Expanding Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge: Stories from an old mining town
Located in Southwest Arizona, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge contains some of the most diverse desert ecosystems in the world. At 860,010 total acres, it is the third largest wildlife refuge in the Lower 48 states, and 90 percent of the wildlife refuge is designated wilderness, a status that protects the landscape from development to keep pristine lands intact.
While Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management manages land east of the refuge, including immediately around the town of Ajo, a small, once-booming mining community overflowing with cultural and historical significance.
Near Ajo, the BLM has established Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) — areas where special management attention is needed to protect important historical, cultural, and scenic values, as well as wildlife or other natural resources. Cuerda de Leña ACEC is about 59,300 acres, located south of Ajo and immediately north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, one of the few UNESCO biosphere reserves in the southwest.
An ambitious group known as the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) is spearheading the initiative to revitalize the town of Ajo and expand protections to include Cuerda de Leña ACEC as part of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The nonprofit organization is committed to preserving and enriching the environment, culture, and economy of the Sonoran Desert, an area that covers parts of Mexico, California, and Southern Arizona. It does this by providing thoughtful, non-extractive development projects to bolster desert economies while enriching cultural heritage and preserving natural resources to maintain biodiversity in the Sonoran Desert. Around Ajo, ISDA has been working to protect historical and cultural values at the intersection of the Tohono O’odham Nation, Mexico, and the Southwest United States. The group also provides opportunities to build and strengthen the Ajo economy in part by empowering aspiring entrepreneurs in starting new business enterprises.
ISDA is calling on Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to expand the refuge using her authority under the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, which gives the secretary of the Interior administrative authority to create and expand refuges. An expansion would require a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis which includes a public comment period. Under the Bureau of Land Management’s multiple use mandate, the BLM manages Cuerda de Leña ACEC in a way that balances uses like recreation with other uses such as energy development and mining. Including this land as part of the wildlife refuge would ensure that development doesn’t degrade wildlife values. In most cases, this means ensuring off-road vehicles remain on designated trails and giving more consideration to the impact of development on the area’s unique wildlife. Expanding Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to include Cuerda de Leña ACEC would also help the United States make progress toward 30x30 — the national goal to protect 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
A cornerstone of the biodiverse Sonoran Desert
Cabeza Prieta is Spanish for “dark head,” referring to a lava-topped granite peak within a remote mountain range in the western corner of the refuge. The wildlife refuge was established in 1939 as a game range to conserve wildlife and other natural resources. To this day, the refuge remains a safe haven for endemic species of the Sonoran Desert — the most biodiverse desert in the world, home to at least 60 species of mammals, more than 350 bird species, 20 amphibians, some 100 reptiles, and about 30 species of native fish. As part of the Sonoran Desert Biosphere Reserve, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge helps protect a diversity of ecosystems by providing habitat for keystone species like desert bighorn sheep, Sonoran pronghorn, javelina (closely related to wild boars), and chuckwalla (a desert lizard), just to name a few.
Including Cuerda de Leña ACEC as part of the wildlife refuge would help protect these species from threats of development and increasing temperatures as a result of the changing climate. As more people flock to the desert to enjoy its natural beauty, ecosystems are being paved over, torn up, and polluted. As a result, water is scarcer than ever, habitats are being destroyed, and species that have adapted to desert life for thousands of years are being forced from their native habitats. For example, in recent years, elegant trogons, a vibrant tropical bird species native to Mexico and Southeast Arizona, have been found north of Ajo, hundreds of miles north of their previously-known habitat.
Historical Significance: Mining shaped the community
Not only would expanding Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to include Cuerda de Leña ACEC ensure protections for wildlife habitat and recreation, it would also safeguard land significant to Ajoans, many of whom have lived in the area since its emergence as a mining town over 100 years ago.
In 1917, the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company opened the New Cornelia mine, an open-pit copper mine that, at its largest, reached a mile and a half across and over 1,000 feet deep — nearly as deep as the Empire State Building is tall. For almost 70 years, the New Cornelia mine provided jobs for thousands of workers and single-handedly supported the local economy in Ajo.
But in 1985, due to disputes over non-union labor and the decreasing price of copper, the owners shut down the mine. Despite hopes to revive the mine in the following years, Ajo shrank rapidly, and the mine remained closed.
“Things are much different now than what we saw when the mine closed in 1985, as there were people still holding out thinking that the mine would reopen,” said Bo Johnson, executive director of the Ajo District Chamber of Commerce, in an interview conducted by The Wilderness Society. “And by the early to mid nineties, people realized it wasn’t going to happen. And that’s really when the worst time for Ajo was, because all of our businesses closed — even the mom and pop businesses left at that point and it was a real struggle.”
Bo was a kid when the mine shut down — born in 1975, his generation was one of the last to be born in Ajo’s now-closed Phelps Dodge Hospital, which made an appearance on the Travel Channel show Ghost Adventures in 2018. Bo’s father worked in the mine pit, but his family moved away when the mine closed in 1985.
“When the mine closed, it was kind of like a divorce,” he said. “Everybody moved away and dispersed.”
Vicki Tapp was also born and raised in Ajo. She serves as the outreach coordinator at the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA). She recalls when the town was filled with thousands of people and had attractions like movie theaters, drive-ins, and skating rinks.
