Hiking Club Hosts Wildlife Linkages Program - May 20
The May Hiking Club program features Janice Pryzbyl, project director for the Sky Island Alliance and its effort to mobilize volunteers to track and record the movement of animals among the isolated mountain habitats of the Southwest and northern Mexico. The SIA approach is based on Ms. Pryzbyl’s M.A. thesis, which details a grass roots strategy to generate a database sufficient to ensure that land management agencies and urban planners recognize and take active steps to ensure preservation of vital and safe corridors.
The Sky Island Alliance brilliantly conceptualizes the unity of the ecology and wildlife of the small mountain ranges of the Sonoran Desert. Founded by a few activists in 1991, in less than two decades it has utilized memberships, donations, and grants to build a paid staff of more than a dozen professionals as well as interns and volunteers to promote research, conservation, restoration, and comprehensive planning.
Many of us have read about research by SIA and other organizations into the habits and range of the big cats, including killing of the last known jaguar in southern Arizona. The effort led by Janice Pryzbyl extends that research effort literally into our back yards because the SaddleBrooke developments sit astride migration routes between the Tortolitas and the Santa Catalinas. Expect a program that challenges personal values and inspires personal involvement.
