Wild Arizona (Formerly Arizona Wilderness Coalition Et Al - See Sch O)

“- BOARD RELATIONSHIPS Doug Hulmes former AWC VP and current Wild Arizona VP was formerly employed by Prescott College. AWC formerly maintained an annual contract with Prescott College to provide office space for AWCs Wilderness Stewardship program.”

“- REVIEW OF FORM 990 Once the draft of Form 990 is completed by an outside accountant, it is reviewed in detail by the Chief Executive Officer and staff bookkeeper, along with a copy of the preparers detailed workpapers. An electronic copy of the udpated draft 990 is then sent to all board members and officers for their review before it is finalized and filed.”

“- CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY COI During the merger process in calendar 2018 and 2019, AWC Treasurer and acting volunteer Executive Director, Kelly Burke, was recused from decision making and discussions regarding the merger and resigned as Treasurer of the merger completion, to be ex officio CEO of the board of the newly merged organization, Wild Arizona. The COI policy was reviewed by each director at the organizations December 2019 board meeting, and no conflicts were identified or declared at that time. Signed COI policies including disclosures are kept on file.”

“- COMPENSATION REVIEW Prior to the merger, the Board of Directors reviewed salary information for conservation nonprofits from consulting advisor TREC Training Resources for the Environmental Community to establish a compensation package for the Executive Director during the hiring process in 2013 and 2017 also considering the budget limitations. Since that time, the Board has approved small salary increases for the Executive Director/CEO that have been at or below the national rate of inflation. The current CEO salary is likewise constrained by the budget and lower than pre-merger. All staff compensation is reviewed by the Board as part of the annual budgeting process. Officers and directors serve in those capacities as volunteers and are not compensated.”

“- PUBLIC RECORDS The annual Form 990, conflict of interest policy and the application for tax-exempt status under IRS Section 501c3 are made available to the public upon request. The 990 is also available at www.guidestar.org. The organizations Articles of Incorporation and annual report to the Arizona Corporation Commission are available to the public at www.azcc.gov.”

“- COVID RELIEF GRANTS LOANS - The organization received a Paycheck Protection Program PPP loan of 33,900 as part of the federal governments Covid-19 relief programs. The proceeds were spent on payroll and other eligible expenses and was fully forgiven. It is accounted for as a government grant in the financial statements. The organization also received an unsecured Economic Injury Disaster Loan EIDL of 25,000 during FY 2020. The term is 30 years at an interest rate of 2.75. Repayment begins in November 2021 at 107/month. Additionally, the organization received an EIDL advance grant of 7,000 in FY 2020, accounted for as a government grant in the financial statements.”

“- PRIMARY EXEMPT PURPOSE Our mission is to protect, unite and restore wild lands and waters across Arizona and beyond, for the enrichment and health of all generations, and to ensure Arizonas native plants and animals a lasting home in wild nature. During FY 2020, approximately 57 volunteers provided 965 hours of service to the organization the value of these services is not reflected in the financial statements in keeping with generally accepted accounting principles. The financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the organization in 2020 resulted in the delayed printing of the Colorado River guide book see more below and subsequent sales. Wild AZ adapted to the realities of the pandemic by not having any public or volunteer events in-person while the state of Arizona was at the height of pandemic activity.”

“- MERGER CHANGE IN FISCAL YEAR - Please note that the Revenue Expense figures on p1 for the prior year represent only a 6-month period - see more following regarding the change in fiscal year end. During 2018 the former organization Arizona Wilderness Coalition AWC began the legal and management process of merging with an existing 501c3 organization, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council GCWC based in Flagstaff, AZ. Arizona Wilderness Coalition AWC first made the corporate name change to Wild Arizona, followed by the merger with Grand Canyon Wildlands Council GCWC, filed May 8, 2019. The merged organization maintains the tax ID and legal address of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition. For brand and legal entity continuity, we registered the legal trade names of Wild Arizona DBA Grand Canyon Wildlands Council and DBA Arizona Wilderness Coalition. The former Executive Director of GCWC, Kelly Burke who also served as a long time board member and Treasurer of AWC, and as its volunteer acting Executive Director during parts of AWCs FY 2018 and 2019 is now the Chief Executive Officer of Wild Arizona. The merged organization changed its fiscal year end from June 30 to December 31, beginning 7/1/19. This Form 990 for FY 2020 represents the first full 12 months of reporting for the organization. For more information about Wild Arizona, please visit www.wildarizona.org.”

