Roberta “Birdie” Stabel is a true lover of nature and a dedicated
champion of wilderness for the Tumacacori Highlands. An avid hiker and
horseback rider, Birdie resides just three miles from the Tumacacori
Highlands – an area proposed for wilderness designation -- and has
lived in the region for 30 years. “It’s my backyard, the first thing I
see in the morning,” she says. “It’s an extremely important part of my
life.”
Birdie has certainly taken advantage of the wide array of
opportunities that living in the Tumacacori region provides her.
Notably, she’s gained invaluable experience as a Wildlife Monitoring
Volunteer for the Sky Island Alliance, a regional non-profit
conservation organization she works closely with. The group has taught
her to recognize various animal tracks including black bear, mountain
lions, jaguars, and more, which allows her to contribute to a database
that helps determine wildlife corridors within the region. Every six
weeks, Birdie and her husband Nick and other volunteers walk their
designated area in search of tracks. At one time, they located black
bear tracks in an area where they had not previously been discovered.
“The experience has raised my awareness tremendously and made me more
aware of habitat and the importance of preserving habitat.”
“Birdie is what's best about American democracy: an individual
with creativity, intelligence, passion, and hard work who is leading an
honest conversation about improving the world by starting right in her
own backyard,” says Matt Skroch, programs director for the Sky Island
Alliance.
As a retired real estate agent – in business for 23 years with
13 of them in her own office, as well as a former chimney sweep (she
ran her own business for five years) - Birdie now finds that retired
life, though still busy, allows her more time for rides three times a
week with Cody, the Appaloosa she’s owned for two years. Retirement
also affords her the opportunity to lend her skills as an active member
of the Friends of the Tumacacori Highlands – a coalition of
organizations, businesses, and individuals dedicated to protecting a
portion of the Coronado National Forest as designated Wilderness.
Working with FOTH, Birdie has been instrumental in efforts to protect
her beloved “backyard.”
The Tumacacori Highlands is truly a spectacular region that
includes three mountain ranges - the Pajarito, Atascosa, and Tumacacori
mountains - and is the largest unprotected wildland in southern
Arizona. The region is also home to a wide variety of amazing wildlife
– including mountain lions, gray hawks, javelina, and occasional
jaguars, and has one of the highest concentrations of threatened
species in Arizona.
In addition to its natural value, the area also has a rich historical
background. The Tumacacori Highlands were home to Pima natives for
centuries before Spanish exploration and settlement reached the area in
the 17th century. The Highlands still contain evidence of their
existence in the form of ancient petroglyphs, pottery, and grinding
stones. Later, as Spanish colonization expanded northward, the
mountains and valley rivers near the Tumacacori Highlands hosted the
first Spanish mission in Arizona and was the route that Juan Bautista
de Anza chose for his famous trek northward to establish the city of
San Francisco.
In January 2004, Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) unveiled a
proposal to permanently protect the area as wilderness. Today, he is
working with Senator John McCain, with the hope of introducing
legislation soon. This beautiful and unique region, however, is facing
increasing amounts of threats as a result of population growth, the use
of off-road vehicles, and pressures from the energy industry. “The
growth has escalated in recent years...it’s downright scary,” Birdie
says.
Birdie knows the value of the Tumacacori region and though she
describes her work to promote preservation of the area as time
consuming, she works assiduously to ensure the protection of the
Tumacacori Highlands. And her efforts have not been in vain. So far,
she has collected 60 signatures from Tubac-area business leaders on a
resolution of support for protecting the Highlands, of which she
modestly says, “I was going to be happy when I got 50.”
Those signatures and Birdie’s work to educate business owners about the
value of protecting wilderness resulted in the Tubac Chamber of
Commerce casting a unanimous vote of support recently for the
Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness proposal. Ten of the 13 Chamber Board
members had already individually signed the resolution.
“Birdie ‘gets it’ about wilderness and the need for preserving
Arizona's wild places,” says Mike Quigley, the wilderness coordinator
for Sky Island Alliance. “And because she’s so passionate, honest and
hardworking, she helps other people ‘get it,’ too. In fact, one of our
organizers keeps saying, ‘We need a Birdie in Nogales.’ I think we need
a Birdie in every community working to protect our wild lands.”
Birdie Stabel is a strong conservation force in southern
Arizona, and she encourages others with interest in the environment and
all of the opportunities it affords us to join her efforts in
protecting our precious land. Her advice to others is simple: “Join a
group. There are so many wonderful groups out there. It really makes a
difference to be part of an organization. It funnels your energy.”
Birdie finds that one of the best aspects of retirement is the time it
has given her to join an organization and work for a cause she believes
in - preserving our nation’s wildlands, and her own backyard.
