This year was filled with a strong sense of community; we are constantly inspired by and appreciative of our volunteers and our collective positive impact for the desert. During our events and projects this year, we collected data that informs our advocacy for improved landscape connectivity, cleaned up trash within critical wildlife linkages, improved the habitat on wildlife crossings, and much more.
In 2025, over 200 volunteers contributed more than 1580 hours of their time to our mission, valued at nearly $50,000 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
Desert Monitor volunteers maintained a fleet of 57 wildlife cameras spread across 4 wildlife research projects. We now have a total of over 1 million wildlife photos of more than 68 species, including black bears, badgers and kit foxes. Desert Identifier volunteers spent 231 hours analyzing photos! This data is crucial to informing our landscape connectivity and wildlife crossings advocacy and planning work.
After 13 years, we concluded our project in Oro Valley near the Oracle Road wildlife crossings to focus on analyzing and telling compelling stories with the data and investigating lessons learned. This effort has led to two iconic wildlife crossings, innovative wildlife funnel gates, an elementary school curriculum, and an almost total reduction in roadkill on Oracle Road. Stay tuned for the final report!
New this year: cameras within the Tucson-Tortolita wildlife linkage to monitor wildlife activity at the Santa Cruz River Wildlife Ramp and the I-10 underpass.
Habitat Restoration
We completed 8 restoration events and workshops at the Oracle Road wildlife underpass, where we planted native trees and agaves, added a windrow for small wildlife to use for cover while in the underpass, spread seedballs, and built erosion control structures to stabilize the soil and create seasonal toad habitat.
Since 2023, we’ve worked hard to improve the habitat on and around the Oracle Road wildlife crossings, read our other project summaries here:
This project is funded in part by the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area and in partnership with Strategic Habitat Enhancements – Thank you!
Roadkill Surveys
We continued a long-term study led by Dr. Brian Blais documenting wildlife on the road in ecologically sensitive areas (dead and alive). Monitoring roadkill in these areas helps to better inform our recommendations for future connectivity and wildlife crossing projects.
Volunteers made 318 observations over 15 surveys of 4 different transects. Over 63 unique species were documented, including nightjar, sidewinder rattlesnake, coyote and javelina.
Stay tuned for the final report!
Highway Cleanups
We completed 3 highway cleanups, collecting 47 bags of trash in total. After 10 years, we bid farewell to our adopted highway on Oracle Road, shifting gears as we focus our efforts within the Tucson-Tortolita Mountains wildlife linkage.
Our new adopted stretch is one-mile of frontage road near the Santa Cruz River wildlife ramp and I-10 underpass. We want to keep this area clean for local wildlife and to raise awareness about this threatened linkage.
Thank you for joining us for our first ever clean-up on this new route!
Desert Fence Busting
Over 6 work events, Desert Fence Buster volunteers removed 19,900 lbs of obsolete and dangerous barbed wire fence to improve wildlife connectivity.
And, this December, we celebrated four years of fence busting! Since 2021, the Desert Fence Busters have removed over 102 miles of outdated fence and capped over 90 “death pipes” to protect wildlife.
Community Engagement
Between tabling events, educational talks and workshops, two mailing parties, 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!
2025 Photo highlights
