS) roads began in 2005 in response to at least 20 years of declining federal funding for road care in the National Forests, even as public demand increased.
Unmaintained FS roads have suffered from vegetation loss, drought, erosion, overuse by vehicles, invasive species, and wildlife disturbance.
A number of roads in the CNF have been ‘technically decommissioned.’ However, only a portion of the 160-plus miles identified for closure are, in fact, now closed to vehicles, or show significant restoration.
In an interview with the PRT, Sarah Treube, SIA’s Habitat Conservation Manager, stated that the Road Rewilding Program “intends to fix that discrepancy.”
SIA is coordinating with the SV District to prioritize the southern end of the Huachucas and southeast corner of San Rafael Valley, including Parker Canyon Lake, Montezuma Pass and the former container wall site.
However, a 60-foot strip along the Mexico border is federal land, not yet accessible to the program’s surveyors. (For road rewilding in the Santa Ritas and other ranges to the west, the Nogales District would have to initiate its own program.)
The online map that the Road Rewilding program is creating identifies the basic road network, roads designated for restoration and roads already surveyed. Elements like roads and survey points have pop-ups that include data gathered, surveyor’s name, coordinates, elevation, and other relevant info.
Surveying these roads is done on a phone app. Surveyors gather geo-data for the access point or endpoint of a road segment, make observations of physical and biological conditions, identify species, and can add photos as well. The app then uploads the surveyors’ info. Once a surveyor’s field information is in the system, blue squares on the map identify which locations have been surveyed.
In the four-mile zone of previous container occupation on the border, the rewilding project is assessing and planning for remediation work on several flattened staging areas, as well as documenting other damage from transport and equipment. Truebe explained that the destruction by the wall contractors included mature oaks, so discussion is underway about transplanting sizable oaks of the proper species.
As regional drought continues, transplanting can be problematic, so seeding is becoming the preferred method of small-plant revegetation. Sometimes seed can be broadcast, sometimes dug in, and other times placed by nutrient-containing seedballs. Sometimes also, soil is compacted by vehicles, and needs to be loosened, since part of the restoration work is also restoration of soil condition to make it amenable to new growth.
For each area to be restored, Treube explained, “ It’s so variable what the damage is and what the best way to correct it will be. We’ll use the results of each survey to decide exact methods of restoration for a given site.” Nature will, of course, also reseed areas, and ‘disturbance species’ like tumbleweed will be among what appears, so invasive species elimination will be another part of the work in some spots. Treube portrays the natural restoration process as a partnership with nature, “speeding it up in very conscientious ways with low-impact nature-based solutions, kind of helping nature do the work itself.”
As SIA identifies the road segments most in need of work, SIA’s volunteers and staff, with FS assistance, will begin to implement the priority projects.
Francesca Claverie, Borderlands Restoration Network’s Native Plant Program Director, said that she “stands ready to provide an array of local plant materials.”
Truebe is very receptive to future partnering with other conservation organizations with a track record in the area, such as Tucson Audubon, Arizona Trails, and the Arizona Conservation Corps.
Truebe views the rewilding effort as part of the regional reinforcement of wildlife corridors, such as the route jaguars and other mammals use from northern Sonora across the border and through Huachucas and Canelo Hills to the Santa Ritas. She also argues that although the program may seem small in acreage it has an “ecological ripple effect” in protecting wildlife habitat. She hopes it inspires others to devise and implement other rewilding strategies.
The Road Rewilding effort is a tangible, achievable local example of a conservation strategy that might help slow or stop the current mass extinction of species. “Think of it as a pilot program,” Treube said. The Road Rewilding program is a perfect example of the ‘Think globally—act locally.’
The road rewilding map is at skyislandalliance.org/2023/09/help-rewild-old-roads-in-the-huachuca-mountains/.
For more information about the project, visit skyislandallianceorg/2023/09/help-rewild-old-roads-in-the-huachuca-mountains/
At the top of the page is a link for reading it in Spanish.