The Cascabel Conservation Association (CCA) occupies an unusual niche in the conservation community. It starts with the belief that knowing the land intimately is the foundation for interacting with it in a creative and sustaining way. This belief translates in a practical way to our program areas: the Hermitage Program, which offers the opportunity to spend time in solitude on this land; the Education Program, which shares practical and scientific knowledge of interconnections related to the land; the Conservation Program, which seeks to maintain those interconnections with advocacy and on-the-ground projects; and the Community Garden, which provides the most practical of interactions with the land to provide us with food.

The Cascabel Conservation Association is dedicated to the collaborative stewardship of the Middle San Pedro River watershed in a way that promotes the health, stability, and diversity of the whole community, including its earth, waters, plants, and animals. We strive to integrate the needs of the land with the needs of a sustainable human community through educational, economic, agricultural, contemplative, and other conservation-related endeavors.

The Cascabel Conservation Association originally formed as the Cascabel Hermitage Association in 1996. It provided people with the opportunity for solitary desert retreats on its 400 acres of land in the San Pedro River Valley of southeastern Arizona. With time, the Association expanded to include an education program as another means of connecting people with the land. A community garden was formed to encourage cooperative food production. Members also became active in helping to protect the valley’s environment, including facilitating conservation easements to establish a protected wildlife corridor. In 2012, the organization purchased a one-third interest in a key conservation property in the valley. Because of these enlarged activities, in 2012 the Cascabel Hermitage Association was formally expanded to become the Cascabel Conservation Association, adopting a more comprehensive mission for the Middle San Pedro Valley.