The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program funded eight habitat restoration projects in Arizona.  These projects include:

1) A 2.5 mile fencing project with the Colorado River Indian Tribes Fish and Game Department to protect about 7,584 acres of mesquite bosque from vehicle access.  The project will benefit a wide variety of neotropical migrant bird species including the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher, Lucy’s Warbler, and Yellow billed cuckoo.  The project is located on Tribal land. 

2) A fencing project with The Nature Conservancy’s Hart Prairie Preserve to protect and enhance 3 acres of aspen habitat in Coconino County.  Installation of elk proof fencing and removal of small conifer trees from the aspen stands will benefit nesting and roosting habitat for red-naped sapsuckers and other migratory birds.

3) Removing a man-made concrete-lined pond and creating nearly a 1-acre wetland at The Nature Conservancy’s Ramsey Canyon Nature Preserve, Cochise County.  The project also includes re-vegetating the wetland with native species, installing a boardwalk to connect to the exisitng trail, and anticipated cultivating of the endangered Huachuca water umbel. 

4) A cooperative effort between the Service, Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, and Bureau of Reclamation to collect live specimens (Apache County) and develop a reproducing colony of California floater mussels as an exhibit.  The exhibit will educate the public about this mussel, its cultural role in the Southwest, and how its decline affects many Southwestern aquatic communities.

5) A cooperative effort between the Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the Swift Current Land & Cattle LLC to protect and enhance a 1.5-acre wetland by repairing fencing to exclude livestock, re-establishing native wetland vegetation, and removing non-native bullfrogs and mosquito fish.  This project will enhance mesquite bosque habitat for migratory birds.

6) Controlling invasive buffelgrass on about 1,143 acres of the City of Tucson’s “A” Mountain and the University of Arizona’s property on Tumamoc Hill in Pima County.  The spraying effort will mitigate fire danger and allow for natural recolonization of native Sonoran Desert Vegetation and native wildlife.

7) Constructing one of three outdoor ranariums at the Phoenix Zoo in Maricopa County.  The ranariums will serve as rearing pens for the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog.  Protocols and guidance from the 2006 Draft Chiricahua Leopard Frog recovery plan will be followed. 

8) Establishing an off-river refuge population of endangered humpback chub at the Hualapai Tribe Fish Rearing Facility at Peach Springs, Mohave County.  Project funds will repair and upgrade a 1-acre pond at the Facility that will hold the chub.