Sonoran Joint Venture: About Us

April 2006

Kenn Kaufman, TAS, SIA, SJV partner to get field guides to Mexico
Noted naturalist and author Kenn Kaufman was recently in Tucson to promote his new Guía de Campo a las Aves de Norteamérica, the only Spanish language field guide to the birds of North America. Tucson Audubon Society (TAS) organized a series of events in the Tucson area over the course of the weekend of 24-26 March 2006 to promote the new resource.

TAS, together with the Sky Island Alliance and the Sonoran Joint Venture, organized a special event in Nogales on 25 March 2006, which was attended by Nogales Mayor Albert Kramer, Pima County Supervisor Manuel Ruiz, and other members of the community. Kenn signed books, met Mayor Kramer and Supervisor Ruiz, and along with more than 50 participants, enjoyed a lunch generously donated by Armando Lopez of Paricutín.

Over the course of the weekend TAS members were invited to purchase copies of the Spanish language Kaufman guide to donate to biologists, educators, and students in Mexico as part of an effort coordinated by the Sonoran Joint Venture. Thanks to their generosity, the SJV now has a small supply of Kaufman guides in Spanish to donate to our partners and Kenn is pursuing other avenues to get more. Please contact Jennie Duberstein to learn how you can request copies of the field guide for your program.

Many thanks to Tucson Audubon Society, Sky Island Alliance, and especially to Kenn Kaufman, without whose vision and push to make things happen we would not have this important tool.

SJV Awards Program deadline extended
The SJV Awards Program deadline to submit proposals has been extended to is 17 April 2006. Don't miss this opportunity! Click here for more details.

PIF West Working Group meets in Montana
The Partners In Flight West Working Group and aquatic birds workshop took place in Missoula, Montana from 15-17 March 2006. One of the main topics of discussion was monitoring needs for the west; the SJV will take the lead on "Border Bird" monitoring, while other organizations will guide monitoring efforts elsewhere in the region.

For more information about Partners In Flight visit www.partnersinflight.org.

National Geographic geotourism project seeks input
In December of 2005, the states of Arizona in the United States and Sonora, México signed a National Geographic Geotourism Charter to promote sustainable tourism and destination stewardship in the Sonoran Desert region. This project, a collaboration of the Sonora and Arizona offices of tourism, the Bureau of Land Management and the Sonoran Institute, will include the creation of a Geotourism MapGuide and an associated website that encompass both cultural and environmental concerns regarding travel as well as the impact tourism has on local communities and their individual economies and lifestyles.

Geotourism, a concept put forth by the National Geographic Society, is defined as "tourism that sustains or enhances the geographic character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” Geotourism seeks for destinations to remain unspoiled for future generations, conserves resources, respects local culture and traditions, and strives for quality not quantity of visitations. Like ecotourism, it considers that tourism revenue can promote conservation—extending that principle beyond nature travel to encompass culture and history as well: all distinctive assets that add character and appeal to a place. Geotourism also builds community-based tourism partnerships that emphasize economic and social benefits to the destination.

A bi-national grassroots campaign, “The Pride of the Sonoran Desert Region,” has been launched to solicit nominations for inclusion in a Geotourism MapGuide. The map will display those unique places, attractions, flavors, and visitor experiences that best capture the beauty, diversity, and uniqueness of the Sonoran Desert region. Nominations may include flora and fauna, historic structures and archaeological sites, scenic landscapes, traditional architecture, and all of the things that contribute to the region’s culture, such as local music, crafts, dances, arts, festivals, traditional celebrations, and local cuisine.

The geographical area under consideration for the MapGuide is the bi-national Sonoran Desert Region. This area encompasses southern Arizona (including Cochise County) north to Phoenix and extends west to Yuma. The southern boundary is Empalme, Sonora, Mexico, (including the coastline) and the eastern border is the Río Sonora.

Nominations will be gathered by the Sonoran Institute and then forwarded to National Geographic for consideration. The MapGuide will be printed by National Geographic in both English and Spanish and distributed by the Arizona and Sonora offices of tourism as well as National Geographic. The estimated time of completion for this project is Spring 2007.

To learn more about the project or to nominate a site, visit the project website.

Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Survey and Nest Monitoring Training
You and your staff are invited to attend SWCA's annual Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Survey and Nest Monitoring Training which is being held in Golden Shores, Arizona (near the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge). As in previous years, we have organized the training to accommodate field personnel interested in attending survey and nest monitoring training, or just survey training. Please note that these trainings cover all flycatcher survey and monitoring field methodologies, but also include methods specific to SWCA's willow flycatcher studies.

Both survey and nest monitoring training will be conducted from 2 - 4 May 2006. Color banding training will be offered 6-7 May at the Bill Williams River and a second workshop just for survey training will be offered in Golden Shores from 9 -10 May 2006.

Please contact Tom Koronkiewicz by 17 April if you or your staff plan to attend or for more details.

Desert Bird Conservation Plan draft available for review
A completed draft of some of the chapters of the Desert Bird Conservation Plan is now available, along with draft accounts and focal species maps. Comments are welcome from everyone. Over the rest of 2006, Chris McCreedy will continue to post additional draft sections and he is working to include Arizona and Nevada breeding bird atlas data into expanded versions of the CalPIF focal species maps.

