Description of the Project

This visit tied into a field trip through the Altar Valley, hosted by the Alliance as part of the Fire Science Consortium conference.  The field trip included stops at ranches, along with Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge to talk about fire in the Altar Valley. Attendees to the Cross Watershed visit participated in the field trip, then stayed for an additional day at the Elkhorn Ranch. The goal of the grant provided by the Cross Watershed Network is to enable watershed groups working on similar goals, to come together to share stories, lessons learned, and other ideas that might be of interest to both organizations.

In this visit, participants discussed:
• Prescribed fire implementation challenges: liability, regulation, climate
• A broader toolkit for restoration: if not fire, then what
• Promoting research to broaden understanding of prescribed burn on large landscapes
◦ How can Malpai & AVCA collaborate on this?
• Preventing and recovering from large scale fire
• Discuss Western Landowners Alliance interest in national legislative issues to support local efforts from groups like Malpai & AVCA