About Us
Photo: Jeff Johnson
Our mission: To inspire love for and protection of Southwestern New Mexico birds and their habitats
Ours is the oldest Audubon chapter in New Mexico with a 50-year history of working to protect birds, wildlife and their habitats. We are an all-volunteer organization with members in Grant, Luna, Hidalgo and Catron counties. All of our activities are widely advertised, free, and open to the public.
We focus on education and advocacy rooted in sound science to protect the ecosystems that support wildlife and people.
Photo: Marcia Corl
The founding of our chapter
We were founded in 1968 as Southwestern New Mexico Audubon Society (SWNMAS), the first National Audubon Society chapter in the state. Audubon chapters emerge throughout the nation for a variety of reasons, but ours was born out of an activist energy focused on the imminent threat of a dam on the Gila River, a free-flowing tributary of the Colorado River.
Silver City residents with a deep love for the river and the bird life it supported saw that they could more effectively fight for protection of the river as a part of the Audubon Society. One of those people was Marian Zimmerman, a founding member of SWNMAS. Marian was a consummate birder and botanist. She and her husband, Dale, were a guiding light for conservation of the Gila River for decades. Upon her death in 2011, Dale established the Zimmerman Wildlife Conservation Endowment through Audubon New Mexico (ANM) to honor his love for his wife and the Gila River.
Our chapter continued to engage in Gila River conservation over the decades as more dams and diversions were proposed. The Arizona Water Settlements Act (AWSA), passed by Congress in 2004, was the most pressing threat to the Gila River and the fourth proposal to dam the river. The AWSA provides $66 million in funds to meet water supply needs in Southwestern New Mexico. The Act also authorized separate construction funding for diversions on the Gila and San Francisco Rivers that could remove up to 14,000 acre-feet of water per year. SWNMAS, as well as Audubon New Mexico, actively encouraged the use of the appropriated taxpayer funds to meet multiple water needs in the four counties that make up Southwest New Mexico by funding non-diversion alternative projects that would provide water security for the region into the future. Supplying water for people through thoughtful water alternatives keeps water for wildlife flowing. This latest threat to the Gila River came to an end in June 2020 when the Interstate Stream Commission voted against funding needed to complete a required Environmental Impact Statement.
A new chapter for our chapter!
Now under a different name - - Bird Alliance of Southwestern New Mexico - - our chapter continues to focus its efforts today on the protection of the unique habitat and precious water resources in the SW corner of the state.