Grant Recipient Projects
25-26 cycle: Publishing Children’s Book Relating to the Santa Cruz River
This project will publish a K-3 level book about the Santa Cruz River. Content will be developed in collaboration with Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources and the Indigenous Resilience Center. Books will be distributed at no cost to Title 1 school libraries in Pima County, including Tohono O’odham organizations and programs, and to Friends of the Nogales Public Library for distributionnw in Santa Cruz County.
24-25 cycle: Reprinting Tohono O’odham Children’s Books
This project will provide publication and free local distribution of culturally relevant Tohono O’odham children’s books to school libraries and O’odham cultural organizations. Books will be available through Desert Ink Press, a project of Books for Classrooms.
24-25 cycle: Celebrate the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Arts, Culture & Food Series
With this funding, Border Community Alliance (BCA) will create a series of arts, culture, and food forums/tours that highlight the heritage of our region. BCA’s goal with this project is to educate about, promote, and preserve the Santa Cruz River Valley area by providing programming that highlights the wonderful, diverse, and numerous cultures in the Santa Cruz River Valley. This project will provide programming including music, dance, public/private art, and borderlands literature and films in rural and smaller communities within the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area that don’t typically receive host programming. BCA will work with partners to bring borderlands artists, writers, food heritage experts, chefs, film producers, musicians, and others to these communities to provide educational forums and performances that highlight the area’s arts, food heritage, and cultures.
23-24 cycle: Santa Cruz Heritage Borderlands Tours & Forums Series
This series promotes the region by providing educational and experiential learning activities, through tours and forums, for people interested in cultural, historical, and natural heritage.
25-26 cycle: Supporting Education Outreach for Adventure Learning Tours & Outreach (ALTO) Program:
Museum educators bring the Mobile Outreach Vehicle to local schools, libraries, or community centers and include activity materials for the participants. ALTO is free for children attending Head Start Programs, students from Title 1 schools, rural libraries, and community centers. Programning offers a variety of themes and are targeted to different age groups with all instruction and materials provided in English and Spanish. Support from SCVNHA will help CMT to cover the expenses of the ALTO Education Outreach Coordinator to provide interpretive programs that focus on connecting to the Sonoran Desert, Native American Lifeways, the Sky Islands and Desert Seas, Desert Farming, and much more.
24-25 cycle: Interpretive Adventure Learning Tours and Outreach (ALTO) Programs:
Children’s Museum Tucson (CMT) will utilize SCVNHA funding to provide free, bilingual field trips to the museum and Mobile Outreach tours to an estimated 9,000 children attending Head Start programs and Title I elementary schools within the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area. Funds will be used for three Adventure Learning Tours and Outreach (ALTO) programs — Marvelous Murals, Desert Scientists, and Desert Dwellers. These programs focus on our children’s connection to their environment, cultural traditions, and community in the SCVNHA.
Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection
25-26 cycle: Building on Oracle Road: Translating lessons learned for future wildlife crossings in the Santa Cruz Valley
Building on 20 years of planning and two years of wildlife crossing stewardship at Oracle Road, this project continues that work while expnading its impact. We will continue to connect people with the landscape’s corridors through field trips and local stewardship opportunities, including at our future Santa Cruz River wildlife crossing project site. The project will strengthen our GIS and outreach capacity to better translate lessons learned from the Oracle Road crossings—giving our community new tools to understand, value and actively support its landscape heritage.
24-25 cycle: Further Enhancement of a Critical Wildlife Corridor in the Santa Cruz Watershed
This project will build on the momentum created by the 2023-2024 cycle Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area grant funding, further protecting the long-term stewardship of and investment in the Oracle Road wildlife crossings by addressing new issues and measuring the impact of previous work. Volunteer-driven Habitat Restoration Days will be held to maintain and further improve native habitat on the Oracle Road wildlife crossings and to address recent damage caused by a fire break, including holding educational workshops on a variety of topics. Quarterly cleanups along Oracle Road adjacent to the wildlife underpass will take place to remove invasive species and trash, and survey wildlife fencing for maintenance needs. CSDP will maintain and monitor an established network of remote wildlife cameras on and near both crossings to produce data on wildlife movement in the area before and after restoration efforts.
