Birdland Ranch Wildlife Conservation Area

We purchased Birdland Ranch in December of 1997. The 153 acre ranch at 5325ft elevation is an inholding within the Coronado National Forest on the western slopes of the Huachuca Mountains encompassing Sierra Madrean pine/oak woodland and open grassland terrain. After renovating the ranch house compound, we began restoration projects on sections of eroded grassland areas using field expedient methods of brush pile construction and hand seeding. September of 1999, we joined Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Nest Box Network and erected 4 nest boxes after observing Western and Eastern Bluebirds around the homesite and grasslands. March 2000 to Spring 2004, reconstruction and seeding got underway with a Habitat Grant from the Conservation Stewardship Coordinator of AZ Game and Fish to restore the degraded rangeland utilizing land imprinting/dry method seeding of two earthen ponds (one had been a trash dump, the other a serious site of soil erosion) to provide valuable habitat for wildlife. Native grass seed collected from a ranching neighbor provided native grasses; blue side oats, rothrock gramma, plains love grass, sand drop seed, alkali sacaton, indian wheat, green sprangletop, and small flower fescue. Wood sorrel-oxalis and cypress sedge was hand seeded for grassland birds.

In 2013 Tony’s hard work came to fruition with a Partners for Fish and Wildlife grant of $25,000 to continue wildlife habitat restoration. We completed the work in Spring 2018. The pine/oak woodlands were carefully cleared by conscientious rangeland fire crews. Very hard, demanding work under extreme weather conditions, but all was accomplished safely and with regard for all the feathered, furred, scaled, plants and trees. We are already seeing new tree growth and an increase in Azure bluebird activity (species of Greatest Conservation Need, as cited by AZ Game and Fish) within these cleared areas. 

We are already seeing new tree growth and an increase in Azure bluebird activity within these cleared areas (species of Greatest Conservation Need, as cited by AZ Game and Fish). Beginning in 2021 to the present, the nest box trail has expanded to 33 boxes! We need volunteers for Spring 2024 to monitor the trail and send the data to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program.

Summer 2023, we were forced to fence out unwanted cattle grazing in the surrounding Coronado National Forest. That endeavor inspires a project of designing a 2.5 mile Birdland Ranch perimeter trail by Spring 2024. This will empower MAWC to invite the community-at-large to learn about the wonders of the madrean archipelago ecoregion flora and fauna. We need volunteers for Fall 2023/Winter 2024 to help remove dead branches and brush along the fence line, chip and mulch the brush to establish the trail, which will also provide ground cover to retain the soil and water.