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:
Local Investment
Acres conserved and protected
Community leaders/activists trained
Native tree seedlings planted in the Colorado River Delta region.
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.
READ MOREThe 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 MOREWe’re more than conservationists. We work to protect the environments, economies and communities of the West through unique programs and initiatives.
“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 ›
READ MOREThe 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.
READ MOREIt 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.
READ MOREInnovative. 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.
READ MOREHelping 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.
READ MOREGreen 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.
READ MOREIn 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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