Smith Fellows Winter Retreat Tucson, AZ
2024 and 2023 Fellows spent the first week of February in Tucson and Nogales learning about the unique ecological and social dimensions of practicing conservation along the border region. The goal of this retreat was to engage the Fellows with leaders in the fields of conservation, management, environment and/or policy in the area to develop a rich understanding of how conservation is practiced in the region, with a particular focus on cross-border collaboration.
Throughout the week, we connected with conservation scientists based in both Mexico and the U.S. who conduct field research along the border. Our time at the Mexican consulate and border was an opportunity to think about how to move conservation forward in an area that experiences strict regulations, conflict, human rights issues, and funding challenges (among many other challenges). A panel of local practitioners spoke of the importance of building relationships (e.g. with border patrol and agency policy enforcers and others) and that while the policies are rigid, people (e.g. policy enforcers) can help find ways to keep the work going despite those. Another message was of resilience--human resilience, ecosystem resilience, organism resilience, and the concept of time as an agent of change.
2014 Fellow, Michael Bogan, took us to his field site and guided us through his amazing journey of collaborations, data, outreach, and action to establish flow in the Santa Cruz river. Discussions with a community relations and research to practice panel, along with a visit to Michael Bogan’s field site, helped us think about how researchers communicate and why parachute science is so real. In our field excursions, Fellows reflected on learning about the Sonoran desert ecosystem, and appreciating the diversity of systems we all work in.
“Visiting the border and learning about the conservation issues happening there was an eye-opening and challenging experience in the best way possible. I am so grateful for the opportunity to visit sites and meet new colleagues willing to share about one of the most difficult conservation contexts I have encountered. I’ll be thinking a lot more about what it means to do conservation in humanitarian crisis zones and how these efforts can improve things for both nature and people.”
