Focus Areas

A Strategic Plan was developed nationally for the Partners program.  As part of that Plan, each state was directed to identify geographic areas so that the Partners program could target its limited financial and human resources and use them more efficiently.  In Arizona, these specific areas or Focus Areas, have been identified by analyzing particular Geographic Information System (GIS) layers that contain data ranging from known federally listed species, habitat types (specially riparian and grasslands), locally-led conservation groups, and landownership.  Information from the State Wildlife Action Plan developed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD), as well as other state and national conservation plans were also used.

Focus Areas for Arizona
To address the current priority resource issues for Arizona, projects that are proposed in the following 8 focus areas will be ranked higher for funding consideration than projects that are outside of these focus areas.  New focus areas are identified with *.

• Santa Maria/Big Sandy – located in the northwestern part of Arizona
• Verde – located in the north central part of Arizona
• Chevelon* – located in northern eastern Arizona
• Salt – located in the central-eastern part of Arizona
• Altar Valley* - located in the southwestern portion of Arizona near the border with Mexico
• Gila – located in the eastern part of Arizona and receives streamflow from New Mexico
• Santa Cruz/San Pedro – located in southern Arizona
• Chiricahua – located in southeastern part of Arizona