Tom Sheridan: Protecting the Sonoran Desert (II)

Dr. Tom Sheridan is a research cultural anthropologist in the Southwest Center and professor in the University of Arizona School of Anthropology. Sheridan has been a longtime student of ranching and ranch lands in southern Arizona, which led him, starting in the 1990s, to participate in the development of Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, the SDCP, one of the most innovative and successful county-led conservation efforts in the United States. Tom is currently researching and writing a book on the SDCP, including on the larger land-use and conservation dynamics shaping the region starting in the late 20th century, a convergence of forces that led to the successful development and implementation of the Plan. This interview with Dr. Sheridan is the second installment of our two-part series focused on conservation in Southern Arizona. The first was with Brian Powell, who now serves as a Pima County Parks Superintendent with Pima County’s Natural Resource, Parks and Recreation department, and who for several years was pivotal to developing the county’s biological monitoring program.