Riparian areas in the desert southwest of the USA are imperiled due to drought, climate change, groundwater overdrafting, and invasive species, among other threats

Sky island alliance has worked for more than 3 decades on conserving and restoring the life and lands of this important highly biodiverse region, with a special focus on natural springs, which are often the only water source for many miles for migrating wildlife. There are four goals for this project: 1. Assess up to 15 priority riparian areas and springs using the assessment, inventory and monitoring (aim) protocol and sky island alliances spring seeker protocol per year for 5 years. 2. Using collected data from goal #1, plan up to 5 springs and riparian area rescue projects per year. 3. Restore existing threatened springs (lewis springs, LAS cieneguitas, and empire ranch spring) by using best practice methods. 4. Digitize and organize paper springs data in the tucson and safford field offices to determine baseline conditions for comparison to aim data and to develop future priorities for springs restoration. Overall, this approach will allow US to better characterize riparian areas in southern arizona BLM lands and will allow US to collaboratively initiate restoration planning and implementation at multiple springs and riparian areas in southern arizona. These cinega (wetland) areas are critical habitat for endangered and threatened species such as the arizona eryngo (eryngium sparganophyllum) and chiricahua leopard frogs (rana chiricahuensis). Specifically, sky island alliance will remove invasive vinca major and johnson grass (sorghum halepense) from three springs: empire ranch spring, LAS cieneguitas wetlands, and lewis springs and reseed with native plants. Some of the sites have additional concerns such as erosion and incision and defunct barbed wire fencing that is currently posing a hazard to wildlife and livestock, which will also be managed as a part of this project. Finally, paper springs data located in the tucson and safford BLM offices will be digitized, to better understand baseline conditions at these sites over time. The beneficiaries of this work include the BLM, humans recreating and using the land, livestock, and natural ecosystems.