The Friends of Madera Canyon held the 2025 annual meeting of the Friends membership on Saturday morning, January 25.  Some 85 attended, similar to prior years, as the Friends had invited the general public to the meeting as well as members of the organization.

FoMC President Dan White opened the program at the Desert Hills Recreation Center.  Dan recounted some of the Friends’ achievements of the past year in the Canyon, including the replacement of grills in the picnic areas, reestablishment of a program of Canyon trail maintenance, and the repair of the Visitor Information Station at the Proctor Road entrance to Madera.  He specially mentioned the assistance of Scout Troop 247, based in Sahuarita, and the close cooperation of the Friends with the U.S. Forest Service in all its efforts in the Canyon.

Dan outlined as well the Friends’ plans for the new year, including the repair or replacement of benches along the Nature Trail, continued maintenance of specific trails in the Canyon, and the engagement of a stone mason to mend steps in the picnic areas.

Rusty Lombardo, past President of the Friends and co-chairman of the Honor & Memory Wall committee, spoke on the origin and purpose of the Wall, located at Proctor Road, and its importance for the Canyon community. 

Jorge Enríquez, the new Nogales District Ranger in the Coronado National Forest, and Zach MacDonald, the District’s Recreation Officer, spoke to the meeting of the appreciation of the Forest Service with the work of the FoMC in the Forest and of the Friends’ cooperative spirit. 

Pat Holmes, FoMC Treasurer, gave a brief report to the membership, announcing that the Friends had ended 2024 within its budget and with a small surplus.  

This was followed by a report from Carole deRivera, who chairs the FoMC committee for the Music in the Canyon program, on plans for the 2025 MIC concerts, which will take place on four Sundays at the end of March and in April.  Concert tickets will go on sale around March 1.

Hilary Hamlin, chair of the Marketing Committee, reported that the Friends is once again on hand at selected regional events such as the Tubac Festival of the Arts, the Tucson Festival of Books, and the Sahuarita Spooktacular at Halloween, to educate those attending on Madera Canyon and the work of the Friends in preservation and restoration.

President White returned to the podium to request that Friends members with professional skills or certification consider volunteering with the FoMC, which can always employ specially qualified people in furtherance of its programs in the Canyon or the administration of the organization.

There followed a presentation by John Scheuring, State Conservation Chair, Arizona Native Plant Society, who spoke on the need to address invasive species in Madera Canyon, particularly a new threat to Madera’s ecosystem, Yellow Bluestem grass.  John reviewed the history of the introduction of foreign grasses to Arizona and the intensive efforts required to prevent the spread of these plants into areas – such as Madera Canyon – where they can force out native species and make wildfires much more destructive.  He said that while Yellow Bluestem has appeared in the Canyon it has not yet spread there to the point where the grass cannot still be successfully eradicated.  The effort to do so may prove to be the Friends’ major project for this new year.

John’s slides can be see in a pdf.

Summary by Bob Pitcher

The USFS wants to share that the USFS Madera Canyon Recreation Guide is now available online in English and Spanish.

English | Spanish

You can navigate to them (and the other guides that have been developed) on the website by selecting Visit Us > Maps & Publications and then scrolling down to "Recreation Guides."