Healing Eroded Drylands on the US-Mexico Border

Based in Patagonia, Arizona, Borderlands Restoration Network rebuilds degraded watersheds in the semi-arid Sky Islands region straddling the US-Mexico border by installing rock and brush erosion-control structures, growing native plants at its own nursery, and replanting eroded gullies and grasslands. The work slows monsoon runoff, rebuilds topsoil and recharges shallow groundwater tables that desert wildlife and ranching communities depend on. Its Watershed and Habitat Restoration Program has improved roughly 500 acres of public and private land, installing over 4,000 erosion-control structures across southeastern Arizona and retaining an estimated 1,140 tons of soil.