Pinaleño Sacred Springs Restoration Project
High atop Mt. Graham in southeastern Arizona, the Pinaleño Sacred Springs project is collaborating with Tribal, University, and Governmental partners to restore springs and watersheds in the Pinaleño Mountains. We are also exploring the role that native fungi performs in speeding tree regeneration and watershed recovery on a biologically rare mountain range devastated by climate change, drought, fire, and severe erosion.
Located 70 miles northeast of Tucson, the Pinaleño Mountains – known as Dzil Nchaa Si’an in Western Apache and Mt. Graham in English – rise to heights of 10,724 feet above the surrounding Sonoran Desert. The wet, pine-laden higher elevations provide a rare Sky Island Refuge for eighteen endemic species found nowhere else in the world, several of which are endangered This range is one of the Western Apache’s four holiest mountains and is considered sacred to 12 regional tribes.
This multi-year project erects erosion control structures used historically by the region’s native peoples, and are being built by young adults from the Ancestral Lands and Arizona Conservation Corps.
Future phases of the project will revegetate with native trees and forbs, investigating the role of native fungi in aiding seedling survival, forest regeneration, and carbon capture. San Carlos Apache Tribe members serve as project advisors. Other partners include the US Forest Service, Natural Channel Design, the University of Arizona, Strategic Habitat Enhancements, LLC and Synthesis Consulting.