Chris is particularly interested in strengthening the plan's coverage of desert bird research south of the border (for non-riparian habitats but including
"xeric riparian", in the Lower Colorado River Valley section of the Sonoran Desert), and he hopes that readers will have examples and perhaps focal species breeding statuses that they can contribute.

If you haven't already, please visit the CalPIF livemaps web page and the online study areas database. It is now possible to enter breeding status information for the fifteen Desert Bird Conservation Plan focal species. If you have an existing account, please consider contributing data for these species to the CalPIF database. If you do not have an account, please consider signing up to contribute your data to this important effort. Visit
http://www.prbo.org/calpif/data.html.

Please contact Chris McCreedy with questions or comments.

Upcoming grant deadlines

Wilburforce Foundation
Deadlines: 28 April 2006, 18 August 2006, 15 December 2006
Description: Wilburforce Foundation is dedicated to protecting nature's richness and diversity through funding programs that help preserve our remaining wild places. We focus our funding on organizations that work to protect habitats that are critically important to sustaining abundant ecological communities in Western Canada and the Western United States.
USDA Fish and Wildlife Habitat Improvement Competitive Grants
Deadline: 27 April 2006
Description: USDA will provide up to $1.7 million for competitive grants to develop and evaluate technological tools for fish and wildlife habitat improvements. Proposals for grants will be accepted from state and local governments, federally recognized tribes and non-governmental organizations. Grants will range from $10,000 to $200,000.
Acres for America
Deadline: 1 June 2006.
Description: Acres for America is a partnership between Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Acres for America program was established to provide funding for projects that conserve important habitat for fish, wildlife, and plants through acquisition of interest in real property. The goal of the Acres for America program is to offset the footprint of Wal-Mart's domestic facilities on at least an acre by acre basis through these acquisitions. Applicants are urged to contact the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation regional director in their area to discuss project ideas prior to submitting preproposals.
The Ramsar Small Grants Fund
Deadline: 30 June 2006
Description: The Ramsar Small Grants Fund was established as a mechanism to assist developing countries and those with economies in transition in implementing the Convention and to enable the conservation and wise use of wetland resources. Suitable project proposals are those which contribute to the implementation of the Convention's Strategic Plan 2003-2008 for the conservation and wise use of wetlands; provide emergency assistance for Ramsar sites; or provide 'preparatory assistance' to allow non-Contracting Parties to progress toward accession. Complete information and required forms are now available on the Ramsar website.
North American Wetlands Conservation Act Program
Deadline: 28 July 2006 (US Standard Grants); July 2006 (Mexico Standard Grants)
Description: The North American Wetlands Conservation Act provides matching grants to private or public organizations or to individuals who have developed partnerships to carry out wetlands conservation projects in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The program provides US, Mexican, and Canadian Standard Grants (between $50,000 and $1,000,000) and US Small Grants (up to $50,000). Be sure to check out the Playa Lakes Joint Venture's Timeline for preparing a NAWCA Proposal. Important note: Anyone considering applying should coordinate their application with SJV Coordinator Robert Mesta (520-882-0047). The SJV will need to be involved not only to provide guidance but also because we will need to rank all applications that are submitted.

News and Headlines
Please contact Jennie Duberstein with any publicity or press that your organization or project receives or information about newspaper and journal articles of relevance to SJV partners.

March 2, 2006 - Resaltan importancia de los humedales. Por Zorayda Gallegos © El Imparcial.

March 3, 2006 - Buscan que humedal Moroncárit sea hábitat de las aves acuáticas. Por Ramón García © El Imparcial.

March 3, 2006 - Inquieta proyecto a ambientalistas. Por Por José Guerra © El Imparcial.

Upcoming Meetings and Workshops

Partners in Flight Workshop on Conservation Design - Exploring methods for linking bird population goals with spatially-explicit habitat objectives: 11-13 April 2006, St. Louis, Missouri. Contact: Jane Fitzgerald.

Advanced Ageing and Sexing of Passerines: 17-27 April 2006, Alviso, California. Contact: Jessica Griffiths.

Naturalist Guide Training for Mexicans: 21-23 April 2006, Sonora, Mexico. Contact: Jennie Duberstein.

Conserving Birds in Human-Dominated Landscapes: A Biodiversity Symposium: 27-28 April 2006, New York City, New York. Contact.

Conference/Workshop on Capture-Recapture Models: 1-5 May 2006, Quebec City, Canada. Website.

Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Survey Training: 2-4 & 9-10 May 2006, Golden Shores, Arizona. Contact: Tom Koronkiewicz.

SJV Management Board Meeting: 23 May 2006, Rancho El Aribabi, Sonora, Mexico. Contact: Robert Mesta.

Border Institute VIII - Cooperation on Planning and Operation of Transboundary Watersheds:
Sharing Data across Borders: 22-24 May 2006, Rio Rico, Arizona. Contact: D. Rick Von Schoik.

III International Symposium on Transboundary Waters Management - 30 May-2 June 2006, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Contact.

Click here for complete details about upcoming meetings.