When I was a boy I rode out over the red and yellow and purple earth. My horse was a small red roan, fast and easy-riding.  I rode among the dunes, along the bases of mesas and cliffs, into canyons and arroyos.  I came to know that country, not in the way a traveler knows the landmarks he sees in the distance, but more truly and intimately, in every season, from a thousand points of view.  I know the living motion of a horse and the sound of hooves.  I know what it is, on a hot day in August or September, to ride into a bank of cold, fresh rain.

- N. Scott Momaday
The Way to Rainy Mountain

pupfish refuges

The endangered species Quitobaquito Pupfish has only one native location in the United States-Quitobaquito Springs within Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

In collaboration with Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, ISDA helped create a refuge for the pupfish at the Cabeza Prieta Visitors Center in Ajo, Arizona.

In October 2005, we successfully captured and moved almost 200 pupfish to their new location where they are now living and reproducing well.

Another pupfish refuge has since been established at the visitors' center at Organ Pipe. Click here to find out more.