Healing the Wounds: An Example from the Sky Islands - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 204

10.3 Healing the Wounds
In 1992, Noss* wrote
A conservation strategy is more likely to succeed if it has clearly defined and scientifi-
cally justifiable goals and objectives. Goal setting must be the first step in the conser-
vation process, preceding biological, technical, and political questions of how best to
design and manage such systems. Primary goals for ecosystem management should
be comprehensive and idealistic so that conservation programs have a vision toward
which to strive over the decades. A series of increasingly specific objectives and action
plans should follow these goals and be reviewed regularly to assure consistency with
primary goals and objectives.
The goals of the Sky Islands Wildlands Network Conservation Plan are based on its
mission of healing the ecological wounds of the region. Healing-the-wounds goal-setting
also directs the selection of focal species. We have tried to select focal species whose
viability or recovery is tied to our six goals. Each of our established six goals is tied to
healing a major wound:
Goal 1. Recover all large carnivores and ungulates and other species native to the
region.
Goal 2. Restore watersheds, streams, and riparian forests.
Goal 3. Restore a natural fire disturbance regime.
Goal 4. Protect and restore landscape connectivity for wide-ranging species native
to the region.
Goal 5. Eliminate or control exotic species.
Goal 6. Protect all remaining native forests and woodlands and restore natural forest
conditions.
Objectives are how goals are implemented. Given our goals and approach, we outline our
objectives here.
10.3.1 Objectives for Goal 1: Recover Native Species
1. Maintain the viability of focal species; this requires large core reserves and
landscape connectivity as well as redundancy in the system, owing to probable
but unpredictable natural and anthropogenic changes in the future.
2. Protect, recover, or reintroduce all missing or reduced-in-number large and mid-
sized carnivores native to the region. These include Mexican wolf, jaguar, ocelot,
jaguarundi, river otter, and black-footed ferret.
3. Protect, recover, or reintroduce missing or reduced-in-number ungulates, keystone
rodents, and other native species. These include bison, bighorn, elk, beaver, prairie
dog, aplomado falcon, thick-billed parrot, southwestern willow flycatcher, and
Chiricahua leopard frog.
* Noss, “Wildlands project.”