Wilderness Highlighted
Just as our mission states, we work to protect wilderness
lands so that all generations of Americans can enjoy wilderness
as an enduring resource, both physically and spiritually.
In an effort to bring the wilderness to you, we are highlighting
writings about our nation’s beloved wilderness areas
and what other organizations are doing to protect these wild
places. We hope these stories will inspire you to be proactive
in the preservation of land sacred to you.
Laughing Waters of Aravaipa by Bob Van Deven
Aravaipa Canyon
Photo Credit: Trevor Hare,
Sky Island Alliance
Aravaipa. The word itself might have been shaped
by wind moving through cottonwoods and walnut trees, rushing
between walls of conglomerate and tuff, swirling through humid
grottos thick with ferns and columbines and wild grapes until
it finally emerged, fully formed, from the mouth of a canyon.
In it one can hear the snap of the flycatcher’s beak,
the sound of acorns being ground on stone metates, the turning
of leaves. It’s a suggestive word, mysterious. And though
it has an accepted meaning—laughing water—the
name Aravaipa says just as much about an idea as it does about
a place.
The Aravaipa region is a rorschach blot of grassy
tablelands, winding riparian corridors, and agave-studded
cliffs hinged at its center by a canyon nearly 1,000 feet
deep. The gorge was carved by a perennial stream that drains
a vast swath of land between the Galiuro and Santa Theresa
Mountains, providing habitat for Arizona’s best remaining
community of native fish, seven species in all. Sycamores,
willows, and other deciduous trees line the banks while the
terraces are thick with mesquite and hackberry. Above these
stand rank upon rank of saguaro cacti marking the abrupt boundary
between woodland and desert. This stratified landscape permits
extraordinary diversity in what seems like minimal space;
within a single square mile one may glimpse black bears, spotted
owls, coatis, and bighorn sheep, as well as 40 species of
reptile and nearly a dozen species of bats.
To learn more about the Sky Island Alliance,
which is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of
native biological diversity in the sky islands of the southwestern
United States and northwestern Mexico, please visit them at
www.skyislandalliance.org.