23-24 cycle: Critical Wildlife Corridor Enhancement in the Santa Cruz Watershed
This project removes invasive plant species from the Oracle Road wildlife crossings (both a bridge and underpass, constructed in 2016 to increase wildlife connectivity between the Catalina and Tortolita Mountains), enhances wildlife habitat with additional native plants and seed mixes, and provides public education and outreach through a series of 12 volunteer work days, educational videos, and permanent interpretive signage
25-26 cycle: Herencia Viva: Workshops and Community Events
This project is designed to honor and uplift the region’s rich history, ethnic and food heritage, and natural environment through monthly workshops and community events at our Community Center in Nogales that bring together youth and older adults in meaningful, cross-generational exchange. To deepen engagement and expand accessibility, we will produce a dedicated radio series through our in-house radio and podcast station, featuring local voices, traditions, and stories tied to the cultural and natural heritage of our borderland region. Topics will include traditional foods, oral histories, conservation practices, and ethnic celebrations, curated with input from community elders and youth leaders alike.
24-25 cycle: Enhancing Education, Interpretation, and Outreach of the Cultural History of Southeastern Arizona
This project will contribute to the creation of new educational materials and exhibits which will include acquiring and showcasing three historic saddles that illustrate the rich history of family ranching on the Empire Ranch and interpret the history of transportation in the region.
24-25 cycle: Patagonia Cemetery Trail
The Patagonia Cemetery Trail walking audio tour will be accessible through TravelStorys, offering an engaging natural and historical interpretation of this 0.6-mile community trail suitable for all ages. The audio tour will deepen appreciation for the diverse plant and animal life found in the upland grassland and adjacent Sonoran Desert and provide a historical perspective on human settlement and land use, highlighting the experiences of local families within our border community.
Friends of Tubac Presidio & Museum
25-26 cycle: Otero Hall Exterior Repair & Repainting
Exterior maintenance of historic Otero Hall, a building located within the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park & Museum and listed in the National Register of Historic Places under the Tubac Townsite Historic District.
23-24 cycle: Sonoran Food Heritage Indoors-Outdoors Exhibit & Lecture Series
This project, focused on regional food heritage, created multiple exhibit spaces at the musem and offered educational lectures to the public—all of which integrated a component of cross-cultural and cross-generational learning.
23-24 cycle: Youth for Blue Skies: An environmental interpretive program for teachers and youth
Guided by Ironwood Tree Experience interpretive staff, teachers and youth take learning outside to explore sky islands and desert seas, discover Sonoran Desert natural history, listen to stories of cultural heritage, and make and tell stories of their own place-based connections. This program for teachers and youth inspires them to become interpretive storytellers and ambassadors for engaging youth outdoors.
24-25 cycle: Sosa-Carrillo House Historical Placemaking and Renovation
The goal of this project is to restore and reinvigorate the front yard for the Sosa Carillo House to create a community-oriented space. This project involves renovating the front yard of the Sosa-Carrillo House, which is offically listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The front yard prject is part of a larger remodel to the entire Sosa-Carrillo House space to ensure the maintenance and preservation of the adobe while bring the space up to ADA standards. The restoration will result in an interpretation and partial re-creation of the space as it existed in the early 1900s, known colloquially as “La Calle.” New Signage explaining site history will build awareness of the demolished Barrio, the significance of the plants chosen for the front yard, and the importance of landscape and historic preservation for current and future generations. A community garnde will build awareness for conservation o the Sonoran Desert and the important uses of the native plants. A partnership between Mission Garden and Los Descendientes wuill allow museum docents and other interested parties to be trained by Mission Garden regarding the care and importance of the native plants chosen for the front yard. A gardening club will be formed at the conclusion of this training, encouraging members and community to feel ownershiop of and pride in the yard.
24-25 cycle: Youth Garden Revision
Mission Garden will enhance its Youth Garden by adding interactive multisensory elements for young people aged three to ten. These new activities will help young visitors learn more about their region’s agricultural and cultural heritage, fostering a more resilient future for the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area. With this project, Mission Garden will create three-to-five weather-resistant, multi-sensory, and interactive elements that will engage a variety of senses and types of activities.
