The Borderlands Restoration Network protects habitats in southeastern Arizona and northern Sonora. Founded in 2014 by ecologist Ronald Pulliam, the network rebuilds healthy ecosystems on both sides of the border through public education and programs benefiting native plants and wildlife. In partnership with Wildlife Corridors LLC, the network co-manages 2,000 acres connecting parts of the Coronado National Forest, which creates a land bridge for wildlife and allows the public to enjoy free trails for walking, hiking and biking. The region is subject to various threats such as drought, desertification from overgrazing, mining projects depleting groundwater sources, and increased border militarization. The Borderlands Restoration Network focuses on protecting four biomes, which shelter species like jaguars, ocelots, western yellow-billed cuckoos and Mexican spotted owls. “If you protect the large species, you can protect the others,” says Executive Director Rodrigo Sierra-Corona.
Staff at the Borderlands Nursery & Seed, the native plant program of BRN, show off plants they’re growing. Photo: Borderlands Restoration Network
The organization, which has 25 full-time employees, offers extensive educational programming. The Borderlands Earth Care Youth program, for example, has hired more than 200 teenagers and young adults into paid internships featuring hands-on restoration projects and curricula based on environmental and social justice principles, and the Borderlands Field Course is a free, Spanish-language program that teaches young professionals in Mexico about the ecological challenges facing the borderlands. The Borderlands Restoration Network also operates a 60-acre farm with more than 2,000 collections of native seeds and plants native species such as wild agave (more than 4,000 were planted for nectar-feeding bat species with Bat Conservation International) and milkweed for monarch butterflies and other pollinators. It is also collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service to salvage plants and collect more than 250 pounds of native seed at three abandoned mining projects at Mansfield Canyon.
Participants of the Borderlands Earth Care Youth program pose at T4 Ranch. Photo: Borderlands Restoration Network