Friends of the San Pedro River Website.
This website provides photographs of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and its wildlife and of activities related to viewing and conserving the preserve' s wildlife. The site is run by the Friends of the San Pedro River.

The Friends of the San Pedro River (FSPR) is a volunteer nonprofit and nonpolitical group that helps the Bureau of Land Management conserve and interpret the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. The Friends have been providing this help since the founding of the organization in 1987. The San Pedro National Conservation Area contains approximately 58,000 acres and stretches for about 36 miles in southeastern Arizona along the San Pedro River from the United States and Mexican border northward to St. David. The conservation area varies from about 1 to 3 miles wide and protects a major portion of one of the last undammed rivers in the Southwest. It's one of the richest wildlife habitats in the United States. The American Bird Conservancy designated the preserve as a Globally Important Bird Area in 1996. The narrow belt of Fremont Cottonwoods/Gooding Willow forest and other trees along the upper San Pedro River provides a home to more than 100 species of breeding birds and supplies habitat for more than 250 species of migrant and wintering birds. Large numbers of migrating birds move along the narrow corridor of trees each year. The preserve also contains approximately 82 mammal species, 45 reptile and amphibian species and a rich assortment of invertebrates and plants. SPRNCA provides recreational opportunities for hiking, horseback riding, bird watching, and picnicking. It also provides opportunities for camping, hunting, and environmental education and nature study. For information about the Bureau of Land Management and its stewardship of SPRNCA, go to http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/ncarea/sprnca.2.html.

Activities by the Friends on behalf of the conservation area include: operating 2 gift and bookstores to raise revenue for conservation related activities, community education in which docents provide presentations to groups and organizations; school programs in which docents provide children with information in the classroom and then lead them on learning experiences along the river; hikes and walks along the river guided by docents; providing of site-specific information by docents at prehistoric and historic locations; and producing DVD videos illustrating aspects of the preserve and its wildlife. The Friends have donated more than 116,100 hours of service since its origin in 1987. For fiscal 2007 alone the Friends volunteered the equivalent of 4.66 full-time employee positions. For more information about the Friends, go to their website at http://www.sanpedroriver.org/. The latter site also has links to sites with information about forthcoming guided tours and hikes and other enjoyable events. You can contact the Friends by calling (520) 459-2555 or by sending an e-mail to fspr@sanpedroriver.org.

Fees. There is no charge to visit the preserve. Overnight camping costs two dollars; for more information about this see http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/ncarea/sprnca.2.html. There is no charge for guided walks, but donations are gladly accepted. These walks typically take two to three hours and are conducted at a pace suitable for most people. Guided hikes are considerably longer in duration and vary in the degree of difficulty. There is a five dollars fee for hikes, and registration is required. Contact the Friends for more information.


NAVIGATING THROUGH THE WEBSITE. Pages in the website have color thumbnails. Some of the thumbnails represent galleries that each contain many pictures, and some thumbnails represent single photos. Thumbnails of both galleries and individual photos look the same before you open them. Click on the thumbnails to open them into a gallery or individual photo. If you open up the thumbnail for a gallery (such as animals), you will be presented either with a series of thumbnails for individual photos or a series of thumbnails that represent additional sub galleries). Click on the words "tree view” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to open up a hierarchical view that shows all of the galleries. You can go to a desired gallery by clicking on its name in the tree view.
OPENING AND CLOSING PHOTOS. When you click on a thumbnail that represents an individual photo, that photo is displayed full sized on your screen. If you click on that full sized photo, you will be taken back to the page showing thumbnails.
SLIDESHOW. When you are on a page that has thumbnails of individual photos, you can start a slideshow by clicking on the word "slideshow." Use the left and right keyboard arrow keys to skip images, and up/down to adjust the delay. Use the spacebar to play/pause. You can also adjust the speed of the slideshow by clicking on the choices shown on the bottom of the screen. To stop the slideshow, click on the word "thumbnails" in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

SUBMITTING PHOTOS FOR THE WEBSITE. We welcome photos that show the diversity of landscapes and wildlife in the conservation area. Photographs may show animal behavior, wildlife in natural habitat, plant life, natural landscapes, weather or people interacting with nature. Photographs of pets or domestic animals are not eligible. Photos must not involve the harassment of wildlife, damage to the environment by the photographer, or infringe on the rights of any other photographer or person. You may submit jpg, tiff or Adobe Photoshop psd files. Small numbers of such files may be e-mailed as an attachment to: fsprphotos@hotmail.com. Larger series of photographs may be submitted on CD or DVD by leaving them with a volunteer staffing the sales counter at the San Pedro The house is open 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM every day and is located at a few miles east of Sierra Vista at 9800 Highway 90. The turnoff to the San Pedro House is just west of the San Pedro River.



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