23-24 cycle: Classroom Scholarships for OPEN3 Simulated Archaeological Excavation Learning Program
This program provides entire classrooms of southern Arizona children an opportunity to learn about archaeology, Indigenous cultures, and the scientific method by excavating “OPEN3,” a re-created Hohokam archaeological site. Classroom scholarships make it possible for many underserved students to learn the scientific method and professional archaeological excavation techniques that facilitate interpreting how ancient southern Arizona people lived.
23-24 cycle: Completing the Refurbishing of the Interpretive Museum at Mission San Xavier
This project restores, refurbishes, and rebuilds interpretive exhibits in the mission’s museum which have not been maintained since the late 1980s which will allow the exhibits to once again be available to the public.
25-26 cycle: Dragons, Damsels, and Inverts: Understanding diversity in Santa Cruz County
This project expands knowledge of dragonfly and macro-invertebrate diversity under varying flow and water quality conditions in Santa Cruz County. In particular, the project will provide key baseline information on the macro-invertebrates near the Mexico border where water availability is increasing, and water quality concerns have been documented.
24-25 cycle: Santa Cruz River Dragonfly Festival with Bugs & Bites Night of Insect Education:
Sonoran Institute’s (SI) annual, month–long Dragonfly Festival works to connect locals and interested visitors to our natural environment and the species that have returned with the revitalization of the Santa Cruz River. At this year’s Bugs & Bites, a free, central event of the Dragonfly Festival, SI hosted scientists and entomologists Jorge Jimenez Canales from Hermosillo, Mexico and Rocío J. Guzmán Ojeda from UA. With bilingual interpretation provided by the Tucson Language Justice Collective, the speakers presented current research involving life cycles and environmental impacts on different species native to or found in the Santa Cruz River and its surrounding area. They also discussed related breakthroughs in medicine and the arts. The interactive evening was open to all ages of bug enthusiasts.
23-24 cycle: A Living River: connecting Santa Cruz Valley residents with a river in recovery
Production of the Living River: Nogales to Amado report with expanded mailed distribution to an additional 3,000 households with continued distribution to government offices, community centers, and libraries across the entire Santa Cruz Valley. This bilingual Living River report helps build an essential network of interested and informed stewards for the Santa Cruz River, which spreads awareness of SCVNHA themes. Report messages are reiterated at community outreach events to further engage valley residents, a vital effort to reinforce and grow awareness around the Santa Cruz River.
Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA)
25-26 cycle: What the River Knows: Stories of Culture, Place, and Practice along the Santa Cruz River
What the River Knows is a series of documentary and participatory interventions to uplift and celebrate the Santa Cruz River as a living entity and source of practical knowledge, regional identity, and cultural memory. The project will design and implement listening sessions, fieldwork expeditions, and multimedia story productions focused on exploring folklife and cultural traditions along the river in Pima and Santa Cruz counties. In collaboration with community partners, SFA will convene a team of documentarians and hold three public gatherings to engage community members in a discussion of expressive culture, ethics, water conservation approaches, and storytelling.
Through conversation transcripts, field observations, writing, audio interviews, photography, and video the team will highlight selected cultural traditions and practices “hidden in plain view” in communities along the river. Stories will be shared in BorderLore (9,000 readers), in new multimedia formats such as radio and/or podcasts, and in special programs at the Folklife Here Pavilion of the Tucson Meet Yourself festival (120,000 attendance).
Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation
23-24 cycle: Exploring the Butterfield National Historic Trail
This project creates a virtual experience of the Butterfield Overland Trail through Pima County, Arizona by linking drone videography and virtual reconstruction of historic stage stations to an existing story Map. What the finished product here.
24-25 cycle: A Habitat Management Plan for the Tubac Nature Preserve
This project creates a habitat management plan for Tubac Nature Preserve that supports sustainable management of the 160+ acre habitat that mitigates severe erosion and invasive species that threaten the habitat along the Tubac, Arizona stretch of the Santa Cruz River. Through expert assessments, this habitat management plan will guide activities and future restoration at the site. Restoration professionals will lead a series of community restoration events that promote long-term site stewardship and a deeper ecological understanding of the Santa Cruz River.
23-24 cycle: Restoration of the Tubac Nature Preserve WetlandTubac Nature Center
This project will provide an enhanced birding and outdoor recreation location adjacent to the Santa Cruz River and Anza Trail in Tubac, Arizona. Activities will include reducing risks to the riparian coridor by removing fire-prone invasive plants and collaborating with habitat and ecosystem restoration experts to create a wetland restoration plan to guide future activities and interpretation at the site.