“- WILDERNESS STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM WILD STEW Wild Stew is dedicated to restoring maintaining conditions in wilderness areas and other public lands across Arizona to preserve ecological integrity and improve visitor experience in primitive outdoor settings. Arizona has 90 designated wilderness areas and agency resources are insufficient to address needs such as trail maintenance, erosion control, removal of invasive species and installation of signage. The Wild Stew program assists public lands management agencies with addressing these needs, while also connecting volunteers to outdoor experiences in the wild, as well as providing ecological and socio-cultural education to inform and inspire conservation advocacy. This program coordinates hundreds of volunteers to conduct stewardship projects primarily on public lands of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Wild Arizona shifted to an online presence to continue engaging members. Concurrently, several significant projects were completed during 2020 on the Tonto TNF, Coronado CNF and Kaibab KNF National Forests. Specifically, Wild Arizona assisted CNF, TNF and KNF in advancing Wilderness Stewardship Performance WSP scores by collecting trail condition assessments and establishing baselines which inform staff making management decisions and guide future stewardship activities. Wild Arizona also wrote a series of wilderness character narratives to further assist in stewardship and preservation of some of Arizonas most pristine wilderness areas. On the TNF, we worked to control the spread of nonnative invasive plants, specifically tamarisk and oleander, totaling over 50 acres in Arnett Creek and Telegraph Canyon near the town of Superior, AZ. To date, more than two tons of invasive vegetation have been removed from this area. In the Chiricahua Wilderness located within the CNF, we completed more than 10 miles of trail maintenance, removing more than 250 fallen trees, rebuilding approximately 1/2 mile of tread, and clearing of various overgrown portions of trail. The trails maintained in all or part were Long Park 42D, Greenhouse 248, Crest 270 270C, Anita Park 359, Booger Spring 347, Ojo Agua Fria 361, Snowshed Peak 364 and Fly Peak 337. On the KNF we completed an assessment of more than 66 miles of National Forest system trails and user-developed trails in the Kanab Creek, Saddle Mountain and Kendrick Mountain Wilderness. Additionally, Wild Arizona completed 80 of solitude monitoring in both Kendrick and Saddle Mountain Wilderness, and trained and transferred the remaining monitoring days to a group of volunteers.”

“- ENDURING PROTECTION, POLICY PLANNING PROGRAM This program addresses diverse public lands and natural resource issues facing Arizona, seeking to expand preservation of wilderness areas through revision of major U.S. Forest Service and BLM plans, and improve management of existing wilderness and other conservation lands. In 2020, Wild Arizona worked with agencies, organizations and constituents to advance wilderness stewardship and preservation, public lands protection and conservation management across Arizona. 1 Verde-San Pedro-Gila Rivers Wild Connection We continued to oppose a two-dam pumped hydro storage project in southeast Arizona on the lower San Francisco River, a Gila River tributary. The project would impact endangered species, wilderness, wild and scenic values. 2Grand Canyon-Glia National Forest Wild Connection We played a major role mobilizing outdoor and veterans communities for support of the Native Nations-led effort that culminated in House passage and subsequent Senate introduction of the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, for a permanent mining withdrawal on the rimlands of Grand Canyon. 3 National Forest planning and other NEPA actions We contributed to comments advocating for protecting old growth and riparian forests, wild and scenic river values, habitat connectivity, wilderness values and other conservation and cultural values in planning processes for the Tonto, Gila and Kaibab National Forests.”

