Final Report and Appendices: Fire and Water: Assessing Springs Ecosystems and Adapting Management to Respond to Climate Change

Final Report WaterSMART Agreement No. R13AP80033

Introduction: Sky Island Alliance is a non‐governmental organization that works to protect and restore the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island Region. We work with volunteers, scientists, land‐owners, public officials, and government agencies to establish protected areas, restore healthy landscapes, and promote public appreciation of the region’s unique biological diversity.

Springs are keystone ecosystems in the Sky Island Region, exert disproportionate influence on surrounding landscapes, and are known to be biodiversity hotspots. Although they are abundant in this arid region, they are poorly documented and little studied. Changing fire regimes – particularly, increased size of high‐severity burn patches and more intense precipitation events post‐fire – are directly affecting springs ecosystems, yet these effects are poorly understood. Finally, many springs suffer from extensive human modification. Lack of information on their location, management context, and biological, hydrological, and ecological characteristics hinders effective stewardship of these resources.

This project builds on a previous spring inventory and management project supported by the Desert LCC (Misztal et. al. 2013). This project addressed outstanding inventory needs and key management questions for spring ecosystems in the Sky Island Region of southeastern Arizona located at the heart of the Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (Desert LCC) geography. Newly collected baseline information on previously unassessed springs in the Upper Santa Cruz River Basin and other areas of high priority is now available through Springs Online, an online springs and springs‐dependent species database, and an ArcGIS spatial query tool. Springs stewards in the Desert LCC geography are becoming trained in use of the database. We employed a combination of expert and citizen science inventories and assessments to collect critical baseline information on known springs in areas of interest and priority in the region, including areas affected by recent fires. This volunteer‐driven inventory program is a model for monitoring climate sensitive resources with limited resources.

Additionally, we developed and implemented methodologies for climate‐savvy monitoring at a set of high‐priority springs through the Adopt‐a‐Spring program, and worked closely with the Springs Stewardship Institute to develop guidance and best management practices for protecting and restoring springs through publication of an Arizona Springs Restoration Handbook. We worked with managers to incorporate newly‐collected data and guidance on monitoring and restoration of springs into planning and project implementation to reduce vulnerability to climate change.