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Life Returns
Drop by drop, we restore flowing rivers and healthy landscapes to enable all people and nature to thrive.
Our Work, By The Numbers
You don’t last as a conservation nonprofit 501c(3) for over 30 years without making a significant positive impact on rivers, landscapes, ecosystems and communities. At the Sonoran Institute, we are accountable for success. Here are the communities we’ve worked with over the past three decades—and the results:
$300M
Local Investment
500,000
Acres conserved and protected
2,000
Community leaders/activists trained
200,000
Native tree seedlings planted in the Colorado River Delta region.
Phoenix’s West Valley
California Desert
Las Arenitas Treatment Wetland
Colorado River Delta Estuary
Resilient Communities Workshop Helps Missoula Become Summer Smart
Santa Cruz River: Paradise Lost, Paradise Reborn, Will it be Lost Again?
Mexicali Fluye
Tucson C2E
Las Cienegas National Conservation Area
Our Programs
Current community-based conservation programs are focused on water in the Colorado River Basin.
Growing Water Smart
A more resilient water future is possible from the Colorado River headwaters all the way to the delta. Our workshops bring leaders together to collaborate, and each team leaves with an action plan to meet local and regional goals.
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Santa Cruz River
The Santa Cruz River has provided life-sustaining water for more than 12,000 years. Climate aridification and a century of overuse has negatively impacted the river, however we can continue to restore its vitality.
READ MOREOur Success Stories
We’re more than conservationists. We work to protect the environments, economies and communities of the West through unique programs and initiatives.
Conserve2Enhance: Harnessing the Power of Neighbors to Fix Flooding Problems
“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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Santa Cruz River: Paradise Lost, Paradise Reborn, Will it be Lost Again?
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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The 21st Century’s Gold Rush—Done Right: A Collaborative Approach to Advancing Renewable Energy in the West
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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Restoring the Colorado River Estuary
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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Protecting the Crown Jewel of Phoenix’s West Valley
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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From Sewage to Sanctuary: Las Arenitas Treatment Wetland
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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Celebrating Collaborative Conservation and Twenty Years of the Las Cienegas NCA
In a different time, with a different cast of characters, the fairgrounds could easily have turned into a battleground. Instead, this 1995 meeting proved to be the beginning of one of the most successful and enduring collaborative conservation efforts in the nation.
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