Joint Ventures: A Different Approach to Conservation.

This article features the Sonoran Joint Venture program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) in Arizona. Created in 1999, the Sonoran Joint Venture program was the first joint venture to shift from a waterfowl to an all-bird approach--an approach since adopted by most joint ventures under the 1986 North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Working with the Instituto del Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo Sustentable, the Sonoran state wildlife agency, and Mexican conservation groups, the Sonoran Joint Venture offers grants and other program support to a variety of projects. It covers southern Arizona and California, the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa, and the Baja peninsula, according Robert Mesta, FSW coordinator for the program. Some of the projects under the Sonoran Joint Venture program involved the restoration of marshes and a cottonwood and willow habitat along the Colorado River, the identification of species that nest in or otherwise use or migrate through the Colorado River Delta, and the establishment of research sites for Point Reyes Bird Observatory.