This past year was a WHIRLWIND of events, changes, and great memories and we look forward to making many more with our volunteers and supporters. In 2024, over 106 volunteers contributed more than 1,600 hours of their time to our mission, valued at $53,500 in effort that we were able to leverage as in-kind match for some of our active grants. To our dedicated and incredible volunteers: THANK YOU. Here is a quick review of all you helped accomplish.
Wildlife Camera Monitoring
We maintained a fleet of 62 wildlife cameras spread across 4 wildlife research projects, and now have a total of 1,244,000 wildlife photos of more than 68 species, including mountain lions, badgers, kit foxes, and even black bear. For the first time, we also added solar panels to many of our cameras, thanks to a grant from TEP.
Habitat Restoration
We hosted 10 restoration events and workshops on the Oracle Road wildlife crossing structures, where we planted 129 new native trees and shrubs, including 50 new agaves, spread native seeds, seedballs, and cactus cuttings, and removed over 60 large bags of invasive buffelgrass.
Read our 2023-2024 Habitat Restoration Day work summary here!
This project is funded in part by the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area – thank you!
Thank you for your partnership in this project, Strategic Habitat Enhancements and Bat Conservation International!
Roadkill Surveys
Volunteers conducted 10 miles of roadkill surveys this year. All of the roadkill data points were gathered on our iNaturalist project to map roadkill hotspots and identify wildlife crossing needs.
The CSDP Safe Passages project now has over 3,000 roadkill observations of over 250 species throughout Pima County.
You can view this roadkill data here (warning: sensitive images)

Desert Fence Busting
In 2024, over 11 work events, a whopping 339 Desert Fence Buster volunteers spent nearly 2,000 hours removing 28.8 miles of obsolete and dangerous barbed wire fence! This cooperative project has now inspired similar efforts from other groups and individuals in other places.
Highway Cleanups
We held 4 events and filled a total of 74 bags of trash from our adopted stretch of highway near the Oracle Road wildlife crossings. And yes, we literally found a kitchen sink. We also found lots of wildflowers!
Community Engagement
Between 12 outreach tabling events, educational talks and workshops, two mailing parties, and individual photography, equipment repair help, advocacy work, and MORE, volunteers like you had an immeasurable impact on conservation of the Sonoran Desert this year, in so many creative ways. Thank you!