About Us
The Altar Valley Conservation Alliance is a watershed based collaborative conservation organization founded in 1995, and incorporated as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.
Mission & Vision
We work through a strongly collaborative, science-based, community driven and integrated approach to:
CONSERVE healthy and productive working landscapes, including soil and water conservation, wildfire management, habitat conservation and protection of native species, and other environmental initiatives.
PROMOTE a thriving agricultural economy by encouraging improved ranching and farming practices, diversification and innovation, and by supporting programs and policies that support more effective, long-term economic development.
SUSTAIN a resilient rural community by retaining and renewing the cultural and historical traditions of the Altar Valley.
Ranchers and other agriculturalists work effectively with our partners to conserve healthy and productive working landscapes, promote a thriving agricultural economy, and sustain a resilient rural community enriched by the culture and history of the Altar Valley.
Watershed
Though it is only 20 miles from the city, few of Tucson’s 450,000 plus citizens know the Altar Valley. The best way to orient them is to take their mind’s eye to the south facing views from Tucson’s prized Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where one can gaze far south to the international border shared with Mexico. The evening view is particularly stunning and startling. The foreground sparkles with lights from hundreds of homes, roads and cars that have jumped the confines of the urban Tucson Basin, much of it in unregulated or wildcat subdivision. Further south, a line of contrast marks the edge of a roughly 610,000 acre sea of darkness – the Altar Valley watershed, a working landscape presided over by Baboquivari Peak.
The Altar Valley planning area is approximately 52 miles long and 20 miles wide. It is generally bound on the south by the United States/Mexico border, on the north by State Route 86 (the Ajo Highway), on the west by the Baboquivari and Coyote Mountains, and on the east by the Sierrita, Las Guijas, Cerro Colorado, and San Luis Mountains. It also encompasses three small towns: Three Points at the State Routes 86/286 juncture, Arivaca as the extreme southeastern end, and Sasabe at the southern end.
The Altar Valley is part of the Gila River Watershed, the Madrean Archipelago and the Sonoran Desert.
History
1995
Ranchers motivated by the desire to return fire to the landscape and keep the valley open as a working landscape convene as an alliance, with an eye toward the Malpai Borderlands Group as a model.
2000
The Alliance becomes a formal 501(c)3 organization. In the same year, the Altar Valley Watershed Resource Management Plan is completed. This project is funded by a grant from the Arizona Water Protection Fund.
2001-2005
Alliance members serve on the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan Steering Committee.
2005
The Alliance hosts the first of many arroyo restoration and road maintenance workshops with Bill Zeedyk and Steve Carson.
2007
The Alliance develops staff!
2009
The Altar Valley Fire Management Plan is completed via a collaborative partner effort. Additionally, the Alliance receives a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to prepare burn plans for five sites throughout the Altar Valley.
2010
The Alliance receives the Quivira Coalition’s Clarence Burch award for collaborative conservation.
2010
The Altar Valley Science Advisory Board is formed, and shortly after, the first Altar Valley Research Fellowship is awarded.
2012
The Elkhorn/Las Delicias Watershed Restoration Demonstration project is installed with support from the Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Foundation and many partners. The Alliance initiates a 10-year monitoring and community outreach program using the project as an outdoor classroom.
2012
The Alliance receives a second grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to conduct prescribed fires and erosion control methods at each of the original sites.
2014
The first prescribed burn is completed on the Las Delicias Ranch and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge via cross-boundary efforts by the Alliance and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge staff.
2014
The Alliance reaches a settlement agreement with Kinder-Morgan regarding the Sierrita Pipeline, which creates an endowment that the Alliance uses to fund work in the valley.
2015
The Altar Valley Watershed Retreat is held to talk about the Altar Wash. This lays the groundwork for what will become the Altar Valley Watershed Working Group.
2018
The Alliance holds three brush management workshops with the University of Arizona to facilitate the sharing of lessons learned about brush management.
2018
The Alliance’s first Executive Director, Mary Miller, wins 2018 Non-Profit Champion at the Inside Tucson Business Women of Influence awards.
2019
The Alliance launches a collaborative, valley-wide planning process funded by the Bureau of Reclamation that will result in the Altar Valley Watershed Plan. This plan continues the planning started by the Altar Valley Watershed Framework in 2014.
