Wildlands Project

The Ladder Ranch is a major connector in another arm of the Wildlands Project, the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, which straddles Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Sky Islands is an attempt to link wildlife corridors, reserves, and islands of mountainous habitats spanning four diverse ecosystems the northern temperate Rocky Mountains region, the southern subtropical Sierra Madre, the Sonoran Desert, and the Chihuahuan Desert. The area is a major repository of biodiversity, including half the bird species in North America. Ladder Ranch also has a captive breeding facility for Mexican wolves destined for release on Turner s land and federal lands. Some of Turner s wolves have been reintroduced at Kieran Suckling s... 

Then Galvin laid out his backup plan, the one everyone on the green side of the table would accept. He said he didn t like it, but here it was Go ahead, build on 30,000 acres—the whole 70,000-person Centennial project, if you must. Just move it to a less sensitive area, away from the rare native grasslands currently slated to be bulldozed, and we won t sue. He had an alternative site already mapped out near the edge of the wildlands, and he argued that it would actually increase the profit potential because it would be less remote and so easier to build on. In return, he said, the ranch would have to cancel the resort complex and canyon mansions near the condor areas. The investors could still make a mint, and nature would fare far better. 

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