Together we can protect and restore rivers, and help communities throughout our region build resilience.
You don’t last as a nonprofit 501c(3) for over 25 years without making a significant positive impact. At the Sonoran Institute, we make sure to keep ourselves accountable for success. Here are the communities we’ve worked with over the last 25 years and counting. Here are some of the results:
Local Investment
Acres conserved and protected
Community leaders/activists trained
Native tree seedlings planted in the Colorado River Delta region.
We’re more than conservationists. We work to protect the environments, economies and communities of the West, through unique programs and initiatives.
It was the environmental community’s dream—and its nightmare. Large-scale clean energy production in the West was finally feasible, but the sudden interest in developing it threatened millions of acres of unspoiled vistas, wildlife corridors, and habitat on public lands across the region.
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“For me, one of the coolest parts about the project is that we’re creating something beautiful.” —Allie Silber, teacher at Tucson’s Sky Islands High School Water is the Southwest’s most precious resource, but… MORE ›
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The federally endangered Gila topminnow had not been seen in its native habitat, the Santa Cruz River, for more than a decade. Then, in December 2015 they came back.
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As the West changes, we encounter challenges. Our Western Lands and Communities program is developing the tools communities desperately need to address those challenges collaboratively.
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Innovative. Collaborative. Turning the impossible to possible. That is what we are doing in the Colorado River Delta and our newest effort in the estuary—one of the most productive and endangered ecosystems on earth—combines these themes.
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Helping establish the White Tank Mountains Conservancy builds on our long tradition of incubating new community conservation organizations – now more than 2 dozen that have conserved more than 145K acres of public & private lands, and raised more than $206 million – dedicated to protecting local natural and cultural resources.
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We develop tools & information for communities to better understand what’s driving their local economies and for public land managers to assess the relative benefits of protecting or developing these lands. Our work underscores that protecting public lands is important economic development strategy. The California Desert is our most recent success.
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Green infrastructure—using nature’s ability to provide the same services associated with more conventional “grey” infrastructure—offers tremendous ecological and economic benefits. Nowhere is this more evident than on a 250-acre wetland we created to treat wastewater and serve as a refuge for birds and other wildlife in the Colorado River Delta.
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Within the Colorado River basin, the combination of over allocated water systems, rapid population growth, and increasing uncertainty in the face of climate change requires…
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From water scarcity to hasty development, we know the unique challenges that face the West – and we’re flexible and resilient enough to find the right balance between conserving and developing our natural resources.
