Society for Ecological Restoration Southwest Chapter 2024 conference

Imaginary water: Restoration in the Borderlands as an act of hope

Dr. Sierra Corona is a conservation scientist and restoration practitioner with over 20 years of experience researching and implementing conservation practices on endangered landscapes in Northwest Mexico and the US West. He is a native of Queretaro, Mexico, having completed his Ecosystem Management doctorate at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, working in the Chihuahuan Desert native grasslands. His research focused on the ecological interaction of black-tailed prairie dogs and domestic cattle, challenging the longstanding view of prairie dogs and cows as competing species. Rodrigo has worked on establishing protected areas, developing and implementing large-scale management plans for private conservation lands, and the recovery of black-footed ferrets, American bison, prairie dogs, and jaguars.

Rodrigo is the Executive Director of Borderlands Restoration Network, a nonprofit based in Patagonia, AZ. The organization protects land from development and implements restoration practices and education programs on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

Co-Creating an Urban Mesquite Bosque in Phoenix, Arizona

Juliet C. Stromberg is a professor emeritus at Arizona State University and a plant ecologist who specializes in wetland and riparian ecosystems of the American Southwest. For the past thirty years, she has studied plant population and community dynamics and vegetation-hydrology interactions. The author of more than a hundred peer-reviewed publications, Stromberg continues to write about plants while also tending a riparian forest garden in the city.