2019
The Alliance completes a 2000-acre grassland enhancement project involving mesquite treatment, funded by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and establishes a monitoring program to track progress.
2019
The Alliance and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge sign a cooperative agreement to facilitate watershed work throughout the Altar Valley.
2020
The twenty-fifth year of collaborative conservation led by ranchers in the Altar Valley.
Board of Directors
Patricia King – President
Peggy Rowley – Vice-President
Walter Lane – Treasurer
Mary Miller – Secretary & CFO
Matt Bailey
Paul Bear
Sue Chilton
Heather Fox
Mary Kasulaitis
Lori Lindsay
Juan Lopez
Doug Lowell
Dee Lusby
Tom Sheridan
Stephen Williams
Science Advisory Board
The Alliance established the Science Advisory Board in 2010, to advise and guide the Alliance Board of Directors in steering the Alliance’s science program.
The Science Advisory Board convenes quarterly and advises informally on an as-needed basis.
The Science Advisory Board helped create and continually updates two important documents that guide research in the Altar Valley: the AVCA Science Agenda and the Research Protocol for the Altar Valley Watershed.
The AVCA Science Agenda is designed to encourage research about topics that have on-the-ground application for those living and working in the Altar Valley.
The Research Protocol for the Altar Valley Watershed is intended to facilitate cooperative attitudes and mutual respect among the science community and landowners and managers in the Altar Valley.
Staff
Sarah King – Executive Director
Sarah became the Alliance’s Executive Director in 2020. She joined the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance staff team in 2011 as the Community Outreach and Education Coordinator, and also served as the Alliance’s Program Director for several years. Sarah lives in the Altar Valley, where she lives and works on the King’s Anvil Ranch, with her husband, Joe. They have two kids, who are the 5th generation to live on the Anvil Ranch, which was founded in 1895. Sarah received her degree in history from Davidson College in 2008. Prior to working with the Alliance, she was a backcountry horseback guide on guest ranches in Montana and Arizona. Sarah cares deeply about collaborative conservation in the Altar Valley, and the future of the valley as an open, working landscape.
Julia Guglielmo – Conservation & Science Director
Julia has been the AVCA Conservation and Science Director since 2018. She works with people who live and work in the Altar Valley to address high-priority land management issues. She has led projects related to vegetation management, wildlife habitat, roads and infrastructure, soil health, and watershed restoration, and has developed landowner-informed plans from the project scale to the watershed scale. She also works with scientists, researchers, and students to design projects and monitor land response to inform local decision making as well as the broader scientific community. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Natural Resources from the University of Arizona.
Elisabeth vanderLeeuw – GIS Director
Elisabeth joined the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance as GIS Coordinator the summer of 2024. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois in the grocery store business. Her family started and owned the business after coming to the United States in the 1950s. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Anthropology from Northwestern University. She completed her master’s degree in Geography in 2007 from the University of Arizona. She has over 20 years’ experience with GIS technologies, including scripting (various computer languages), data modeling, imagery analysis, geodatabases, and cartography. She is currently finishing up her PhD in utilizing GIS and Remote Sensing technologies in Natural Resource Management at the University of Arizona. She is currently a GIS Manager at the Pima County Information Technology Department and a Co-Chair of the Natural Resource Committee at the Arizona Geographic Information Council.
Elena G. Dosamantes – Program Coordinator
Elena joined the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance as Program Coordinator in the Fall of 2024. She grew up in Cananea, Sonora, a small mining town in northern Mexico where her family owned and operated a cattle ranch for five generations. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources with an emphasis on Ecology, Management, and Restoration of Rangelands from the University of Arizona. Then, she completed a master’s degree in Rangeland Ecosystem Science at Colorado State University. Her thesis was on wild horse management. She is currently working on a PhD in Ecology, Management, and Restoration of Rangelands University of Arizona, where she is also a Graduate Research Assistant and is doing research on invasive species management.
Why give?
Your support enables the Alliance to conserve the Altar Valley for future generations through collaborative conservation projects, education and communication projects, research fellowships, scientific and technical expertise, management policy, and restoration solutions, guided by the needs of the land, by the people who know the land.
THE RAINMAKER
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