Area Description
While New Mexico has always been NMLC’s main area of focus, various partner organizations, landowners and other conservation stakeholders have approached NMLC to play a role in private land conservation in eastern Arizona. While there is a strong land trust community presence across much of Arizona, a void seems to have surfaced along the New Mexico-Arizona border, particularly the eastern flanks of the Chiricahua Mountains, the Peloncillos and other ecologically rich regions of eastern Arizona. NMLC has stepped up to fill that need, and currently holds easements on three properties, and continues to expand the conserved acreage in the region.
The Sky Island Region of southeastern Arizona provides incredibly diverse habitat for a wide range of species, both flora and fauna, and in fact remains one of the most biologically diverse semi-arid ecoregions in all of North America. The importance of protecting this expanse of unique habitat and other adjacent “sky islands” in the Southwest cannot be overstated and private landowners are critical to ensuring that the incredibly diverse wildlife found in this arid region of the Southwest endures.