BACKGROUND
In 1916 the first formal organization was created to protect declining wildlife populations in the Tucson area, called the Tucson Game Protective Association. This group primarily worked to regulate hunting and designate wildlife preserves immediately outside the city. In the century since then, new challenges have emerged for wildlife to thrive in these protected areas: construction of the Central Arizona Project canal, expanding urbanization, and increasingly arid conditions. Today, wildlife have numerous obstacles to overcome to continue to persist on this landscape.
In 2021, a group of stakeholders working west of Tucson in the Avra Valley began organizing to remove obsolete fences that unnecessarily impede wildlife movement including Christine McVie and Carolyn Campbell (Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection), Don Swann (Saguaro National Park), Tom Hannagan, and Dave Barker and Jim Avramis (Friends of Ironwood Forest). Working with Harold Maxwell (BKW Farms Inc.), the Friends of Ironwood Forest provided the support to launch a volunteer program, known today as the Desert Fence Busters. The Desert Fence Busters is a collection of volunteers working with landowners to identify obsolete fences and remove them for the benefit of wildlife movement.
While this group is not its own official non-profit, it is a coalition of serval dedicated groups working towards one goal: protecting and supporting wildlife by removing legacy barbed wire fencing. The Desert Fence Busters includes groups such as the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Friends of Ironwood Forest, Saguaro National Park, Arizona Wildlife Federation, Tucson Audubon, Friends of Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge, Tortolita Alliance, The Mule Deer Foundation, BKW Farms, City of Tucson, and Pima County Flood Control.
2021-2023 SUMMARY
The Desert Fence Busters spent much of 2021 exploring the extent of obsolete fences in the Avra Valley, raising awareness amongst stakeholders, obtaining permissions from land managers, and recruiting volunteers.
In 2022, the Desert Fence Busters continued to get organized by identifying the extent of obsolete fences in the Avra Valley, Altar Valley, and the Tucson Mountains-Catalina Mountains Corridor. The group continued to expand its network of partnerships with agencies and landowners to identify and remove obsolete fences with volunteer labor. The group began to identify “double fences” as particularly difficult for deer and other species to cross and target these fences as the highest priority for removal. Fencing was removed from three jurisdictions in 2022: City of Tucson (Tucson Water), Pima County, and the National Park Service.
In 2023, the Desert Fence Busters continued to refine strategies for prioritizing fence removals. The group continued working with willing landowners in the Tucson area to identify and remove obsolete fences with volunteer labor. The group continued to target “double fences” as the highest priority for removal, along with properties with a high density of obsolete fences. Fencing was removed from two jurisdictions in 2023: City of Tucson (Tucson Water) and the National Park Service.
