Tucson Field Office and local tribe coordinate on land management strategies

Leaders and staff from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Tucson Field Office (TFO) and Gila District recently met with representatives of the Tohono O’odham Nation to strengthen their ongoing coordination in managing and protecting the Baboquivari Peak and Coyote Mountains wilderness areas. 

These BLM-managed wilderness areas are valued for their natural beauty, cultural significance, and recreational opportunities. For the Tohono O’odham Nation, the land holds deep ancestral and spiritual meaning. The Tohono O’odham have lived on and cared for this land since time immemorial. Their ancestral territory spans a wide portion of the Sonoran Desert — from the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona to the Colorado River in the west, south to the Gulf of California in present-day Mexico, and north to the Gila River.

At the heart of this stands Baboquivari Mountain, known to the Tohono O’odham as Wa:w Giwulk Du’ag. It is the center of their universe and the sacred dwelling place of I’itoi, the Tohono O’odham Creator.

A shared commitment to land stewardship 

The TFO and the Tohono O’odham Nation coordinate through an Intergovernmental Cooperative Agreement, which provides a formal structure to combine efforts on land management challenges. These include pressing issues such as the threat of catastrophic wildfires and the environmental impacts of illegal border crossings — topics addressed in recent Executive and Secretarial Orders. 

By working together, the BLM and the Tohono O’odham Nation are developing strategies to mitigate these challenges while also protecting cultural resources across the wilderness areas. This partnership ensures that ancestral artifacts and sacred sites are preserved for future generations. 

Meeting highlights 

The meeting was hosted by the Tohono O’odham Nation at their Cultural Center and Museum, where they shared their history, cultural practices, and efforts to educate the community through outreach programs and public events. BLM staff presented information about their wilderness and cultural resource monitoring efforts in the Baboquivari and Coyote wilderness areas. 

Following the presentations, both groups discussed shared concerns, including: 

• The presence of border-related debris in remote cave areas, 

• The growing risk of catastrophic wildfires, 

• Opportunities for future collaboration and problem-solving. 

A tour of the cultural repository 

As part of the meeting, the Tohono O’odham Nation provided BLM attendees with a guided tour of their artifact repository, a climate-controlled facility that houses culturally significant items from the Tohono O’odham region. 

Looking ahead 

The next joint meeting is planned for winter 2026, with both the TFO and the Tohono O’odham Nation committed to continuing their partnership. Together, they aim to find practical, respectful solutions to land management challenges resulting from wildfire and illegal broader traffic that will preserve the wilderness areas and their cultural significance for generations to come.