The Altar Valley is a working landscape – a place where a vast area is protected from residential and commercial development by the presence of human economic activity that has a much lighter touch on the land. The valley is a place where the growing of food is used as a method of open space conservation, and conservation projects are considered essential to ranching practices. The open space created by Altar Valley agricultural operations is essential to providing important habitat connectivity by maintaining the only undeveloped corridor linking western deserts to the westernmost Sky Islands mountain tops. Countless wildlife species, including threatened or endangered species like the Chiricahua leopard frog, the jaguar, and the masked bobwhite quail, move through the habitat provided by the working landscape of the Altar Valley.