Sonoran Joint Venture

07/14/2026

The Annual South West Noxious, Invasive Plant Short Course has been running since 1995. It is the 2nd longest running annual training event in the history of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, serving clientele and stakeholders in AZ, NM, and throughout the southwestern US.

The 2026 meeting will take place August 19-20 in Tucson AZ. The meeting will be FREE for all participants, thanks to funding from NRCS. Nine CEUs are available for both tracks from AZ and eight for NM. If you would like to be added to the listserve to receive information about the meeting, please email Elise Gornish at [email protected].

05/19/2026

With Sky Island Alliance – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

05/07/2026

"On a hillside above an oak-lined wash, 25 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border in the state of Sonora, a norteño ballad trumpeted from a portable speaker as Eduardo Ríos Colores sang along, swinging a pickax at the ground. It was early February, and Ríos Colores and a group of Sonoran university students were uprooting catclaw mimosa, a thorny shrub that invades overgrazed grasslands. Once the catclaw was removed, the pasture would eventually become a seed bank for native grasses that provide crucial bird habitat.

Ríos Colores — known to most simply as “Colores” — is a rancher in the Sky Islands, a group of isolated mountain ranges that straddle the international border. Much of Colores’s ranch lies within the watershed of the San Pedro River, which runs north from Sonora into Arizona. The river’s binational basin is a priority for grassland bird conservation, but for 15 years, no monitoring has been conducted on the Mexican side. Now, the Tucson-based Sky Island Alliance is working with ranchers like Colores to monitor the region’s grassland birds and use restoration projects like the catclaw removal to increase their numbers."

Grassland restoration in Sonora, Mexico, helps to conserve North America’s bird life.

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day!

04/15/2026

Attention Tucson! Celebrate Earth Day at Bonita Park this Saturday, April 18, 2026. / ¡Atención, Tucson! Celebren el Día de la Tierra en Bonita Park este sábado, 18 de abril de 2026.

03/23/2026

Audubon Southwest recently released a report to help illustrate the economic value of water in Arizona’s rivers, lakes, and streams. The new analysis assessed participation in water-based recreation by Arizona residents and the time they spent recreating between September 2024 and August 2025. The study also estimated resident and non-resident spending on various water-based recreational activities to measure the economic contributions generated annually from rivers, lakes, and streams throughout the state. Spoiler: water-based outdoor recreation generates $11.7 billion in economic output annual in Arizona, supporting 72,000+ jobs and adding $6.9 billion annually to the state's Gross Domestic Product.

Read the full report and county-specific analyses here: https://www.audubon.org/southwest/resources-publications/economic-impact-of-arizonas-rivers-lakes-and-streams

What is the economic value of water flowing in Arizona’s rivers, lakes, and streams? Check out our new report, which found that water-based outdoor recreation generates $11.7 billion annually for Arizona's economy, supporting 72,000 jobs in the state. Learn more at audubon.org/azrivers

📸 Kayakers on Lake Havasu. Photo: George Andrejko/Arizona Game and Fish Department

03/07/2026

Congratulations to SJV Partner Audubon Southwest for being named one of the 2025 Migratory Bird Joint Venture Conservation Champions! Audubon Southwest Executive Director Jon Hayes accepted this prestigious and richly-deserved recognition on February 25, 2026 at a reception on Capitol Hill celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures.

Audubon Arizona, now Audubon Southwest, has been a core partner of the Sonoran Joint Venture since the JV’s inception. Through their participation on our management board and Science Working Group they have helped develop the strategic direction of the SJV, supporting our partnership’s work to advance collaborative efforts for bird and habitat conservation in the SJV geography.

Learn more: https://sonoranjv.org/congratulations-audubon-southwest/
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Audubon Southwest ha sido recientemente nombrada una de las organizaciones campeonas de la conservación de la Migratory Bird Joint Ventures para 2025. El director ejecutivo y miembro del consejo consultivo de la SJV, Jon Hayes, aceptó este prestigioso y merecido reconocimiento el 25 de febrero de 2026 en una recepción celebrada en el Capitolio con motivo del 40.º aniversario de los Migratory Bird Joint Ventures.

Audubon Arizona, ahora Audubon Southwest, ha sido un socio fundamental de la Sonoran Joint Venture desde su creación. A través de su participación en nuestro consejo consultivo, han ayudado a desarrollar la dirección estratégica de la SJV, apoyando el trabajo de nuestra asociación para promover los esfuerzos de colaboración para la conservación de las aves y su hábitat en la geografía de la SJV.

Más información: https://sonoranjv.org/es/enhorabuena-audubon-southwest/

02/10/2026

The JV8 Central Grasslands Conservation Initiative is excited to announce the official launch of its newly redesigned website, now live at JV8.org. The redesigned website offers a blueprint for expanding grassland habitat stewardship and conservation through coordinated collaboration, drawing from the 2025 publication of the JV8 Business Plan to recover North America’s Central Grasslands. The new JV8 website will serve as a resource for JV partners, conservation practitioners, policymakers and agency representatives, and philanthropic donors.

La Iniciativa para la Conservación de los Pastizales Centrales JV8 (JV8) tiene el gusto de presentar el lanzamiento oficial de su recién rediseñado sitio web, ya publicado en JV8.org. El sitio rediseñado ofrece un plan para ampliar la administración y la conservación del hábitat de pastizales a través de una colaboración coordinada, basándose en el Plan de Negocios JV8 de 2025 para la Recuperación de los Pastizales Centrales de Norteamérica. El nuevo sitio web de JV8 servirá como recurso para los socios de los JVs, los profesionales de la conservación, los responsables de las políticas, los representantes de agencias y los donantes filantrópicos.