Researchers

I am a Research Associate at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum teaching natural history programs to the Hispanic community of the Tucson area schools and schoolteachers and youth in the border region of the state of Sonora. For the past 15 years I have been working on a project called the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project. The goal of this project is to locate, propagate and replant historically and horticulturally appropriate varieties of fruit trees brought to the Pimeria Alta region (Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, Mexico) by the first Jesuit Missionaries in the late 1600s. This journey has involved many partners in an exciting blend of archival, ethnohistorical, ethnobotanical and horticultural methods, experiments, and adventures. In March 2007 the Tumacácori National Historical Park planted over 60 heirloom fruit trees in their historic orchard site at the park. By March 2012 The Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace, the City of Tucson, Pima County and many community partners completed the first planting of hundreds of heirloom trees, vegetables and Native American crops at the Mission Garden site just below A Mountain in downtown Tucson. From Hopi country in northern Arizona to the tip of Baja California Sur, Mexico, the Kino Trees Project has become a vehicle to revive traditional agricultural knowledge of the region. I believe that creating awareness of heirloom fruit-tree varieties, traditional methods of cultivation, and their conservation will help ensure sustainable food systems for the future.