Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape

  • Arizona

  • Established 2015

About

Located in rural southern Arizona, Fort Huachuca features the premier restricted military airspace for unmanned aircraft system training in the Western United States. An appreciation for the installation’s national defense mission, coupled with the region’s long history of cattle ranching, remote location, and unique high-altitude and mountainous geography, has created an environment where local stakeholders collaborate to solve shared problems. This tradition continues today as Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape partners work cooperatively to tackle critical issues such as water conservation, long-term agricultural viability, wildlife habitat restoration, and military mission protection.

Interactive Landscape Map

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Total Funding by Partner

Partner Funding Through Fiscal Year 2018 In Millions
PartnerFY2014FY2015FY2016FY2017FY2018
USDA $0.60M $1.30M $0.70M $1.20M $3.30M
DoD $5.00M $0.00M $2.70M $0.60M $4.10M
DOI $0.20M $0.20M $1.40M $0.10M $0.10M
State $0.20M $0.90M $0.20M $0.30M $0.90M
Local $2.70M $0.00M $0.00M $0.00M $0.00M
Private $0.00M $1.10M $0.20M $0.10M $0.80M

Total Acres Protected and Enrolled

Acres Protected12447.43
Acres Enrolled254804.60

Partnership Highlights

Strengthening the Military Mission at Fort Huachuca

Funding acquired through the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program has helped Fort Huachuca conserve 13,857 acres within the Buffalo Soldier Electronic Test Range, decreasing the probability of incompatible development within the range complex and beneath the installation’s restricted airspace. Additionally, sentinel landscape partners have used funds from the Arizona Military Installation Fund to preserve local wetlands, which in turn created 4,371 acre-feet of water savings for Fort Huachuca and significantly lessened the burden on groundwater use within the Upper San Pedro River watershed.

Collaborative Endangered Species Recovery

Sentinel landscape partners participated in projects that contributed to the delisting of the lesser long-nosed bat from the Endangered Species Act—making it the first bat in history to be removed due to recovery efforts. At the time of its initial listing in 1998, fewer than 1,000 of the bats existed in the region. Today, an estimated 200,000 bats populate 75 roosts throughout the Southwestern United States and Mexico. To ensure that the lesser long-nosed bat continues to thrive following its delisting, sentinel landscape partners are working with private landowners to increase the accessibility of food and other resources for the bat.

Unconventional Partnerships to Promote Military Readiness

In 2018, Fort Huachuca partnered with the Coronado National Forest Sierra Vista Ranger District Office to conduct a Joint Operational Integration Assessment on 14,000 acres land within the Huachuca Mountain Range. The Huachuca Mountains rise almost 8,400 feet above the desert floor and offer terrain similar to a modern battlefield. The no-impact exercise allowed Army soldiers and Marines to perform signals intelligence collection and active electronic warfare operations in a realistic combat environment.

Expanding Prescribed Fire

Sentinel landscape partners have improved the region’s ecological health by expanding the use of prescribed fire. Since 2015, Fort Huachuca and U.S. Forest Service crews have administered over 19,000 acres of prescribed fire on the installation, significantly contributing to fuel reduction, habitat improvement, and wildfire mitigation in the area.

Our Partners

+- Federal Partners

+- State Partners

+- Local Partners

+- Private Partners

In The News

  • Fort Huachuca Fuel Treatments

    Fuel treatments on Fort Huachuca produce forest structure and fuel characteristics that reduce the likelihood of future catastrophic fires in endangered species Protected Activity Centers.

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  • Sustaining the Land: Fort Huachuca Invites in Pollinators on Earth Day

    Volunteers of all ages gathered at Lakeside Pond on Monday to help plant the installation’s first pollinator garden, to create a welcoming place for the hummingbirds, butterflies, and other insects that help grow the Earth’s plant and crop populations.

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  • Showcasing the Importance of Grasslands, Leopard Frogs and Livestock

    In connection with the Sentinel Landscapes initiative, the Cooperative Extension, through the University of Arizona, hosts “Grasslands, Leopard Frogs and Livestock — Fort Huachuca’s 21st Century Allied Forces”.

    Read More

Resources

Meet the Coordinator

Alanna Riggs

forthuachuca@sentinellandscapes.org

Alanna Riggs is a 6th generation cattle rancher from the Sulphur Springs Valley of Southeastern Arizona. She attended the University of Arizona, earning a degree in Range Ecology and Management. Now, Alanna lives within the Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape and is still involved in ranching, as well as landscape scale conservation and restoration.

Get Involved

  • October 30, 2019, 9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

    Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape Partnership Meeting

    Thunder Mountain Activity Center
    70525 Fort Huachuca
    AZ 85613, USA

    This event is the annual public meeting for all partners of the Sentinel Landscape, landowners and other stakeholders.

  • November 7, 2019, 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.

    Southwestern Grasslands Research & Management Workshop

    1064 E. Lowell St
    ENR2 Building
    Tucson, AZ 85719

    This workshop aims to: 1) advance the success of grassland restoration, and 2) identify opportunities for collaboration to scale up grassland restoration in the Southwest. This workshop will result in increased communication among and between researchers and practitioners and provide a forum to identify high-priority research needs and methods for increasing the scope and scale of grassland restoration.