An alliance has spent 35 years protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem, and its science and advocacy work now plays a key role in defending the region’s wildlife corridors.
Protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem means safeguarding a rare geography. Sky Islands are mountain ranges isolated by surrounding desert and grassland, creating high-elevation forest habitat “islands” cut off from other mountains by vast lowland distances. Six ecosystems blend across the region, supporting species found nowhere else on Earth. Sky Island Alliance, founded in Tucson and marking its 35th anniversary this year, works through science, conservation, and advocacy programs spanning both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The organization’s science work includes a Border Wildlife Study that uses trail cameras to document species movement, plus programs like Spring Seeker, which map the region’s dwindling water sources. Recent findings underscore why connectivity matters: an ocelot nicknamed Himdam, meaning “Traveler,” was recently documented crossing four separate Sky Island mountain ranges, direct evidence that animals still depend on connected terrain spanning enormous distances.
Conservation efforts include the Aravaipa Habitat Project, Springs Rescue, and a Ranchos Regenerativos program partnering with ranchers in Sonora, Mexico, to support regenerative land management that benefits both livelihoods and wildlife habitat. The organization also responds to acute threats, including habitat recovery efforts following the Bighorn Fire.
Protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem requires a multi-front approach, from rescuing desert springs and restoring riparian habitat to partnering with Sonoran ranchers on regenerative land management and responding to acute wildfire damage, such as that caused by the Bighorn Fire. Photo courtesy of Sky Island Alliance.
Does protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem remain possible given current border policy? That question defines the organization’s advocacy work right now. A continental-scale border wall construction project, authorized in 2025 and slated for completion in 2028, is cutting directly through the heart of the region. Unlike earlier eras when the border was marked by simple posts and cattle fencing, the current wall includes floating river buoys, double-layered barriers, stadium lighting, and militarized National Defense Areas.
The San Rafael Valley illustrates the stakes concretely. As of February 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had completed five of a planned 27 miles of new steel wall there, with construction continuing daily. The wall is painted black specifically to make it hotter to the touch, an intentional deterrent. This single valley lies within critical habitat for jaguars and ocelots, species that the Sky Island Alliance has spent years documenting with camera traps.
At least 84 federal and state laws, including the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, have been waived to accelerate construction. In October 2025, the Department of Homeland Security issued waivers covering the entire border at once rather than sector by sector, bypassing standard transparency and contracting oversight.
When Customs and Border Protection opened public comment on 19 additional miles of wall near Sasabe and the Patagonia and Peloncillo mountains in November 2025, Sky Island Alliance supporters submitted 996 comments in opposition. The comments did not stop the proposal from advancing.
At least 60 new roads have been graded for construction access, requiring water pumped from underground aquifers just to control dust during grading. Sections of wall built across the San Pedro River have dammed or reduced flow at points already stressed by drought.
New lighting disrupts nocturnal wildlife; Sky Island Alliance’s own camera data shows most mammal sightings occur between sunset and sunrise, meaning species active only at night face the most direct disruption from stadium-style construction lighting.
In December 2025, Sky Island Alliance joined 23 other border coalition organizations in a formal complaint after Border Patrol installed concertina razor wire through the Huachuca Mountains, Guadalupe Canyon, and Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, wire capable of injuring or killing large animals that become trapped in it.
Not every fight has been lost in the fight protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem. A 2023 legal settlement in Sierra Club v. Biden required Customs and Border Protection to add wildlife openings in existing wall sections, keep certain floodgates open, and fund environmental restoration along sections built with improperly directed funds. Arizona’s illegal shipping-container wall, erected without federal authorization in 2022, was fully removed following a Department of Justice lawsuit, with the state committing $2.1 million toward road repair and invasive-species treatment at the site.
Those wins demonstrate that organized, sustained advocacy can force real changes, even against a project with executive-level political backing. But they remain narrow corrections within a fundamentally adversarial policy environment. Protecting the Sky Islands ecosystem after 35 years of accumulated science, land restoration, and binational relationship-building now depends substantially on whether that advocacy can keep pace with a wall being built faster than most of the mitigation measures negotiated to offset it.