25-26 cycle: Fostering Stewardship at the Paton Center for Hummingbirds
The Paton Center for Hummingbirds attracts visitors from around the world to see birds at the former residence of the Patons. The property showcases best practices to support wildlife conservation in a residential setting but has a significant opportunity to provide education and inspiration regarding these practices. This project will transform the Paton Center from a birding destination to a living conservation laboratory, fostering habitat stewardship across the Santa Cruz Valley and beyond through interpretive signage, self-guided tours, free resources, and enhanced demonstration projects.
24-25 cycle: Expanding Bringing Birds Home: Translating and Enhancing Tucson Audubon’s Urban Bird and Pollinator Habitat Recipe Cards
Tucson Audubon Society (TAS) will build upon its 10 existing “Recipe Cards” that were created in reponse to data collected from Tucson Bird Count to equip community members with the knowledge to create and enhance urban habitat for birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. This project will fund the continuation, updating, translation, and increased accessibility of the Recipe Cards for creating safe urban habitat for birds and pollinators. TAS will expand on the Recipe Cards by creating bilingual, native seed packets that correlate to a specific Recipe Card, helping catalyze community action towards creating bird and pollinator habitat.
24-25 cycle: Stinknet Stay Away
Through education and outreach,this project mobilized partners to come together to resist the threat of Stinknet, a noxious invasive plant recently introduce to the area which spreads wildfires, causes respiratory issues, and is a threat to human health and safety as well as the intact functioning of lands within the Heritage Area.
24-25 cycle: Pueblos del Maíz Fiesta:
The fourth annual bilingual Pueblos del Maíz Fiesta, held in September 2025, continued its celebration and preservation of the gastronomy, history, and food cultures of corn in Southern Arizona with a variety of food demonstrations, live music, arts, crafts, and cultural performances and educational events free to the public. .
23-24 cycle: Pueblos del Maíz Fiesta
A bilingual festival celebrates and preserves the gastronomy, history, and food cultures of corn in Southern Arizona with a variety of food demonstrations, live music, arts, crafts, and cultural performances and educational events free to the public. This event, held during the first week of April, integrated promtions with the annual Agave Heritage Festival and the International Tucson Mariachi Conference.
24-25 cycle: Santa Cruz Watershed Soundscape: Building Hydro-Local Community through Music and Watershed Science:
Tucson Symphony Society’s (TSS) project creates a multidisciplinary platform to explore ecological stewardship and restoration, fusing watershed science with sensory experiences to promote educational outreach grounded in Tucson’s unique sense of place. TSS will engage high school-age and community musicians to actively participate in musicmaking, fueling curiosity around the issue of watershed stewardship in our region. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra will lead a consortium of community concert bands to commission a new musical piece exploring ecosystem stewardship and restoration in the Santa Cruz River Watershed. The piece will be performed in multiple concerts throughout the Santa Cruz Valley during the spring of 2025, including marquee performances at the TSO’s Young People’s Concerts in downtown Tucson. Concerts will be opportunities to connect audiences with conservation activities and information, creating synergy across a variety of public events and fostering increased stewardship of our local watershed. Developing ties between schools, families and community partners will help build a stronger constituency for water and environmental conservation.
24-25 cycle: Rehabilitation and a Community Youth Corps: Activating the Old Vail Post Office, Connecting Vail’s Mexivan American Borderlands History to Its Future:
The 1908 Old Vail Post Office, located on Tohono O’odham ancestral lands and Vail’s sole surving link to its pre-statehood past, was the focal point for and over 425 square mile ranching, mining, railroad Borderlands community and the perfect interpretive prism for the region’s diverse history. The Old Vail Post Office is not being rehabilitated to become the Vail Welcome & Heritage Center. Funding from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area will go toward phase two effor4ts of the rehabiliation. Phase two will be the starting point for finishing the exterior bricks and mortor work, lime plastering the extieror, and developments of a participatory, youth-focused, experience-based, volunteer cadre.
Students from the Vail School District will engage in heritage preservation and interpretive design, gaining skills in public history and historic preservation. The resulting creation of interpretive materials highlighting the building’s multi-layered history will include the input from youth, thus creating a cross generational stewardship culture.