“- OUTREACH EDUCATION Wild Arizona participated in the January 2020 Rumble on the Mountain event in Flagstaff, AZ, bringing together voices of neighboring tribes and Flagstaff community members in an effort to bridge the divide between tribal and non-tribal world views, sciences and the warnings of traditional wisdom, students and regional Indigenous peoples issues. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we partnered with The Rewilding Institute and opened the Rewilding Cafe, with a premier video event discussing conservation and the pandemic. Wild Arizona co-hosted a four-hour live streaming event An Alter-Native History of America with Ed Kabotie and Tha Yoties. The event provided an Indigenous perspective on how the people and lands of the Colorado Plateau have been impacted by systemic racism. We held a second annual fall veterans trail stewardship campout event on the South Rim of Grand Canyon, emphasizing the conservation value of the area with educational and edutainment presentations by Dr. Larry Stevens and Ed Kabotie.”

“- COLORADO RIVER PROGRAMS Colorado River Wild ConnectionExpenses 34,354 We Grand Canyon Wildlands Council by Wild Arizona continued to distribute our Colorado River Map Guide book, including the Glen Canyon Dam chapter and stewardship recommendations. Dr. Larry Stevens the original author and our Senior Ecologist and Kelly Burke Executive Director continued to serve in the multi-stakeholder Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. The two continued to press for a spring-time high flow release from the dam to benefit downstream resources in and along the Colorado River through Glen and Grand Canyons. We helped establish a new ad hoc group called the Flow Ad Hoc or FLAGH and successfully advocated with our partner stakeholders for a spring within power plant experiment that was included in the annual program budget. We also continued to support expanding river management to discussions among upper, lower and Mexican reaches to integrate stewardship of the entire Colorado River. Grand Canyon Wildlands Council also began work on a new collaborative riparian restoration project on National Park Service-administered lands at Paria Beach near Lees Ferry on the Colorado River. This is a much-visited site with a large and highly degraded stand of tamarisk downstream of the mouth of the Paria River. We will remove tamarisk and replant with native tree willow, Fremont cottonwood and other native riparian and upland plants. We will also develop an outdoor and virtual classroom for Page, AZ school youth including Hopi and Dine students with a riparian systems ecological and restoration curriculum. Wild Arizona is also working to help oppose disastrous pump storage projects in the enormously culturally and ecologically significant Confluence area with the Little Colorado River, which would impact sacred springs, humpback chub, perennial river flows and the cultural integrity of numerous Indigenous Tribes and Nations. We hope to collaboratively and proactively increase protections in the area.”

“- MEXICAN GRAY WOLVES The Lobo Expenses 5476 Wild Arizona works with a broad range of partners and individuals to support and advocate for science-based recovery of the critically endangered Mexican gray wolf in the Southwest. In 2020, we worked towards several goals for effective lobo recovery, including family releases in the wild, elimination of the northern boundary of the recovery area along I-40, and addressing the genetic crisis, and the science-supported target of three ecologically effective and viable populations of Mexican gray wolves one of those on the North Rim of Grand Canyon, extending into southern Utah. We also joined colleagues across the U.S., opposing the federal governments premature de-listing of the endangered northern Gray Wolf. Calls to action were sent to more than 2,400 constituents urging them to encourage the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to preserve federal protection for the Gray Wolf.”

“- OTHER ASSETS Capitalized River Guide Costs Other Assets - Intellectual Property - Represents costs capitalized to the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council balance sheet initially in 2013, including costs incurred to research, write, edit and design the organizations primary educational publication, The Colorado River in Grand Canyon. The copyright to the publication, which had not been updated or republished in 30 years, was donated to GCWC in 2013 by its former board member and current Senior Ecologist staff, Dr. Lawrence Stevens. The long-term costs associated with updating the publication were capitalized as intellectual property and are being amortized over a 10-year life.”

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