We had the Wilderness volunteers, Friends group members and BANWR maintenance working on the Arivaca creek trail. Collectively we put in over 350 hours of improvements to the trail and built a ramada shade structure. The trail had severely eroded walkways, tripping hazards and fallen trees. We repaired the walkways with a combination of ladder…

Dirty Freehub is working on more gravel bike route guides for BANWR. Check out this route and https://dirtyfreehub.org/routes/arizona/buenos-aires/

The Arizona Game and Fish Department released 30 pronghorn antelopes into a field of grass about 65 miles southwest of Tucson on Tuesday to beef up the population at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. The new additions will more than double the size of the existing herd, which numbered at about two dozen animals after…

There is always more work to do than the Refuge staff can accomplish so they welcome help from the Friends and other willing helpers. Volunteers take down un-needed ranch fence that can injure and trap wildlife, repair boundary fence to keep cattle off the refuge, clean up trash, help with habitat work, work at the…

Every year Buenos Aires NWR participates in the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, a nationwide bird census which is the oldest avian database in the world.  Participants count all bird species and numbers seen within one day. Save the date for this year – Thursday December 15!  Birders and nonbirders are welcome.  Contact [email protected]…

The Masked Bobwhite Quail sits at the edge of extinction. Hannah Pierce works at The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, established primarily to reintroduce the Masked Bobwhite into the wild.

Wilderness Volunteers (WV) is an organization that prides itself on “giving back” to public lands. They have come to BANWR five times and counting to help remove barbed wire fence and other projects. In March 2022, the group asked Hannah Pierce for her wish list and she mentioned putting a wire mesh over five of…

The seasonal volunteers are back this month so the Visitor Center will be open most days. It is still a good idea to call ahead – (520) 823-4251  then 0 for the receptionist.  The grassland is still monsoon season beautiful, the weather is perfect and a great time for a visit.   

The folks at Dirty Freehub, a group dedicated to bicycling on gravel and dirt roads virtually stopped by to interview Reta Rutledge about riding the roads on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. We have over 200 miles of dirt roads on the refuge, just the right challenge for gravel riders. Here is the podcast.…

By Reta Rutledge LUSH Cosmetics gave the Friends a grant that included money to hire a contractor, Kyle Thompson. Kyle led and trained 7 volunteers from Wilderness Volunteers to install 17 mesquite erosion control structures in three areas of the refuge. The structures slow the water during flood events in these eroded washes, cause sediment…