Nearly one million acres of Arizona’s working landscapes and majestic open spaces have been permanently preserved through the Fund’s partnerships. Arizona has the distinction of being the state where we completed our largest conservation project (in terms of acres) in our 25 year history when we protected more than 850,000 acres along a 100-mile boundary of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Recent Projects

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

In 2011, the Fund added 26,000 acres to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park in 2011. Take a tour of this unique and amazing landscape and learn about the park, the petrified wood that gave it its name and the fossils and archaeological sites that are teaching us about the history of the Earth and its early civilizations. Learn more.

Past Projects

North Rim Of The Grand Canyon

The biggest project—in terms of acres—we helped protect nearly a million acres of land near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Learn more about the project >>

Cerbat Foothills Recreation

Made up of federal, state, county and local lands, Cerbat Foothills is an oasis of open space in the midst of urban development. The area provides needed respite from city life for thousands of people in northwestern Arizona. We acquired 1,167 acres of private land to add to Cerbat Foothills and transferred the property to the Bureau of Land Management.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

We partnered with the Hopi Tribe, Mohave County Arizona Water Authority and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to acquire 2,800 acres of nonproductive farmland from the Cibola Valley Drainage and Irrigation District adjacent to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. The property was identified in the federal Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Plan as an important habitat area for the endangered razorback sucker and other wildlife. It will be donated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to enlarge the refuge.

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument

Located on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon, the Parashant National Monument is a marvelous testament to the power of nature, providing visitors with a view of 150 miles of deep canyons, rugged mountains and isolated buttes. With support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, we worked with the willing owners and ranching families of the Bar Ten Ranch and Pakoon Springs to safeguard 640 acres as an addition to the monument. The arrangement also retired more than 75,000 acres of unproductive public land grazing leases, which effectively protects more than 90,000 acres of inholdings administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

Tonto National Forest

Cave Creek, only twenty-five miles north of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, is one of the few perennial streams in the Upper Sonoran Desert. Cottonwood, willow, sycamore, and ash trees as well as bulrushes and cattails grow in this riparian area, in sharp contrast to the arid uplands of the watershed. We partnered with the landowners and the U.S. Forest Service to add 28 acres of this oasis to the Tonto National Forest, including areas where Hohokam people lived about 800 years ago.

For financing, the team tapped a little known-federal land conservation program, the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act of 2000. Under this act, the Bureau of Land Management can sell hard-to-manage parcels of public land and lands with significant residential or commercial value, to generate funds to support land conservation. Across the West, this resource promises to extend land conservation's horizon.

Banner Image: Allen C/Flickr