“It really hit me in the nineties when I came back and the mine was shut down and the plaza was virtually empty. The schools were empty. It was very sad. And I remember thinking, what’s going to happen here?”
Now Ajoans find community through art
Despite a substantial reduction in population (from about 7,000 in 1960 to less than 3,000 in 2023), the town has shown resilience by developing other ways to foster community. For over 10 years, Ajo has hosted an annual reunion where current and former residents gather to celebrate the ongoing legacy of Ajo through arts, music, and culture.
“We have to kind of reinvent ourselves,” said Bo. “All the volunteers we have and all the nonprofits in town really get together and have our best interests at heart, and that’s really important. When you’re going to try to reinvent a community, carry that community spirit — the original community spirit — into the new growth.”
“Ajo is living proof that when these forces come together, you can get creative to build something new and strong.”
— Vicki Tapp, outreach coordinator at the International Sonoran Desert Alliance
Though Ajo has remained a small town with just a few thousand residents since the mine closed, there has been an artistic renaissance in recent years. According to Aaron Cooper, executive director at ISDA, Ajo has historically been a creative community, with a prominent presence of basket weavers and ballet folklórico — traditional Mexican folk dancing aimed to reflect the regional and ethnic diversity of Mexico.
“But there’s also a newly arrived creative community, too,” said Aaron. “Photographers and painters have found their way to this part of the Sonoran Desert because the natural lights are extraordinary, there’s affordable working space, and things of that nature.”
Murals are popping up around town, galleries displaying local artists are opening, and even coffee shops are on the rise.
“This is a place that’s built around the creative spirit. Whether it be an artist, an artisan, or just a creative entrepreneur that sees an unexplored angle that they can creatively look at a way to explore.”
— Aaron Cooper, executive director at the International Sonoran Desert Alliance
Bobby Narcho is one of those artists and entrepreneurs. A musician, photographer, and self-proclaimed ‘Ajomie,’ Bobby has been a resident for 10 years. Looking for new opportunities to get involved in the community, he started roasting coffee and opened a coffee shop to share his craft with others. He also hosts open mic nights and poetry readings to give local artists a space to be creative.
“This place, it’s different,” he said in an interview conducted by The Wilderness Society. “It’s more grand and it always inspires me to try something new. Hence the coffee.”
Efforts to preserve the landscapes around Ajo have also brought locals together. ISDA has advocated for the expansion of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to support the Ajo community by protecting valuable landscapes and safeguarding recreation opportunities, both for the local community and for a growing economy built around geotourism, a form of tourism that incorporates appreciation for cultural and environmental resources. In Arizona, outdoor recreation accounts for 2.3 percent of the state’s annual GDP. ISDA’s efforts to highlight the value of outdoor recreation around Ajo and its success in revitalizing the town has inspired people like Vicki to return.
“That, for me, was exciting because now we could kind of see some things that are possible and just widen the doors to what people can do when they work together,” Vicki, outreach coordinator at the ISDA, said. “I wanted to come back and be a part of this.”
What a refuge expansion would mean for the community
Expanding Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to include Cuerda de Leña ACEC would protect hundreds of species native to the Sonoran Desert, provide recreation opportunities, bring economic benefits to Ajo, and protect land sacred to the Tohono O’odham and Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham Nations.
Lorraine Marquez Eiler is President and co-founder of ISDA. She is Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham, a Native American group who lived near Ajo thousands of years ago and who continue to live there. In the northern portion of Cuerda de Leña is an area known as Darby Wells, which was a sacred site for the Hia C-eḍ O’odham people to return to. Darby Wells contains a sacred cemetery where ceremonies are still held to this day.
“My great great grandparents settled here, and as far as I know, it was a place that was ours and this is where everybody would return to live.”
— Lorraine Marquez Eiler, Hia C-eḍ Oʼodham, president and co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance
Without additional protections provided by expanding the wildlife refuge, Cuerda de Leña ACEC, including Darby Wells, faces numerous threats. Unauthorized off-road vehicle usage has damaged the landscape — according to Eiler, people will clear out brush and disturb desert ecosystems to set up campers and tents, sometimes destroying desert pavement, a type of hardened rockbed formed by gravel that has settled over hundreds of thousands of years. Wind and water wash away small sediment from the surface, eventually revealing a layer of larger pebbles that can no longer be swept away. This layer of larger pebbles shields underlying sand and silt from further erosion. The only way desert pavement can form and stay intact is to remain undisturbed.
“Growing up out here, the desert was our playground. Just think about the number of years it took for the desert pavement to get where it’s at. And then all these people come and mess it up. They’re making a mess of it, and that’s what I don’t like.”
— Lorraine Marquez Eiler, Hia C-eḍ O’odham, president and co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance
Due to its location as a connection between Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, adding Cuerda de Leña ACEC to the existing wildlife refuge would protect one of the most biodiverse desert ecosystems in the world, all while bringing economic value and revitalization to the town of Ajo. Honoring the history and resiliency of Ajoans and Native Americans by permanently protecting Cuerda de Leña ACEC is a surefire way for Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to make progress toward 30x30 and uplift the people who can tell the story of American history through this landscape.
For more information, visit westernpriorities.org or RoadTo30.org. Sign up for Look West to get daily public lands and energy news sent to your inbox, or subscribe to our podcast, The Landscape.
