The Stewardship Program at the Chiricahua Regional Council rests on the principle that people and non-profits collaborating together can have a positive impact on the land. Stewards are created when individuals assemble to work toward tangible goals like trail restoration and erosion control. The CRC has the expertise and experience to develop and manage efforts in conservation stewardship.
Natural habitats benefit from well designed projects that adhere to a core set of values that considers the health of the biological resources first.
We will always advocate for sound management practices by the governmental agencies charged with protecting public land in our region. Using established science as the basis for our work, we seek to engage volunteers interested in having a direct positive involvement with the land.
The goal of stewardship at the CRC is twofold. 1) increase volunteer participation by the local community on public land projects and 2) accomplish real results on both ranchlands and the forest through funded projects.
Currently the CRC is planning to restore the entire South Fork Trail #243. We will facilitate the organizing and financing to partner with organized paid crews of young adults.
Examples of stewardship projects either currently active or under development at the CRC:
Recruiting and training local volunteers for trail maintenance, spring restoration, boundary monitoring, and recreation management.
In an era of climate change that has brought us mega-fires and the severe effects of drought it has become more important than ever that we all become land stewards.
“…that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, animals, or collectively: the land.” —Aldo Leopold
June of ’22 has been kind to us in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. An early start to the seasonal rain (aka the monsoon) has brought critical moisture and lower temperatures to our region. Coinciding with this welcome change is the arrival of a diverse group of young adults from across the country. They’re…
On May 6, 2022, the Chiricahua Wilderness Trail Crew completed a week of volunteer trail work in the Chiricahua mountains. John Sumner (in the blue hardhat in the above picture) led the group. Several participants traveled from outside Arizona to improve conditions on several trails that have seen damage in recent years. These included Rattlesnake,…
(This is a part of a series of gleanings from the history of CRC’s 30 years of work; additional posts available here.) In February 2021, CRC partnered with Wild Arizona and the US Forest Service on the South Fork Trail Stewardship Project. We seek to involve volunteers in habitat, spring, and trail restoration. Recent trail projects,…
The Chiricahua Regional Council is happy to welcome back the Chiricahua Wilderness Trail Crew. John Sumner returns to Portal on the 28th of April to lead this cast of volunteers from various parts of the country. They will contribute a week of their time. Initially they will base out of Pine Canyon and work on…
The Chiricahua Regional Council, in collaboration with Wild Arizona, has helped secure grant funding to complete the South Fork Trail project and restore a major section of the Crest Trail. We launched the first phase of work on this classic Chiricahua canyon trail in 2021. It was a highly successful project. CRC provided funding, coordinated…
In November, 2021, work continued on the South Fork Trail in the Chiricahua Wilderness to finish some trail reroutes and to do some additional work on the existing trail. This work was done by the Wild Stew Field Crew of Wild Arizona, accompanied by a team of volunteers, and supported by CRC and others. More…
This week, a few of us went to Guadalupe Canyon along the international border east of Douglas to remove invasive grass. Five determined individuals — and one dog — spent Tuesday pulling up clumps of Lehmann lovegrass, an invasive, flammable, introduced bunchgrass that outcompetes native grasses. This particular plant thrives in disturbed areas, such as…
The largest group to tackle trail work in Cave Creek Canyon in years assembled at the South Fork trailhead on October 3, 2021. The Chiricahua Regional Council’s Stewardship Program was instrumental in assembling this collaborative effort of the Chiricahua Wilderness Trail Crew and Wild Arizona’s Wild Stew Field Crew. It was the first of several…
A lot of effort has been poured into restoring the trails in the Chiricahuas over the past quarter century. But the assaults of weather and fire, coupled with funding limitations imposed by a federal government that has de-prioritized trail maintenance nationally, have resulted in a trail system that struggles to remain safe and accessible. Every…
